US Telco Support → CenturyLink > No DSL service in my area yet

No DSL service in my area yet

My girlfriend bought her house 2 years ago in a somewhat rural area of NC (White Horse Dr. Shawboro, NC 27981). Before she bought the house, she checked with the state's broadband map (»www.e-ncbroadband.org/) and it showed her as having Centurylink DSL in that area. Well, it was a lie. Fast forward to recently, still no service despite it being shown on the map (There is DSL close by though, 10mbps within a mile) I contacted the GIS Specialist/Data Administrator and she stated to me that "I looked through our original data and confirmed that these areas were reported to us as served by CenturyLink...CenturyLink reported serving 11 census blocks and over 100 street segments in your zip code". She also said she was going to contact Centurylink about the matter as well.

I then contacted Centurylink themselves, and after being on the phone with them for awhile, their rep talked to an engineer who said the local equipment "was not set up for DSL services and she saw no plans too". Their equipment for my area appears to be on a main highway with a fiber optic line marked about 20 feet away.

Is there any way I can nudge them to expand DSL to my area? I went thought their official channel of requesting service there but that was close to 8 months ago. They have DSL service all around the area except for that small corner of the county served by that equipment. I hate to make it sound like a venting post, but it's frustrating when a company reports to a state agency and essentially flat out lies about having service in an area when they don't (nor have any plans to). I really want to move there and locate my business there as well, but high speed internet is a must (and a hotspot wont suffice unfortunately). There are PLENTY of neighbors that are waiting to get internet service there as well. Any thoughts?

In case you haven't noticed coverage maps are a wild fantasy. I think the FTC or somebody ought to crack down on them since all the wireless carriers show coverage across most of Arizona even hundreds of miles out in the desert where there is nothing and certainly no cellular towers. Bottom line is you can't expect the same advantages living out in the sticks that you get in the city. The NC broadband map probably assumes that if you have telephone service you can get DSL but if you are more than 2 miles from the Central Office it's never going to happen especially if it's a poorer area without that many residents or an older area with 50 year old lines that would cost a lot to upgrade.

Actually, the house is just over half of a mile from the CO box. Distance isn't that issue as far as I can tell, just an outdated CO box. And I do realize the map is full of errors (I saw many, those maps are pure BS) but the admin specifically said that Centurylink reports serving my address (and surrounding area) when it in fact does not. It's just very frustrating, especially in this day and age and the fact that Centurylink apparently spits out false information.

Why not get with the neighbors, all agree to get CenturyLink services, and contact a local engineer. We did this when it was Sprint landline (way before CL took over) back in 2006, and we had 8Mbps ADSL available to us within about a month, we all just agreed to 3yr contracts to ensure Sprint made the money back on installing the DSLAM.

This was ~20 of us, so if you can convince them the investment is worth it, and everyone agrees then you can get it done pretty quickly.

Similar situation in rural Walton Co., Fla. Vacation cottage on lake with about 25 other houses. No cable or wireless ISP; only high-speed option was satellite. POA contacted CenturyLink and asked about DSL. CenturyLink agreed to install but would not guarantee the speeds. Best we can do is about 1 Mbps but it's better than waiting for dailup or paying for satellite.