My Telephone providers are idiots

[aczlan]

So....tell us why the ONLY way we can get service from our DSL that approaches the bare minimum 1.51 mbps is to have all computers HARDWIRED to the router.....I just ran a speedtest on this laptop and it gave me a report of 1.48 mbps....AND I PAY FOR 3 MBPS !!!! Wireless N is worthless ten feet away from the router....WORTHLESS. Our phones frequently get disconnected from the router when they are 15 feet way....

The modem sounds like it has a junky wireless radio in it. What is the make/model?
My parents had problems with the one that TDS provided and bought their own which was much more stable. Might try something like this: Amazon.com: TP-LINK TD-W8960N Wireless N300 ADSL2+ Modem Router, 2.4Ghz 300Mbps, 802.11b/g/n, Splitter, 2x 3dBi detachable antennas: Electronics

Aaron Z

 

[BobRip]

So....tell us why the ONLY way we can get service from our DSL that approaches the bare minimum 1.51 mbps is to have all computers HARDWIRED to the router.....I just ran a speedtest on this laptop and it gave me a report of 1.48 mbps....AND I PAY FOR 3 MBPS !!!! Wireless N is worthless ten feet away from the router....WORTHLESS. Our phones frequently get disconnected from the router when they are 15 feet way....

Frontier banned me from their Facebook page because I kept posting complaints about their p*iss poor crappy overpriced service. Verizon did the same....they refused to do anything about the issues we are having. TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMPANIES ARE GREEDY, WORTHLESS F*CKTARDS!!!!!!! And the reason I say that is because they want you to commit to a 2 year contract minimum, and THEN when the service they deliver doesn't meet what they claim, they refuse to let you out of the contract.

I had DSL For about two years. Sometimes the speed would drop to 300 bits per second. I called them everyday for 6 weeks. They would claim to fix it and make no improvement. I concluded that trying to get high speed data on a twisted pair wire that was designed for voice was unrealistic. Fortunately cable was available in my area. I can't remember, did you look at satellite? Have you talked to higher level people to let you out of the contract. I am surprised you have to have one for DSL.

 

[paulharvey]

Does anyone on here have Dishnet or Hughes Net? I've been avoiding them based on price and data limit, but I saw something yesterday that said when you hit the data limit, they don't cut you off or autobill you, they just throttle your speed down to 128k/s. I very well might do that once my Direct TV contract is up in 6 months.

 

[MNBobcat]

Well urban subscribers have always subsidized the rural subscribers whether they knew it or not. It has been that way from day one. It has never made good financial sense from the telco's prospective to provide rural service. But when there was many urban subscribers and the government telling telco's that they had to provide universal service the telco's could afford to provide it. Now that there are few urban subscribers and fewer still every day, the rural subscribers who still want the service are going to be in trouble. It is a death spiral and rural subscribers are caught in the whirlpool and my prediction is they will go down the drain.

Oh the irony.....

It used to be that the phone company (AT&T) provided both local and long distance service. It was called the Bell System.

The local telephone service was a losing operation. It was the long distance that was always the money maker. It subsidized the local service.

They provided really high quality phones (free with your service, I believe). They had good quality technicians who serviced the phones/lines. And the monthly fee paid for the service was a real bargain.

Then people complained that it was a monopoly and in 1984 the government forced the break up of the company. So AT&T kept the profitable long distance and spun off the losing local service. The result is the cost of local service went way up. The people of the country were the losers in this deal.

When people complain about their landlines and the service they get, they should be griping about the government instead because they created the disaster that we live with today.

 

[paulharvey]

Well, we should say that Rural is not the same every where. There are places a mile from "town" right on a fairly major road that has crap service. That's different then 35 miles down a log road in rural Wyoming. You can't expect a phone provider to spend $5/LF to run miles out to pick up a dozen homes. In my area, we are 5 miles from the major lines, but still on hard roads, with close to a 1000 customers on this "spur".

Aerial wire is cheaper BUT the monthly attachment fee from power company to use the poles can be as high as $10/pole/month. That really adds up.

 

[k0ua]

Oh the irony.....

It used to be that the phone company (AT&T) provided both local and long distance service. It was called the Bell System.

The local telephone service was a losing operation. It was the long distance that was always the money maker. It subsidized the local service.

They provided really high quality phones (free with your service, I believe). They had good quality technicians who serviced the phones/lines. And the monthly fee paid for the service was a real bargain.

Then people complained that it was a monopoly and in 1984 the government forced the break up of the company. So AT&T kept the profitable long distance and spun off the losing local service. The result is the cost of local service went way up. The people of the country were the losers in this deal.

When people complain about their landlines and the service they get, they should be griping about the government instead because they created the disaster that we live with today.

Things change. Nothing stays the same. Life was simpler in the "old days".. but the old days are gone. Landline service will be a thing of the past. Like typewriters. Sure there may be a few around in some places for many years, but they will not be mainstream. How many typewriters do you see in modern offices. Heck for that matter, the modern office may go the way of the dodo bird too as more and more people work from home.

 

[Oaktree]

It makes me so angry that rural customers get the dregs of what is available to suburban customers AND we end up paying to subsidize THEIR cheaper and better service. WHAT A FARCE......

Huh??
It's actually the other way around where suburbanites are subsidizing rural customers. Think about it...in suburbia running a mile of cable (fiber these days) would service thousands of customers, in a rural area there may be a dozen or fewer in that same mile. Do the math.
Yeah, it sucks that phone/internet service is better/faster in more densely populated areas, but that's the way it works...same reason there's a greater selection of stores/restaurants, etc. there too...that's where the customers are. Downside of living in the boonies.

As for the phone company being responsible for burying the cable...I've never heard of that. Around here if you want phone/electric/cable buried on your property it's your responsibility to put in the conduit (to their specs). Once it's ready the utility will pull their cable. I've never seen the utilities do it other than their trunk lines.

 

[k0ua]

As for the phone company burying the cable...I've never heard of that. Around here if you want phone/electric/cable buried on your property it's your responsibility to put in the conduit. Once it's ready the utility will pull their cable. I've never seen the utilities do it other than their trunk lines.

In the long ago before time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the local telco's around here had construction departments, and lots of guys with vibrating plows, and rock saws and trenchers and such. They would bury the drops. Heck they used to even splice fiber and things like that. But all of that (and all of the people and equipment) went away a long time ago. All construction is done by 3rd party vendors who have their own schedules and timelines.

 

[paulharvey]

In the long ago before time when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the local telco's around here had construction departments, and lots of guys with vibrating plows, and rock saws and trenchers and such. They would bury the drops. Heck they used to even splice fiber and things like that. But all of that (and all of the people and equipment) went away a long time ago. All construction is done by 3rd party vendors who have their own schedules and timelines.

I currently work of an engineering company inspecting utility relocations in FDOT RoW, and trust me the sub'd in guys beat the "company" guys. AT&T has been doing more of their own splicing lately and they are slow; they sub out any digging. Aerial work is a mix of subs and company depending on how busy they are. CenturyLink and others typically have a regional service contract, and they do 90% of the work. The service drop bury guys get something like $40/ service, so they generally wait till they have a full day worth of them before doing any. Can't make money driving half way across the county with 2 guys and a trenches to only make $40. And BTW, don't expect them to bury that line more than 4-8" deep. Might want to take some pictures of where they trench it, for future reference. If they plow it in, you won't be able to see the location after a month.

 

[k0ua]

Around here 4 to 8 inches may be all the "dirt" there is. It is just rock shelf below a certain depth.