| [Rant] More options! I live in the Houston metropolitan area. This is a HUGE area of a major city! One would think we would have many broadband options here!
Honestly I had more options for broadband while living in an extremely underpopulated and rural part of northern Japan, and even had fiber for most of the time I lived there.
Where I live, I can get:
1. AT&T. I refuse to do business with them and have not for over 20 years. It's a personal thing.
2. Comcast. I hate them...their service is AWFUL here, internet speed is great -- when it works -- which can be days or minutes at a time. It's not my router or my computer (I have 5 computers in my house, both CAT and WIFI) and they refuse to give me anything but a 'refurbished' modem. Next thing on my list to try and make it fully functional is buy my own modem.
Other than those 2, it's DSL, dial-up or satellite only.
I want fiber! When is Verizon (or whoever) going to get off their butts and get Houston...5th largest city in the US!!! wired?! Barring that, I want more options! Options from competent providers!
Ugh sorry, had to rant. |
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 BlitzenZeusBurnt Out CynicPremium
join:2000-01-13
kudos:2
 ·Frontier FiOS
| reply to Snapless
Re: [Rant] More options! This is why some people ask before they move. Here we're stuck with Comcast, or Frontier. Some areas have FIOS, others are stuck with DSL, they have no real plans on expanding either, they wanted the area for the DSL market.
Go east of here you have Comcast, and the latest company to buy out the DSL in the area, however the previous company started a small fiber build out before they were bought out. Comcast is technically fiber, but not for the last mile, that's still coax.
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I distrust those people who know so well what god wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires- Susan B. Anthony
Yesterday we obeyed kings, and bent out necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to the truth- Kahlil G. |
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Reviews:
 ·Millenicom
 ·AT&T Southeast
·Verizon Wireless..
| reply to Snapless
Get rid of the present legislature and governor. Vote in a legislature that is at least 70% in both houses filled with those who support municipal, county or public utilities building FTTH networks without requirements to bow down to private for profit ISPs first or do ridiculous cost benefit studies. Have a governor who supports this concept also. Watch how fast ISPs start really competing as the municipal and public utilities activate FTTH networks. EPB Fiber in Chattanooga TN is probably the best example. Or wait for Google to decide to become a national ISP wholesaler by building out 1Gbps symmetrical service anywhere there is an electrical grid. |
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 removedPremium,VIP
join:2002-02-08
Houston, TX
kudos:36 | reply to Snapless
said by Snapless:When is Verizon (or whoever) going to get off their butts and get Houston...5th largest city in the US!!! wired?! Philadelphia, the 5th largest city in the US, is already served by Verizon.
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irc.removed.us - #dslr |
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Reviews:
·TekSavvy DSL
| reply to Snapless
I'm on DSL and to be honest, considering all the rage, all the frustration, all the complaints connected to cable, even from people with Teksavvy, a company you will have trouble finding fault with unless you are just an uninformed complainer at heart.....
I wonder what is so 'wrong' with DSL?
Speed? Can't be speed. I can download oooooodles of gigs of data in a short time span.
I'm at a loss to understand the fascination with cable. |
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 Dude111An Awesome DudePremium
join:2003-08-04
USA
kudos:10 | reply to Snapless
quote:
1. AT&T. I refuse to do business with them and have not for over 20 years. It's a personal thing.
Good for you,i hope you can continue to stand your ground!!
Good luck! |
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 ilikemeI live in a van down by the river.Premium
join:2002-08-27
Denton, TX
kudos:1
·Verizon FiOS
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to Snapless
Re: [Rant] More options! There are other options in Houston, just not in your area. Some areas even have Entouch FTTH or Verizon FIOS! There is also Suddenlink, Charter, TV Max, Phonoscope, Windstream, and Consilidated in the Houston area.
For the non-wired alternatives there is At&t 4G LTE, Verizon 4G and Sprint/Clear Wimax 4G.
