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| reply to fAcEtIOUs
Re: Qwest won't be only 1 rejecting funds You're right. Verizon just got done selling half of rural America. I very much doubt they want to renew their business ties there. That really has less to do with "strings," and more to do with rural America investment simply not suiting the tempo dictated by investors. |
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 danawhitakerSpace...The Final FrontierPremium
join:2002-03-02
Urbandale, IA | I don't live in "rural" America by any stretch of the imagination (a well-populated suburb of Des Moines, Iowa) and Qwest STILL won't upgrade us past 1.5 in areas. Please for the love of frakking god take the stimulus money and update us. Qwest doesn't seem to really care about making improvements, and as such, most of the people around here continue to leave them for Mediacom.
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You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around... |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
 ·SONIC.NET
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| said by danawhitaker:... Qwest STILL won't upgrade us past 1.5 in areas. Please for the love of frakking god take the stimulus money and update us. Sorry, while I can't see why my tax dollars should be used to provide any broadband at all, I certainly wouldn't want the money they ARE wasting to be used to "update" your service beyond 1.5. |
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danawhitakerSpace...The Final FrontierPremium
join:2002-03-02
Urbandale, IA | And what's your speed, if you're so satisfied with other people being stuck at 1.5 while neighborhoods around them can get 7-20mbit? I think the thing that annoys me is that they're turning down money they could be using to update their infrastructure and provide better service to their customers. I love when the "haves" always come in and talk about how, since they already have it, the government can just ignore all the people who don't because no one else in the universe exists.
When I left Qwest for Mediacom (with whom I will soon be getting 15/1 speeds when they update this fall), my neighborhood started having major issues to which the only solution was to try and force people to downgrade to 640/256 or 256/256. It wasn't even training at 640 on a good day.
1.5 is slow, I'm sorry to say. 640 is ridiculously slow. Being told I needed to *downgrade* after years of having 1.5 and having it mysteriously stop working properly was the breaking point. Being treated like crap by their customer service people was a further breaking point. Hell, for all I care, they could at least use the stimulus money to hire employees who aren't from India who actually are interested in helping their customers with issues.
There are a lot worse things taxpayer money could be spent on than helping to expand broadband options to rural areas or areas that need development. Are you against government money being used for roads or anything too? Because I personally find the internet as essential to me, in terms of the ability to make a living, as the roads we drive on.
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You're watching Sports Night on CSC so stick around... |
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patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
kudos:1 | Every time you repair plant, you kill a penny off the yearly dividend. |
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elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA Reviews:
·SONIC.NET
·RoadRunner Cable
| reply to danawhitaker
said by danawhitaker:And what's your speed, if you're so satisfied with other people being stuck at 1.5 while neighborhoods around them can get 7-20mbit? 1.5 is slow, I'm sorry to say. 640 is ridiculously slow. Being told I needed to *downgrade* after years of having 1.5 and having it mysteriously stop working properly was the breaking point. There are a lot worse things taxpayer money could be spent on than helping to expand broadband options to rural areas or areas that need development. Are you against government money being used for roads or anything too? I have 1.5/384 and 1M/384 circuits. They're more than sufficient.
If someone thinks they "need" more than 768K, I'm not looking to restrict their choice. I just don't feel I should subsidize it. As for your service degradation, well, many people contend with RBOC copper plant issues; there is no magic bullet, but exercising diligence with your local techs is usually the most productive approach. Installing a siecor/corning splitter often yields substantial performance improvement.
As you say, "there are a lot worse things" - well, actually, if the money wasn't being spent, it could be refunded to the taxpayer, who probably knows BEST what to do with it, including paying more to their ISP for better products.
I get the "universal service" argument, to a degree (there are still places without power or water or telephone service, despite such policies), but if you have 1.5 service, you have no right to expect ME to pay for your upgrade. And according to you, you aren't "rural".
I am never happy that one neighborhood has better services than another, and I understand wanting to stay in place. But life isn't fair, and it isn't my job to pay to make it fair for you. If you want higher speeds, buy them or form a coop and build them. If you can't buy them, consider moving. If you don't want to move, WAIT, and eventually, someone will offer you a better mousetrap.
Am I against government-paid roads? Well, generally, yes. We would get a lot better value from our "public" routes if they were developed and maintained by coop and charged direct tolls based on congestion/usage in lieu of gas tax - people would have actually economic incentives to carpool, bike, or take a bus, members would receive the benefit of any "windfall profits", and employees would actually work in the public interest. |
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| I find this entire post simply amusing. |
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2 edits | reply to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode:You're right. Verizon just got done selling half of rural America. I very much doubt they want to renew their business ties there. That really has less to do with "strings," and more to do with rural America investment simply not suiting the tempo dictated by investors. »www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co···433.html
"It's not cost effective for the big network operators to play in rural [markets] in the first place and if they take federal money that comes with all these strings attached to it, they are opening themselves up to being regulated even further," said Roger Entner, head of communications research for Nielsen IAG.
Verizon said its officials decided not to apply before conditions were announced. Comcast, which mainly served urban and suburban areas, said it also won't apply. AT&T said it won't likely apply but it is open to partnership with state and local governments who win the grants. Looks like Verizon, Comcast, & AT&T have jumped OFF the stimulus bandwagon as predicted. |
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 FBGuyyippee ki yayPremium
join:2005-03-19
·Comcast
 ·T-Mobile US
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Skippy25
no kidding. 1.5 is slow. its so slow you dont even know if it is working.
i used to live in Iowa and I know exactly what they are talking about with Qwests slow ass internet. I had them for about 2 months before canceling and going to mediacom.
1.5 wouldn't be bad if the latency was good too, but for some reason qwest doesn't have that. |
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