Embarq Customers Learning About CenturyTel Nothing gets the blood flowing like mergers and consolidation... This week the seventh largest ILEC (Centurytel) acquired the fourth largest (Embarq) in a deal estimated to be worth $11.6 billion. Users in our Embarq forum are busy trying to figure out what they can expect once the acquisition takes place, after which they'll be customers of a new company with a new name. Right now there's nothing to sweat over, given the deal will take time to see regulatory approval. Even under a Democratic President and FCC, it's likely the deal will go forward, given it creates an additional telecom power player not named AT&T or Verizon. The hot-button answers for Embarq users: no, CenturyTel does not implement usage caps, CenturyTel prices and plans can be seen here, CenturyTel's privacy policy is here, and their definition of "next-gen" broadband is, like Embarq's, ADSL2+ up to 15Mbps. Of course all this is moot if the companies simply create a new operation, when all this could change. CenturyTel did tinker with selling your browser history to NebuAD, but like most ISPs, scrapped the idea when Congress began wondering if the idea violated privacy laws. There's an interesting and very heart-felt post (as-so-far as telecom related discussion goes) from a CenturyTel employee in our forums, where he discusses how he feels that the company is at least receptive to user concerns: Before I worked for CenturyTel I enjoyed their service enough to the point that I wanted to work for them (oddly enough), and eventually I did and am. ... Anyway, look forward to having your voices heard loudly and clearly. Rely on this site and the Embarq/CenturyTel forums if need be, we are all here to help and assist in every matter. The world of business is changing, and it is in the direction of pro-consumer, because the consumer (you and I) are changing it; it is what we demand. We will, of course, keep you posted on changes as they impact you. Meanwhile, it looks like the baby bell family map ( pic) is going to need updating once again.
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 | | yay maybe embarq will start offering 15M service.. | |
|  dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2
2 edits | FYI The "dry" DSL is available in all speeds 1.5MB and above (3MB-10MB Copper ADSL2+ and 15MB Fiber).
»www.givemepure.com | |
|  | wvcaverPremium
join:2005-04-17
Millersburg, OH
1 edit | Re: FYI I hope CT is going to be more aggressive at deploying fiber ? | |
| | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: FYI From what I've seen, it looks like that is the probable direction, but I cannot give any definitive answer to your question. Many areas have been switched to pure fiber in the south and just about all new developments are fiber.
Our fiber network: »ir.centurytel.com/phoenix.zhtml?···eProfile
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"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln | |
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|  intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | NO IT IS NOT! You cannot get dry DSL in all areas! | |
| | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: FYI Ok, inteller  , tell me where you CANNOT get it? Please...the only place you cannot get it is where DSL is not available, simple as that, which I have already stated. | |
| | | | intellerSociopaths always win.
join:2003-12-08
Tulsa, OK | Re: FYI 72466 | |
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| | | | he did not say ALL AREAS he said ALL SPEEDS | |
|
 MrMoodyFree range slavePremium
join:2002-09-03
Smithfield, NC | Not Qworst I'm glad about one thing: it's not Qworst. | |
| | | | Re: Not Qworst said by MrMoody:I'm glad about one thing: it's not Qworst. why is quest so bad, again?
they do have fiber and twice the speeds of embarq
:3 | |
| | |  espaethDigital PlumberPremium,MVM
join:2001-04-21
Minneapolis, MN
kudos:2
 ·Clear Wireless
| Re: Not Qworst said by waffleburger:said by MrMoody:I'm glad about one thing: it's not Qworst. why is quest so bad, again? they do have fiber and twice the speeds of embarq At double the latency because they refuse to turn interleaving off. +32ms penalty for Qwest over Embarq w/ FastPath. | |
| | | iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Golden, CO
kudos:2 Reviews:
 ·Comcast
 ·Verizon Online DSL
| They have fiber...to the node. ADSL2+ means that the fier is generally a mile or more from you. "Last mile" is copper. Ugh.
Twice the speeds of Embarq? Only in selected areas, whereas 10M service from Embarq is available across their footprint.
Also, 20 Mbps service is price prohibitive IMO, at $110 dry-line. | |
|
 CheesePremium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
kudos:1 | Maybe.... Perhaps, it will be better here, my experience with Embarq was horrendous, being told the engineers won't do something because something isn't exactly the way THEY want it, PISS OFF EMBARQ AND GOOD RIDDANCE! | |
|  MrMasterjetsetterPremium
join:2000-12-16
St Thomas, VI
·Sprint Mobile Br..
·Virgin Mobile Br..
| centurytel is horrible Centurytel has to be the absolutely worst company i have ever dealt with for business, personal, internet and phone.
I feel sorry for people who are stuck with them.
