"The filthy rich person down the road, however, got the town to run brand new fiber optics to her 12,000sf mansion, and 200 amp service as well. Though the new wire passes within 300 yards of our home, we were unable to get the town to upgrade our service.
Makes me sort of resent wealth at times; are the rich somehow more deserving..?
"
Pete, I seriously doubt a 12,000 sf ft home has only a 200 amp service, typically it requires a 400 amp when all loads are considered into the equation used to determine the size of the service needed. Being envious of someone with a larger service would not be at the top of my list, you can bet the power bill to these folks exceeds yours by 5 or 6 times not to mention the gas costs. To have only a 70 amp service means nothing. Are you having problems? First indicators are a main breaker tripping (if you have one) or the feeder wires from the power company melting and falling to the ground (literally) If you have a main breaker and its tripping, your service is probably undersized. Solutions are to increase the size of your panel by replacing it. 200 amp panels are so standard everywhere here in CA., no one bothers with anything smaller and the cost difference is negligable. A higher amp panel simply has a larger bus section and often allows for more circuits. If its circuits you need more of, a subpanel from your exisiting 70 amp may be an easy solution. I suggest getting an electrician, metering the current to find your maximum amp use.
As far as telephone service goes, that varies everywhere. I know of folks with homes in the many of millions of dollars that have dial-up service that won't exceed 24,600 when it can connect and stories about welfare folks having DSL, ISDN or cable modems. Satelite is an option if your willing to pay. I share in your frustration of having a noisy line, its common to many, many folks regardless of income. Rainy, damp weather certainly compounds the problem. Ensure that your house has good phone wiring, replace it if possible with a indoor/outdoor grade Cat5 wire and the rest will be calling the phone company repeatedly complaining about the static. Eventually, all the new technology will catch up with those of us in rural areas allowing high speed access, its all a matter of time, money and getting a standard that changes very quickly making the phone companies newly installed equipment like ISDN obselete very fast. Good Luck, Rat...
