Windstream Joins Baby Bell Moving Coalition > ILEC alliance

ILEC alliance

Last I checked a lot of these rural ILECs have their acts together. Granted, near my area in Texas the local telephone coop (not WS) charges roughly the same for DSL as WIldBlue charges for sat internet, but that's not horrible, just high-priced because most areas served can't get anything else.

Then there's GVTC next door. They have relatively inexpensive ADSL up to 5/768, cable up to 12/768 and, in some places, fiber up to 12/1 for home and 25/2 for business. The home fiber service is priced competitively enough, too. This is from a rural ILEC.

Move the crosshairs to my town. No DSL from the ILEC, Verizon. But Windstream bought Kerrville Telephone Company so they have a DSL presence of some sort. The price ends up being pretty expensive, at least for now...$50 for a 1.5/512 business DSL conection, maybe $40 for a home connection of the same speed. But once they upgrade infrastructure you'll be able to get 12/768 DSL for a similar price, more sustained download speed than I'm able to get here with Qwest or Comcast without paying hefty bucks for a Comcast business-class plan.

So don't diss the local telcos. A lot of them actually have decent networks, and a fair number of them are running FTTH in places you wouldn't expect. Honestly, I'd take Embarq or Windstream over Qwest any day...

I still find a monopoly unacceptable, I still think there should be a minimum of four or five choices in each state.

There are in some places; there are CLECs. But in rural areas there's little incentive for a new competitor to come in. As far as multiple ILECs per state, Texas has plenty. They're just not all in the same place.

reply to iansltx

no, CenturyTel has dibs on the absolute bottom of the barrel