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2003

pjsutton
join:2013-06-25
Kempton, PA

pjsutton

Member

[connectivity] A neighbor can get DSL but not me?!

I live in Kempton, Lynn Township, PA. The section of my township where I live has no cable service, and Verizon claims we are too far away from the Central Office for DSL. We currently have a Sprint mobile hotspot as our internet source, a Verizon land line, and Directv.

A state law in PA requires all phone companies to provide DSL to all customers by 12/31/2015. The process can be sped up if residents sign a petition and certain conditions are met. I started this process, and we are supposed to have DSL available by October 2014.

However, in the mean time I was entering addresses into Verizon's website and found that one house on my road is eligible for DSL. At least according the the Verizon website. I entered the addresses of the houses directly next to it, and neither of them are eligible. One is closer to the CO, and the other is farther away. The house that is supposedly eligible for DSL is on a list that I have from Verizon of addresses which are supposedl to NOT be eligible.

Anyone know what might be going on??? It's also interesting - all of the houses on my road have underground phone lines, except for this one. At this house, the wires are underground, come above ground, strung along a few poles, connect to this house, and the return underground to continue the distance to my house. Could this have something to do with why DSL is supposedly available there?

I do have the phone number of a Verizon engineer in the area who I am considering calling and questioning about this, but thought I'd check here first since it's 10 pm.
vulgate
join:2012-01-27

vulgate

Member

I moved to a new apartment complex that had an exclusive deal with Verizon to provide phone/internet. When I put my address into Verizon's site, it said DSL was unavailable, which is weird because I could see that a lot of my neighbors had Verizon wifi networks.

So I called Verizon and was told they could issue a "challenge" to the database if I could give them the phone number of a neighbor that had DSL. I ended up doing a reverse address search online to get the phone number of someone who used their address as their wifi network ID.

pjsutton
join:2013-06-25
Kempton, PA

pjsutton

Member

And they were able to give it to you then?

tschmidt
MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
·Consolidated Com..
·Republic Wireless
·Hollis Hosting

tschmidt to pjsutton

MVM

to pjsutton
Back when I first tried to get DSL in 2000 Verizon refused due to excessive line length. I worked with presidential appeals (think that was the name back then) and they retested the line and found out their database was wrong and I was able to get DSL. Over the years my line length has varied tremendously, as far as I know neither my house nor the Central Office has moved.

DSL is not based on road distance but by circuit length. Down the road for me folks are served by a different feeder cable that takes a longer route and are ineligible for DSL.

Since you have access to an engineer see if he/she is able to determine the circuit length of your phone line. It may also be the case there are no more DSLAM ports available preventing adding new customers. Ideally they will be able to request a MLT (mechanized loop test) to determine circuit length.

Good Luck

/tom

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup to pjsutton

Premium Member

to pjsutton
It wouldn't surprise me to see Verizon honor their commitment to Pennsylvania broadband with something other than twisted pair. The old POTS guy behind FiOS, Ivan Seidenberg is long gone and a wireless guy is now large and in charge. The wireless is non-union unlike the wired side of the business. That is another reason the copper must die.

In NJ there is a new development with buried wires, Verizon didn't place a single strand of copper or glass; Verizon honors its commitment to provide POTS to anyone in their service area at a fixed cost by using the cable companies coax to provide VoIP though they suggest they get their voice wireless or over IP form the cable company.
The families in North New Jersey have agreed not to “compete”, wired for cable, wireless for telephone.
Be careful what you wish for; Ma Bell is dead and yet the people itch.

pjsutton
join:2013-06-25
Kempton, PA

pjsutton

Member

I just hope it's not with 4G LTE...has ridiculous data caps and is super expensive.

batterup
I Can Not Tell A Lie.
Premium Member
join:2003-02-06
Netcong, NJ

batterup

Premium Member

said by pjsutton:

I just hope it's not with 4G LTE...has ridiculous data caps and is super expensive.

I have a USB modem with Verizon 4G; the speeds can be erratic especially down but never below 10 meg and always 7 meg up. It is for business not porn but there are NO caps; if one uses the 5 gB for $50 one can use as much more as one wants for $10 a gB. I used $90 two months ago and none last month; of course the $50 is due no matter.

Well soon we will be ride of the dirty wire line Verizon; the people want it and Verizon wants it. Why do the people yet weep though?
damu
join:2010-07-04
Hesperia, CA

damu

Member

said by batterup:

said by pjsutton:

I just hope it's not with 4G LTE...has ridiculous data caps and is super expensive.

...there are NO caps; if one uses the 5 gB for $50 one can use as much more as one wants for $10 a gB. I used $90 two months ago and none last month; of course the $50 is due no matter.

That is a cap. The cap is 5GB, everything else is overage, which is why you pay a premium. All told, charging for overage is even more insidious than any other kind of capped plan, often times there is no way of knowing you are approaching your cap unless you keep track yourself (difficult for the layperson) or they let you know, which they won't, because they WANT you to go over the cap.

This, btw, is completely unacceptable for a household plan. A standard definition Netflix movie is about 700MB. This means you could not watch 2 standard definition movies a weekend without getting dinged for a $10 overage charge, not to mention any other usage you might have.

A single $2.50 game on Valve's Steam service might run you 10GB. That's $100 worth of 4G LTE for a $2.50 game.
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