Yeah, that’s true, but it’s all we have in the rural parts of PA. (I’m sorry for my rotten envy of your Internet connection; but when we bought our house 4 years ago, we went from a super-fast cable connection to typically 26.4kbps, and it just sucks so bad! It’s like it’s not even the same Internet. For instance, forget about streaming video, even streaming audio is choppy. Before we moved, Sprint promised broadband within a year, and they kept delaying until Embarq bought them and then the promises stopped altogether.) Our kids are homeschooled, and the Internet is crucial in this, so most of the day I can only reach home by sending an e-mail because the phone line is tied up. If we’re offline and want to see the weather forcast, for instance, it takes at least 5 minutes to get online and load that page. Often the modem on the other end is out of service, and it’s also common for the alternate number to have the same problem. Earlier this week we got a nasty letter from the telephone company saying that the couple of times we connected to a long distance dialup number when the local ones were down was prohibited under our long distance contract.

I intend to start going door-to-door as soon as possible. I didn’t even know it was an option until I told an Embarq rep a few days ago that I was preparing a letter campaign to the media complaining about Embarq’s failure to bring us into the current century. The link for the program is hidden in the fine print at the bottom of Embarq’s broadband page.

Here in central PA, this is what we’re up against trying to get broadband:

Quote:

Generally speaking, the BFRR program provides that if 50 retail customers or 25% of retail access lines in a “community” as defined in Act 183, whichever is less, request same or comparable service; and commit to at least one year of service from the participating provider then service must be provided within 365 days.
(/quote)

Otherwise we just wait until it happens, and it’s required by 2015. Probably the world will end before broadband comes to my house.

“Community.” Those customers of a local exchange telecommunications company served by an existing or planned remote terminal or, where no remote terminal exists or is planned, a central office switch.

Here’s the reason RCN gave:
“A similar problem can occur when local authorities retain outside consultants or counsel who provide improper advice. In one such instance, involving a number of municipalities in the Bucks County region to the northeast of Philadelphia, RCN was unable to build out to communities in which it already had obtained franchises, because an attorney retained by several other towns along the planned network route advised those jurisdictions to demand a unlawful franchise term to which RCN could not, and would not, agree, namely: payment of a recurring 5% of gross revenues franchise fee on the provision of broadband Internet services. Unable to reach an agreement with the towns demanding this blatantly unlawful payment, RCN could not gain access to essential rights-of-way and, therefore, was forced to abandon that entire portion of its route.”

“‘Actually, there is [something the help desk person can do to help],’ I said. ‘You could send me a list of all the politicians Comcast paid off so that there was no competition here, and I’ll take it from there….’”

In addition to the mid-80s agreement to award neighborhood monopolies rather than allow full citywide competition, you could look at 2000/2001 when RCN was trying to connect Philadelphia with its fiber-optic cable network that was physically located northeast of the city.

When Comcast, Verizon (I think) and their buddies on City Council claimed that RCN was racist for planning to begin Internet service in Philly in the Northeast, and not because that was where RCN’s new fiber-optic cable would physically be easiest for RCN to install first?

(RCN gave another reason in its decision to stop fighting for access to Philadelphia and Bucks in the document (link below), under “F. Arbitrary Local Political Considerations”:
)

Sorry about yours.