| How about an actual rural Embarq customer weighs in? Ok, I'm hearing a lot of talk about how Embarq will do this and do that.
I'm cautiously optimistic. I live in the middle of nowhere...an area where it's 1/3 of a mile (or more) away to your nearest neighbor, and it's mostly farmland. In any event, just this past October (2008), Embarq deployed DSL in the area....keep in mind this is an area where cable will likely never be.
I pay $54.95 for their 10 meg/896k package, which hovers around 9880-9900k down and 800-830k up (with an average latency of 31 ms to Google). I might also add that this is dry-line/naked DSL (which, incidentally, Embarq does not charge extra for).
In any event, Embarq is definitely expanding, even in rural areas, and from my experience (and that of a few others) it seems they're not just attempting to offer 768k either.
I might also add that Embarq has recently begun offering their "extended reach" DSL (which is 768k) for customers who are past the first load coil.
I'm more worried about CenturyTel messing things up than Embarq...that said, I've heard (can't 100% confirm it) that Embarq will essentially still be in control of a great number of things in the company (despite the fact CenturyTel bought Embarq, and not the other way around).
We'll just have to see what turns up, but I wouldn't pooh-pooh it until we actually see the new company in action. |