FYI: Houston is the 4th largest city. |
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 DarkLogixPremium
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX
kudos:3 | reply to Snapless
Maybe head over to the Comcast section of this forum and people might beable to help get it going
I know in my area comcast is great and I'm in the "Greater" houston area |
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| reply to Snapless
You could always scrounge up a coupla million bucks and start yer own ISP...
but it'd be cheaper to move to some city in the 21st century. |
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 r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX
·AT&T U-Verse
·AT&T DSL Service
·row44
| reply to Snapless
You are screwed.
I have ATT only because they are the cheapest, but until last year they were the best ISP in the country with no caps.
Now that they have caps they are a horrible ISP.
Right now I pay $25 a month for 6 meg down with a 150GB cap that they never tell you about. (no phone line)
In houston its either comcast or Att.
There is another dsl provider but they are expensive and require att phone service.
I did see recently that Earthlink resells comcast so that might be worth a try. »www.earthlink.net/
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. |
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 DC DSLThere's a reason I'm Command.Premium
join:2000-07-30
Washington, DC
kudos:2
·Covad Communicat..
·Verizon Online DSL
| If you're close-enough-in to your CO, Verizon DSL is not bad. I'm on the 7-15mbps tier and consistently average 10...which is more than adequate unless you're serving torrents or have multiple people watching HD video at the same time (which I don't). No caps. My only alternatives are Comcast (no way), or one of the CLECs reselling VZ DSL or the rare one that COLOs and just rides on VZ's copper (what's the point of paying as much as 4x for the same service?). FiOS is required to be available in my neighborhood not later than 2014, so I live with copper until then.
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"Dance like the photo isn't being tagged; love like you've never been unfriended; and tweet like nobody is following." |
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r81984Fair and BalancedPremium
join:2001-11-14
Katy, TX | Houston area is ATT territory, we cant get verizon.
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...brought to you by Carl's Jr. |
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DarkLogixPremium
join:2008-10-23
Baytown, TX
kudos:3 | Well that depends on which part of the greater houston area you're in
although baytown is lumped in with houston we get verizon but sorry no fios, some other areas might be VZ but who knows |
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| reply to Sukunai
quote:
I'm at a loss to understand the fascination with cable
1) Much faster speeds
2) No distance limitations
Here Verizon DSL maxes out at 3Mb down. I am about 15 miles from my CO and was unable to get DSL at all up until a few years ago when remote terminals came about. Cable maxes out at 50Mb down here, which I absolutely love and I’m about 65 or 70 miles away from the main cable headend. DSL is all but a dead technology. It’s slow and outdated. And with the move to DOCSIS 3, speeds will continue to get faster and faster, I never had an issue with slowdowns prior to DOCSIS 3 becoming available since I live in a relatively rural community, but channel bonding has seemed to solve the problem of node saturation for people that experienced slow downs during peak times.
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2011 Time Warner Cable Forum @ DSLReports Poster Of The Year!
Voted Unanimously on by ChillyCat and Elyria!
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 signmeuptooLove those still alivePremium
join:2001-11-22
NanoParticle
kudos:4
 ·Comcast
·Optimum Online
 ·callwithus
| reply to Snapless
I used to live in Houston. Houston is the FOURTH most populous city by city limits, in the USA. It supplanted Philly a long time ago.
OTOH, some urban areas are more populous by urban area...
You're no worse off than most of the nation. If you want more choices, choose who you vote for, because the laws that protect ATT and Comcast territory are WHY, all over the nation, we have no choices.
I have said it for over a decade: community transmission lines should be owned and operated by State Counties, and providers should lease the rights to sell on them. Nationwide.
But that is a pipe dream that, unless things shifted politically radically, will never happen.
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Join Teams Helix and Discovery. Rest in Peace, Leonard David Smith, my best friend, you are missed badly! Rest in peace, Pop, glad our last years were good. Please pray for Colin, he has ependymoma, a brain cancer, donate to a children's Hospital. |
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ilikemeI live in a van down by the river.Premium
join:2002-08-27
Denton, TX
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
·AT&T Southwest
| reply to DarkLogix
said by DarkLogix:although baytown is lumped in with houston we get verizon but sorry no fios, some other areas might be VZ but who knows
Missouri City, Stafford, Friendswood, and League City also have Verizon. |
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