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Lance89
@spcsdns.net

Lance89 to Jim_in_VA

Anon

to Jim_in_VA

Re: Is 20GB's on Verizon enough data?

I just don't understand why Verizon just doesn't make better plans for rural people like myself. There's a real demand out there and a lot of money to be made but not at their outrageous data caps to price ratio. Some of you posting seem to think I have the option of a cable connection, well I wish I did. I looked into Verizon's Home Fusion plan as well and was severely disappointed with the allowed data which is extremely expensive at $90 for 20GB and $120 for 30GB, I mean thats outrageous. The Millenicom plan at least has the 20GB for $70, which is still poor value vs. Sprint, but not bad for 4g Verizon. I just wish the government could somehow step in somewhere or another for a service like home fusion and demand they give a better cap to country folk.
kevnich24
join:2006-04-19
Mulberry, FL

kevnich24

Member

I have several family members who are in your exact same situation. They live in the country and have no access to any land line broadband but do have ready access to verizon's LTE - but it is impossible to justify that as a broadband replacement (which is exactly what verizon stated it was several years ago) at the rates they charge.

Maybe in a few years they will make the charges more appropriate, when the network is in place fully and they're not paying a bunch for the upgrades.
cbobby7
join:2009-06-14
New Windsor, MD

cbobby7

Member

said by kevnich24:

Maybe in a few years they will make the charges more appropriate,

watch this weeks Bill Moyers...

Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly, and Unfair

vimeo.com/59236702
cbobby7

cbobby7 to Lance89

Member

to Lance89
said by Lance89 :

I just don't understand why Verizon just doesn't make better plans for rural people like myself. There's a real demand out there and a lot of money to be made

Where the Broadband Roams

AGATE, Colo. — The bank is gone from this once-thriving ranching and farming community on Colorado’s windblown eastern plain, as are the dairies, the hotel and the Union Pacific depot. The post office remains, at the corner of Main Street and First Avenue, the intersection of the town’s two paved streets.

There is not much that is modern in Agate, except at the 11-student elementary school, which has three high-speed fiber optic Internet connections — more than nearly every school in Denver, 70 miles to the west, and, for that matter, just about any school in the country. And it is something, the school says, that it doesn’t need.

The latest chapter in Agate’s recent broadband boom came thanks to the $4 billion Broadband Technology Opportunities Program, part of the Obama administration’s 2009 economic stimulus effort. The aim of the grant program is to extend high-speed Internet access to parts of the country that had little or none of it because private companies said it was too expensive to build. ............................

But local phone companies have complained about waste or unfair competition, like using some of the grants to build fiber networks where they already exist — including, in Colorado, in the easily accessible eastern plains that include Agate — rather than where they are most needed, in rural mountain towns.

»www.nytimes.com/2013/02/ ··· business

fred_6543634
@107.39.173.x

fred_6543634 to cbobby7

Anon

to cbobby7
said by cbobby7:

said by kevnich24:

Maybe in a few years they will make the charges more appropriate,

watch this weeks Bill Moyers...

Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly, and Unfair

why would anyone say its "unfair", lol. i live out in the boonies and i don't expect verizon or sprint or anyone to roll out 50 mbps service anytime soon just so it'll be "fair" (and so that all the city-dwellers can subsidize my internet service). just doesn't make any sense.

kevnich24
join:2006-04-19
Mulberry, FL

1 recommendation

kevnich24

Member

Did you watch the interview?? US is falling vastly short compared to rest of the world with internet speeds and reliability but yet paying much more. The big telcos have received billions in taxpayer subsidies and havent done a thing to do what they said they would which was provide high speed internet to rural areas.

Separate the local last mile infrastracture from the ISP backbones and run like a utility, have each local municipality take care of keeping everything up to date and then each customer can choose who theyre provider is.

vobguy
A fool with a tool is still a fool
Premium Member
join:2003-01-21
Mineral, VA

1 recommendation

vobguy to fred_6543634

Premium Member

to fred_6543634
Exactly. Is broadband some God-given right ?

You choose where you live, that choice gives you a bundle of possible services. Where I live, I don't have water o sewer - should I expect a company to put in water and sewer? I don't have pizza delivery. Where is the government to force those greedy companies to give me pizza delivery? At a discount, of course.

There are a number of factors in the cost of internet in the US versus other countries, one of them being the distances involved. The distance that many people in the US commute to work would put one in a different country if they were in Europe. It is not the same place
stenman
join:2007-03-07
Salinas, CA

stenman

Member

What a silly comment and as the old saying goes if you keep your mouth shut people may think you are an idiot but open it and they know you are.

I have friends in locations no more rural than my area (5 miles from the city limits and 50 miles from the heart of Silicon Valley) an that have broadband cable providing unlimited 100 Mps service. Where I live the local telco, the infamous AT&T, has a complete monopoly and they have not bothered to provide even DSL. My service options have not changed in the last half century but my tax dollars continue to subsidize AT&T and Verizon, corporations that do not pay taxes but let others make up the difference.

The problem is the lack of competition and the reliance on a very few excessively large telco businesses. Before the breakup of AT&T, in the heart of Silicon Valley one could not even get reliable 9.6k data service and you had to buy your modem from the phone company. We are heading backwards with the mergers our pro business anti-consumer government agencies continue to approve.

