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 Review by sjohnson 
UPDATED: 1.7 years ago
member for 8.7 years, 1131 visits, last login: 56 days ago
 Gregory,Gregory,SD
 $59 per month
 "Friendly, Fast Install"
 "Wish the routing was better, want interleave turned off"
 "OK value compared to nationwide, but Excellent value for this area!"
| Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:
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My ISP is Golden West Telecommunications, Inc. The corporate home page is
»www.goldenwest.com/ and their ISP home page is »www.gwtc.net -
my ILEC and my ISP. The contact phone number is (605) 279-2161.
Ordered 512/256 aDSL service from Golden West on 11/5/02, service installed
on 11/7/02. Wow! that was quick.
It took several phone calls to hook up with a tech for the VCI/VPI numbers
(0/35). I was told the service was "normal" aDSL, with a permanantly static IP (as opposed to a rarely changing, server-assigned IP).
Either I didn't get my ENI Speedstream 5260/5660 (hacked) configured right,
or the modem died in the move from NJ. It was working fine in service with
Sprint FastConnect up 'til September 16. I ended up renting a Westell 2000 from Golden West. I plan to continue to try to use the 5260 and save a $10/month rental fee for the Westell 2000.
My initial speeds, after MTU and Receive window tweaks, are in the 420/216 range, but the DSLR line test showed a failing rate (40-60%) for small and medium packet pings. Surfing seems to stall frequently as well. I haven't checked to see if this is a GWTC or upstream provider issue as of this writing.
12/02: I bought used SpeedStream 5260. This one works, so I've returned the rental modem to GWTC staff and will drop the $10/month rental fee. The download/upload speeds are still in the 420/216 range after extensive tweaking so it looks like that is my maximal speed. Recent line quality tests show that my packet loss problem is intermittant and not constant.
1/03: Planning to start a line monitor via the BroadBandreports feature. Maybe I can use the results to analyze the packet loss issue and bring it to the attention of GWTC staff. And then, just *maybe* I can convince them to turn interleave off.
Outages appear to be nearly non-existant. However, my workplace is also served by Golden West, though out of a different CO. We have outages once or twice per week. It appears that I'm in a good CO territory 
Another plus, DSL installation required installation of a new NID. Phantom busy signals heard by incoming callers and callers who heard my phone ring when I didn't are now a thing of the past. The original was a deteriorated rubber boot over a four pole buss.
Update, 5/3/03: Golden West is trying the tiered approach to selling DSL. It almost seems like they want to eliminate dial-up. Dial-up costs $23 + line cost per month. New DSL speeds and pricing:
128/128 @ 39.95/month
256/128 @ 49.95/month
512/256 @ 59.95/month
1.5/512 @ 199.95/month
All include a modem lease at no additional charge and at least one email address. GWTC has moved to DHCP IP leasing, I wonder if my static IP will be taken away in the future?
Update, 4/17/08
I'm no longer with GWTC. However beginning in 2006, Golden West ran fiber to the home throughout the 835 exchange area, including some quite rural settings. Towns, farms and ranches all now benefit from FTTH. The expansion is to FTTH is continuing to other exhanges. Since cable, phone and HS internet are all served by GWTC, their data and entertainment provisioning reaches rural areas that have never been connected in this manner before.
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Golden West
