"CATherine" <pepsicola5cents@drop.me.bigsandytelco.com> wrote :

Is there no cable Internet service? We used Roadrunner for
years and it was ten times faster than any dialup and worked
out to be cheaper than dialup because we did not need to use
an extra phone line. We now use DSL because we got a better
deal on our home networking. Anyway--cable for you would
be great because it would bypass all the wiring you are talking
about.

I work for an independant phone company in a rural area. That old copper
carrier is probably 861. The equipment up to your box is THEIR equipment and
they must pay to keep it up. That's the whole thing behind some of all those
lovely fees we all pay (USF and subscriber line charges on EVERYone's phone
bills). It's the repeaters that get wet and drop but they CAN be tweaked
(although it is tough until it is drier and yes, they may have to come out
frequently to do it). But don't let them tell you you have to pay for a
truck roll. You only have to pay if they troubleshoot something and it is in
YOUR equipment (usually from the box outside the house on into the house).
Most companies also have a 2 or 3 dollar charge called something like
maintainence that then the company can fix things without a service call
charge but only the materials they use in your equipment. Check and make
sure you haven't been paying that all along because that also negates the 70
dollar charge. DON'T let that company hose you. Sometimes it is just that
the customer service person you are talking to does not understand that you
want your line checked and you mean THEIR equipment UP TO your equipment. I
know where of I speak. I deal with this very thing daily. Also, harp on them
asking when you are going to have your lines upgraded. Congress is pretty
behind this. Rural customers have more pull than they know. Especially if
neighbors are interested, if you guys pull together and keep demanding
upgrades for better internet, they are going to have to listen to you. Who
is your LOCAL phone company (the ones you send your local payment for local
service to?)?  I would be interested in knowing their name. I might be able
to find some info for you. But regardless, they should check your lines when
you ask at NO CHARGE as long as they are checking THEIR part of the
equipment. We have customers up to 30 miles from the nearest switch. That is
still OUR equipment. Tell the company that you KNOW that there is a national
pool everyone pays into (again, the subscriber line charges) that goes to
help the company maintain THEIR part of the line. In reality a local phone
in a rural area would *actually* cost about 250$ a month to maintain if it
were not for these fees. The company gets money from this national pool for
these very purposes. It all evens out because of the low actual cost of line
(plant maintainence) in towns and populated areas. That makes me really mad.
Don't let them do that to you. (ok. Rant off).  :)

I tell  you what, find out which Congressman in your area is pulling for
internet access to rural areas (there is bound to be one) and really beg
them for help. It works. Believe me, we've had many calls from Tom Osbornes
office. Now, I admit, my company was extremely pro-active about all this and
started our upgrades before they were in a position to be forced to do it,
but it is a legitimate cause you can press politically as well as from a
customer stand point. For many rural customers, the internet is their main
or supplemental income provider now and for small farms it is important.
States want to keep their populations distributed and so I am certain that
you have some congressman who would listen to you on this matter. But still,
maybe with this info you can get some action from your company too. (I hope
it is not Qwest).

<snip>

I've had similar problems with my phone service ever since I moved
into this house 4-1/2 years ago. The former owners (my brother)
never had phone problems so it was obvious to me due to the
consistency of the problem that it wasn't in the house, and
probably a buried cable somewhere since the connection was re-
routed to accomodate my new phone number. It got so bad - usually
after heavy rain - and I'd made so many calls to the phone company
with no results that I finally reported the problem to the BBB.
Since that report, I've had supervisers calling me from time to
time after they located the problem. It has recurred since then,
and just recently. They sent out a tech who discovered a new
problem at their Central Office near here. It's a pain, but these
utility companies don't take these things serious until they feel
threatened in their pockets.
BTW, the supervisor who called after the BBB report gave me a
direct phone number to call when/if the problem recurred. I've had
similar problems with the power company and I'm convinced that
somewhere some lines were nicked during construction and erosion
has settled in. I can't say I've had any luck with the power
company yet, though. I had an electrician check out my interior
wiring and the problem isn't in the house as the power company
suggested.

I had similar problems with my phone connection for several years,
gradually getting worse.  At first, I couldn't get the phone company
to come check the problem.  When they finally did so, the problem
turned out to be with the junction box, on the outside of the house,
where the outside cable connects to the inside wiring.  My house still
had the original 1957 box, with the contacts thoroughly corroded by
nearly half a century of a moist climate.  Once they replaced this
box, at no cost to me, my phone problems went away.

snipped for brevity

I had satellite from April 2001 until December 2002 and dropped it as
soon as DSL became available in my area.  Satellite is NOT worth the
money.  It would go down on a foggy day, hard rain, snow, etc.
Anything in the atmosphere that would block the signal would cause the
satellite to go down.  Tech support was atrocious.  Their favorite
solution was "format your hard disk" regardless of what the problem
was.

Nan

Be careful with Sattelite. Yors may well be different, but here with
Sattelite, the downloading goes at lightening speed, but the upload still
has to go through a modem and if you are having problems with phone lines
now, the sattelite won't fix all of that. Sattelites are great for surfing,
downloading music and movies, but are crappy for playing on-line games, and
doing anything where you have to send out fair chunks of info (like
uploading pictures, paying bills on-line etc etc).

You may be better off looking at microwave technology, which works in a
similar way to cell phones.

Yowie