 linicxCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2002-12-03
United State
 ·Cass Communicati..
 ·CenturyLink
| Not necessarly so Illinois is the fifth most populated state with 102 counties and despite being the #2 corn producer in the country. What Verizon and the Telcos run into is county seats and hospitals that are 50 miles apart and 1000 acres farms that are 5 miles apart on poorly marked dirt roads. They all use phones. They may have call phones but they have land lines that provide links to GPS because cable doesn't generally go out 60 miles. Satellite cable isn't generally much faster than dial-up and it is very expensive. Cellphones are not reliable in rural areas. VOIP does not work if the power fails, or the server fails. The only reliable connection to 911 in rural America is POTS.
I've been doing it for 26 years. There is very little difference in rural Internet today than there was 15 years ago. The Internet is slow and dodgy. Companies do not want to upgrade worn out equipment. They don't what to provide tech support or service - but they want that $50/mo. for cable, for cell phone, for VOIP, etc..
Rural America has never been about providing fast Internet service or even good internet service. It's all about big profits, little expense and less service. It happened when Cox sold out its medium and small markets to Suddenlink. It happened when Century Telephone did the same thing, and it will happen when Verizon sells out. Decent service and tech support will be replaced with a provider who charges more for less. I am one of the lucky ones. I knew when I had terrible, expensive bundled services from Century Telephone the writing was on the wall and sure enough they sold out or merged with Embarqe; it is the same thing. The customers got the shaft and we were left holding the bag. I bailed 8 months before they left. Frontier may have a wonder reputation in a town of 100K, but they won't in a town of 500. IF Verizon pulls out, I don't know what will happen to their cell phone customers.
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