CenturyLink Insists Users 'Don't Need' Fiber Speeds Thursday Nov 20 2014 14:33 EDT The New York Times recently explored the statewide protectionist bans paid for by incumbent ISPs that hinder or outright prohibit communities from building their own networks. As we've long covered, these bans don't really care if ISPs aren't willing to service these same areas, and some even block public/private partnerships. The FCC has hinted they may fight to overturn some of these bills to help accelerate broadband deployment. CenturyLink, which has a very long history (both currently and as Qwest) of passing such laws and suing muni-operations, justifies this behavior to the Times by insisting consumers don't want fiber upgrades anyway: quote: “We build our network to meet customer expectations,” said Bill Hanchey, a CenturyLink regional vice president who oversees government affairs. But customers are not clamoring for the speed provided by fiber, he said. “It does us no good to go out and build networks that customers don’t need or aren’t requesting."
The idea they don't want to be upgraded might be interesting news to the CenturyLink users in our forums still stuck on increasingly-antiquated and capped DSL connections. In reality, CenturyLink's stagnation when it comes to upgrading the lion's share of its market simply comes from the fact the have no competitive incentive to do so. |
4 recommendations |
So what?Why does it matter if their users NEED it or not? The argument isn't even if the user CAN use that much, but that CenturyLink has in their infinite wisdom determined exactly what their customers need. The hubris is just damn insulting at this point. | |
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shmerl
Member
2014-Nov-20 9:43 pm
CenturyLink should be renamedto LastCenturyLink. It would be more fitting for them. | | | ApophisJaffa Kree Premium Member join:2001-12-27 Holmen, WI
2 recommendations |
Apophis
Premium Member
2014-Nov-20 3:44 pm
CenturyLink = Worst telecommunications company in the United StatesI've worked with a lot of providers across the United States, from Charter, Comcast, Wildblue, HughesNet, Frontier, Time Warner and CenturyLink / Embarq is by far the worst company to deal with than any of them.
They have a bad history of putting out quick cheap quotes for services just to do the homework weeks later to have the build out cost be triple what it costs them to hire a 3rd party engineering team to do the same work.
Their call center for dealing with new customers, dealing with existing customer issues is by far the worst of any of the providers I listed. Not only are the majority of the people not educated on the product they sell, at the end of the day I honestly think they don't care.
As far as I am concerned, I hope that CenturyLink as a company completely fails and goes completely out of business. This company with its zero investment into their broadband networks for the past 10 years is simply ridiculous. It shouldn't take 24 weeks to do a simple T1 install or 7 months to do a actual build out expense calculation.
I have zero faith in CenturyLink and I take customers from them and move them over to other providers any chance I get. | |
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