The net result is I get far better internet connectivity when I travel around Costa Rica where the government is in charge of the communications. Even the smallest village has free WiFi provided by a government funded tower. The difference is that the Costa Rican government treats the internet as a public service that will benefit the economy and promote education of their people and no different than providing clean drinking water, public education (free in Costa Rica) roads and bridges, and police protection. What little money the government has is not wasted on a military buying them weapons to use againt the government and the people which is why they have never had a coup - no military to be led by the CIA.

Millenicom is the least bad solution as there is no 2-year contract for using them to access either the Sprint or Verizon towers and networks. If you buy a modem or hotspot the most you will be out of pocket is the cost of the device and a month's service.

Rural service by Verizon is no better than with Sprint as the towers are 100' high and anything else that is 100' high, like a hill, will greatly reduce the signal from the tower to your house. Towers are built exclusively to serve motorists driving down the highway. Live in Kansas or other very flat area and the odds of getting a usable signal from a nearby tower are very good.
cbobby7
join:2009-06-14
New Windsor, MD

cbobby7 to vobguy

Member

to vobguy
said by vobguy:

Exactly. Is broadband some God-given right ?

You choose where you live, that choice gives you a bundle of possible services. Where I live, I don't have water o sewer - should I expect a company to put in water and sewer? I don't have pizza delivery. Where is the government to force those greedy companies to give me pizza delivery? At a discount, of course.

There are a number of factors in the cost of internet in the US versus other countries, one of them being the distances involved.

You really haven't a clue as to how you are being ripped off for Broadband service that you have already paid for...thru your tax dollars...but are not getting.

»Report Shows Verizon, Cisco Ripped Off West Virginia [66] comments

Report Shows Verizon, Cisco Ripped Off West Virginia

West Virginia is one of the worst connected states in the nation, something that was supposed to be helped by a $126.3-million federal stimulus grant intended to improve state broadband. Instead, as a series of excellent reports in the Charleston Gazette have illustrated over the past year, state leaders doled out most of that money to Verizon and Cisco, who convinced the (either corrupt or totally incompetent) state officials to spend it on ridiculously overpriced, overpowered and unused routers, and ridiculously overpaid consultants who haven't actually accomplished anything.
cbobby7

cbobby7 to vobguy

Member

to vobguy
said by vobguy:

Exactly. Is broadband some God-given right ?

How AT&T Is Planning to Rob Americans of an Open Public Telco Network

We are already living with the consequences of the FCC IP decision: an uncompetitive broadband market. Our broadband providers enjoy the kinds of high profit margins that would make a 19th-century robber baron blush. And our ability to use these networks to communicate openly and freely is under constant assault. Meanwhile, consumers in other countries not only have better access, but they pay far less for far better services.

»www.wired.com/opinion/20 ··· network/

Eyke
join:2012-05-13
Hooversville, PA

1 edit

Eyke to vobguy

Member

to vobguy
said by vobguy:

Exactly. Is broadband some God-given right ?

You choose where you live, that choice gives you a bundle of possible services.

Yeah, I do love my location. Not a 10, but certainly 9+, quiet, farm country in the rolling hills of the Laurel Highlands. I do not expect 100MB/s fiber, but uncapped reasonably fast, ...5-8 MB/s min...competitively priced Internet, would be nice. I am within 5 miles of a two boroughs...well within. Yeah, it would be expensive, but *how* much money did Verizon make in the last 5-6 years, in PA alone? What about the 1994 Telecommunication Act which gave the telco moneys for "wiring the rural areas." Spent buying up all the baby Bells. What about the Stimulus Package....spent.......

No I don't expect water or sewage, or even pizza delivery, tho we do have delivery...LOL..., but I'd like to be able to enjoy the time wasting Internet experience that I see on the OTA TV ads. Be able to stream a movie, actually be able to use a multimedia TV! Not having to wonder if the 20G/mo plan would be adequate.

/me steps off soapbox.

I want to get rid of my 3g Verizon and I'm hoping the local WISP will be able to service my area; the coverage map seems to indicate this., Millenicom Verizon 20GB may be an alternate, especially if I can get 4G....then there's Excede's late night free zone......So yeah I do have a few choices in broadband, but all much more expensive and with shortcomings that more wired netizens would not suffer well.

To the OP, good luck.

krenn
join:2006-08-23
Somerset, PA

krenn

Member

Welcome to Somerset county. Sucks I know.
decifal7
join:2007-03-10
Bon Aqua, TN

decifal7 to kevnich24

Member

to kevnich24
said by kevnich24:

Did you watch the interview?? US is falling vastly short compared to rest of the world with internet speeds and reliability but yet paying much more. The big telcos have received billions in taxpayer subsidies and havent done a thing to do what they said they would which was provide high speed internet to rural areas.

Separate the local last mile infrastracture from the ISP backbones and run like a utility, have each local municipality take care of keeping everything up to date and then each customer can choose who theyre provider is.

I've been complaining about this for years.. Most commmon reply I get? "they should not waste money running broadband to your house thats is 12 miles away from everything"

I find it kinda funny.. My house is in Dickson, TN. There are literally hundreds of house's in the area running off one remote terminal here that is already fiber fed.. We surpassed the soo called requirement for comcast to build down our road which we averaged well over now 36 homes a mile directly on the road, this doesn't count for the small branch off roads packed with homes mind you.. Yet, we are still labeled as rural... Top it off with the funds they have received from the tax payers and gotten away with not doing jack? Its all a bunch of bullcrap.