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One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done. -Marie Curie | |
| | | | Re: centurytel is horrible said by MrMaster:Centurytel has to be the absolutely worst company i have ever dealt with for business, personal, internet and phone. I feel sorry for people who are stuck with them. I had them once. It was painful. | |
| | | bobvickPremium
join:2008-04-01
Brilliant, AL | Re: centurytel is horrible I am not sure where you all live, but here in Alabama, CenturyTel service is tops! The local technicians are excellent, in fact, one of them gave me his cell number to call him if I have any DSL problems, and even offered to run a dedicated line for the DSL service from my network interface to a jack so that that line would not be shared by POTS service. The service that I have experienced from the call centers has been excellent as well. I believe that most of it is how good your local service and local technicians are however. | |
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| dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Care to elaborate? | |
| | | | | Re: centurytel is horrible Sure, it was actually in La Crosse, WI where you are. Never had good speeds, service was hit or miss. The local offices had no idea to handle simple billing inquiries, and phone supports was average at best. | |
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| | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: Embarq broadband prices may be going up. It really depends on how the advertise rates are set. Our rates on the website are without any promotions and full price. But, they go as follows:
256k 31.20/mo
1.5Mb 41.20/mo
3Mb-15Mb 51.20/mo
Are those full prices or promotional prices Embarq is advertising? Because we used to advertise promotional prices over the full price on our website, but not anymore.
In fact, I checked their website, that is the BUNDLE price. Relax.
»www.embarq.com/Residential/Inter···Internet
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"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln | |
| | | | | | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: Embarq broadband prices may be going up. Mr Matt , I'm slightly confused by what you are saying here...prices vary everywhere, from milk to cereal to gasoline to prices for services. I don't see how you are coming up with the statement that CenturyTel forces you to pay for 1.5 when you cannot attain that speed?
Every customer that can get DSL has a minimum of two options:
256 or 1.5 (up to 18,000ft; higher speeds available in many locations but those are minimal if DSL is available; 79% of access lines served by CenturyTel are DSL capable)
256 or 512 (up to 23,000ft)
DSL is quite limited by many factors, including distance, cable type, and equipment serving the location. So, we have minimum speeds that we have set for each tier that a customer should be getting, and if they are not getting that speed, then we fix the issue. | |
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| |  kg4mucGettin It Done A Little At A Time
join:2003-02-17
Marion, VA
·Embarq Now Centu..
| said by dsldude08:It really depends on how the advertise rates are set. Our rates on the website are without any promotions and full price. But, they go as follows: 256k 31.20/mo 1.5Mb 41.20/mo 3Mb-15Mb 51.20/mo Are those full prices or promotional prices Embarq is advertising? Because we used to advertise promotional prices over the full price on our website, but not anymore. In fact, I checked their website, that is the BUNDLE price. Relax. » www.embarq.com/Residential/Inter···Internet Ok,
With that being said what I have been questioning is this:
As a evidently soon to be former Embarq customer in the new company's service area will I get to retain what I have without being forced to down grade to something 5 times slower because of the new companie's current tier structure?
Currently I am at 3 meg and we do have landline with some bundled features I know for a fact my 13-14k feet from the remote is going to prevent me from obtaining any thing faster that I have now without a lot of work which I seriously doubt they will do right off the bat.
If I could sync at 10 meg and it the useable I wouldn't care paying for it but since I know thats probably never going to happen it just don't seem like a good idea to pay more and receive less! Eventhough it is currently the american way 
WT | |
| | | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: Embarq broadband prices may be going up. Well, to give you a simple and straight forward answer, to the best of my ability I will say the following: The last company we acquired was Madison River Communications, all of their pricing structures were grandfathered. So, I would imagine the same process would be used. We do the same for our current pricing structure, if you have a rate for DSL that you've had for two years, and then we increase it, well, generally your rate doesn't change until you make a change to your account requesting such. So, as of right now, I wouldn't be too worried about your current pricing being changed.
--
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln | |
| | | | | kg4mucGettin It Done A Little At A Time
join:2003-02-17
Marion, VA | Re: Embarq broadband prices may be going up. Thanks!!
That was what I needed to know! and was actually what I needed to hear!
appreciate the reply!
WT | |
| | | | | | | I currently have Dry-Loop DSL with Embarq with 5Meg/768K service and Static IP for $55/month.
Service has been very reliable, probably rating with 99.9% uptime and rarely any thruput issues. Speedtests usually run at 4.5M/650K, so not quite up to the rated speed but close.
One thing I like about Embarq's tiers compared to CenturyTel is more tiers and higher upload speeds. Embarq's 10M service has a 896K upstream but Ctel's max is 768K.
Will our upstream speed change under CenturyTel? Will our tiers be grandfathered under CenturyTel?
Also, I see no mention of Static IP option on CenturyTel website. | |
| | | | | | dsldude08Premium,VIP
join:2008-01-03
La Crosse, WI
kudos:2 | Re: Embarq broadband prices may be going up. We do offer static IP's, and it is likely your prices/speeds/etc will be grandfathered. But I cannot give any definitive answer to it since it is really not up to myself, just going by the history we have here.
--
"We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution."
- Abraham Lincoln | |
|
 Jovi
join:2000-02-24
Mount Joy, PA | Around here... Embarq(Sprint) dsl is horrible. Latency/routing issues plaque my area. Maybe CenturyTel can fix these issues or maybe not. Prices seem steep compared to what Comcast is upping their tiers to. Time will tell
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"Where's my coffee? Oh. I guess it's my turn to make it."  | |
| | | | Re: Around here... In central MO, we have Embarq and just to our north 10 miles or so and to the south, Century Tel.
I have worked with both companies in the IT area. I have Embarq 10MB service and it's about the best one could ask for. Uptime is over 99 percent. I support several locations using Century Tel.
Both have been pretty aggressive in deploying rural DSL, in fact Century Tel has 6-10MB service to areas you can't imagine and 1.5 service to areas that one would rather access by helicopter than drive down gravel roads for miles into national forests to get to.
Maybe in this area we are just lucky, but we have 50 plus sites using VPN either through Embarq or Century Tel and have little to any problems with either.
As far as prices go, Embarq and Windstream are the highest in the state for Business side DSL, while ATT and Century Tel is near the low end.
Problem with ATT, they will not invest or do not want to invest in DSL unless it gets immediate payback, so if you are outside a major city, forget ATT.
Without the aggressive DSL of both Embarq and Century-Tel, we would have a ton of sites on near useless satellite. | |
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cringeyPremium
join:2002-02-07
Whitehouse Station, NJ | If this goes through If this goes through, and speed or price changes for the worse, it will finally push me over to Comcast internet.
I hope a pending merger would let you break contract. | |
| | |  hmmm
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| |  tstolzePremium
join:2003-08-08
O Fallon, MO
kudos:1
·CenturyLink
·Charter
| Re: hmmm said by Fox McCloud:Question is, does CenturyTel do FastPath? I currently have that, and it really helps my latency in online gaming, and I'm sure it'll come in handy if I ever do VoIP or any other latency-sensitive applications. I believe ADSL2+ only uses interleaved, but it is different than normal DSL. My understanding is that it has different levels and uses the lowest level to keep a reliable connection. I typically run 7 ms to the RT on my 10/768 connection
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Ofallon, Mo Weather | |
| | | keefe007Premium
join:2004-02-24
Germantown, WI | Re: hmmm Around here people call them CenturyHell... | |
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| bobvickPremium
join:2008-04-01
Brilliant, AL | Yes, CenturyTel does do Fast Path at least where I am in Alabama. | |
|
emig5m
join:2004-02-16
Columbia, NJ | ..... How many freakin' times is this company going to change names/sell out? Now what are they going to have to do, repaint all the work trucks and change all the Embarq logos on all the pay phones AGAIN after just doing it? WOW what a waste of time the Embarq fiasco was.... I'd just leave all the work trucks and pay phones blank this time around so that in two years they wont have to do it yet again! | |
| | | need info on what centurytel is like to work for I'm a Embarq service tech in Southwest FL all of us Embarq techs in SWFL are wondering what to exspect from our new Bosses 1. what is pay scale ? 2. are they Union friendly.?. 3. are we screwed or better off with Centurytel? 4. what is management like? O.K. or just a bunch of college A-holes who have no clue about the telecom reality is,, like Embarq has now | |
| | | | Re: need info on what centurytel is like to work for said by embtel tech : I'm a Embarq service tech in Southwest FL all of us Embarq techs in SWFL are wondering what to exspect from our new Bosses 1. what is pay scale ? 2. are they Union friendly.?. 3. are we screwed or better off with Centurytel? 4. what is management like? O.K. or just a bunch of college A-holes who have no clue about the telecom reality is,, like Embarq has now I'm an outside plant tech for centurytel in MI.
1.I'm top pay (most guys are after 2 years) and make close to $27/h. However I'm not in a union area, not sure whate they make.
2. Most of centurytel is union. MI is not (however the u.p. is) Most everything is done union ways.
3. I'm not sure how well u like embarq (doesn't sound 2 +)but I love working for ctl, but that depends on the other guy in your area i guess. Short answer, better off w/ctl.
4. Haven't seen my boss in 2months. He knows my work gets done and leaves me alone. I like it that way! As far as upper management... I beleive they have a better than average idea of whats going on. I cant think of any college greenhorns in management...
-welcome to the family!
p.s. ever have a gator come after you, or find big snakkes in a ped down there in FL? | |
| | | | |  Re: need info on what centurytel is like to work for
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Embarq broadband prices may be going up.
If the new company adopts CenturyTel's Broadband Prices Embarq customers will find themselves getting much less for higher prices. See the broadband rates listed below, which are from the Embarq Website in my market:
