Online I Will Always Be A Slow Trainwreck
Ever since I moved away from Manhattan a few years ago I have been stuck with a dial-up connection. Over the years, it seems that all the areas around me have gotten either DSL or Cable, but not me. To say that it's been frustrating with a 33.3k connection is an understatement.
Every few months Frontier calls me up with their latest promotions. I always ask "What about broadband?" and they always reply, "Sorry it's not available in your area." Well last week was different. I asked my usual question, fully expecting to hear the customary response when the representative said "Hmmm, well it doesn't say that you can't have it. Let's set up an appointment for you." I could hardly believe my ears. Could this be true? Will I finally be able to download videos again? Will the GWJ podcast not take four hours to finish? The period of time between that phone call and the appointment couldn't move fast enough.
So the day comes and the technician is supposed to arrive between one and five. I wish I could make that sort of blanket appointment period, I'd never be late to an appointment in my life. Maybe next time they ask for the bill I'll tell them they can expect payment between October and December, but I digress. I wait, and I wait, and I wait. At a quarter to five I phone Frontier and ask them whether he'll be coming or not.
Them, "Oh, well we found out that we couldn't provide broadband for you so we canceled the appointment."
Me, "You canceled my appointment. Did it occur to anyone that they should notify me?"
Them, "Well we called you, but nobody answered and your machine wasn't on."
Me, "That's funny, because I get voicemail through Frontier."
Them, "Oh, well perhaps we called the wrong number then."
Me, "So you guys called the wrong number. I find that extremely hard to do since you would be calling the number I appointed to be serviced. Regardless, nobody thought of calling more than once?"
Them, "I guess not."
The urge to reach into that phone, grab that operators neck, and just start shaking until they went limp was almost uncontrollable.
How bad is it when you're seriously considering moving just for the ability to get broadband? It really seems that in just my 5 square mile radius there is a conspicuous absence of high speed internet availability. I think I just needed to write something for catharsis, because dealing with Frontier is enough to make a pacifist violent.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
Xbox Live - Trainwreck GWJ
That seriously sucks, man. I have been keeping my eyes open for decently priced acreages (not likely), but one of my stipulations is it to have access to broadband. In my area, there is a company that can supply you with a receiver module that you put up high to have a kind of line of sight with one of their towers. My cousin runs his connection with that setup, and although it can be sketchy at times, it is a hell of alot better than dial-up.
Check it out here.
Perhaps they, or someone like them can be found in your area.
Xbox Live : Aries GWJ PSN : AriesGWJ Spore : Ariesgwj
It's not bad, it's correcting the mistake of moving to a broadband-less area in the first place!
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB / PSN: Legion_SB / Steam: legion028 / Twitter: legion
tits || gtfo
Dude, I've passed on buying houses because there's no ability to get broadband. I feel your pain. (and love my FiOS. Sorry, couldn't resist throwing that in there).
"This is way, way more bad boy than you're gonna be able to handle." - Tommy Gavin on Rescue Me.
Xbox Live: AbsolutTexan
My home on the web
To me it's a serious consideration when moving...
I would never move anywhere without broadband, and if my job was indepented of location I would move to where ever I could get the fastest possible.
"I love deadlines; I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by" - Douglas Adams
The Cake Is A Lie
Have you checked with Speakeasy? They gave me broadband when everyone else said my area didn't have it yet.
I was in that boat when I moved to my current house: too far out of town for DSL, rural cable company without the infrastructure for cable internet, trees and hills around the house so satellite wasn't even an option. Fortunately, Comcast was in the process of buying out the rural cable company when we moved in, and after one year of pure dial-up torture we had broadband once again.
Xbox Live: CrankyBaby
baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
Its not ridiculous at all honestly. I wouldn't have bought this house if I had to stick with satellite bb (which is what I had at the old house).
Gamertag: GWJ Rabbit | Last.fm | Twitter
"In other news, Miyamoto pissed on my head, and gave me a forecast of rain." - *Le
Broadband would definitely influence where I choose to live. I would never move into an area without it.
XBL / Art / Blog (09/20) / Buy! (10/07)
Dailup makes baby Jesus cry.
Elysium: The democratization of the web ... has installed an illusion of a digital first amendment that protects speech no matter how poorly spelled or stupid.
XBL: E Munnie
elementsofmeaning.blogspot.com
Hehehe. You feeling alright, Wordy?
XBL / Art / Blog (09/20) / Buy! (10/07)
I am Jack's growing sense of consumer disenfranchisement.
We shall grapple with the ineffable, and see if we may not eff it after all.
When I got married, the only stipulation I made on where we would live was the availability of broadband internet.
Remember: this conversation is just between you and me ... and the NSA.
MaverickDago wrote:
Does anyone have any experience with those laptop broadband cards like AT&T advertises? My parents have no internet access at their farm, and my father was asking me about them. The AT&T site has surprising little information on the product, and it makes it seem like a product that you wouldn't want to use full time for internet access.
There are places still without broadband?
Xbox Live Gamertag : Barab
EVE: Hannibal Dax
Yea, my addiction requires copper wiring and a dhcp connection into the house.
I have a friend with the verizon wireless card for his laptop. Its not great, but its dial up x5 ~ x10.
While this isnt a great example, when playing wow on the verizon wireless card he gets 300 ~ 500ms lag constantly with spikes into the 1000 ~ 2000 range while my broadband is at 40 ~ 100 with no real spikes. No idea what the price is.
Always vigilient, and dies in the end
Don't even get me started on cellular services. The town board has rejected several times a proposal to put in a cellular antenna in the area, their reason being "It would ruin the aesthetic nature of the area." I feel like I'm living in the 50's around here. It's settled. If I get this new job I'm gunning for I'm moving out of this Howdy Doody town.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
Xbox Live - Trainwreck GWJ
Frontier, eh? My aunt uses them. Nice part of the country, but bad terrain for cables.
"Sometimes I go around saying, 'Kommisar Paulson has seized the commanding heights of the economy!'" - Paul Krugman, asked if recent changes to banking are socialistic.
Exact same thing happened to me with Verizon about 2 years ago. I pay my bill online, and suddenly I see a little "get dsl, you qualify!" notice pop up. So I did the loopback test, which came back positive (yay!), ordered the service, and proceeded to wait 2 weeks for my package and installation. Installation day came and went, and I called up Verizon, who told me that they had canceled the order because they didn't offer DSL in my area. No phone call, nothing. I really, really dislike "service" companies.
I am attracted
To moronic, time-wasting
dumb activities - nsmike
Update time. In the past week I've gone from famine to feast, it seems. First Frontier called to let me know that they did something "special" in order to be able to give me DSL. The day after I set up an appointment with Frontier I get a call from Comcast telling me that they've just started offering service in the area. I schedule for them to come and do a survey. The day after that Time Warner calls offering me broadband. I start a bidding war between the three of them. Comcast gives me the best deal so on Dec. 5th, I will be on Xbox Live for the first time. Expect friend requests coming from me soon. Just be gentle with my Live virginity.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is just the light of an oncoming train." - Robert Lowell
"Boy exchange is a fun pain in the ass." - LiquidMantis
Xbox Live - Trainwreck GWJ
It's a depressing revelation to me that there are places in the US where you can't get broadband. What the hell?
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
Rural areas. My parent's house still doesn't have broadband access, and it's unlikely to change in the next few years.
Xbox Live: StaatsM
You have to keep in mind just how huge the US land mass is. It's not a tiny area like Japan where you can easily wire the whole area cost-effectively.
The state of Montana is nearly three times larger in land area (~150k square miles vs. ~50k) than the entire country of England, yet has fewer than 1 million people living there, versus about 50 million in England. Would you try to cover 3 Englands worth of land with broadband in order to provide service to less than 1 million people?
Gaming / PC Tech Blog: www.blastprocessing.net
Xbox Live: Legion SB / PSN: Legion_SB / Steam: legion028 / Twitter: legion
tits || gtfo
Hell, it's a bitch just to get California completely wired. We've got beach, mountains, desert, farmland, lakes, big cities, small communities and in-the-middle-of-nowhere towns of a hundred people.
And hell, don't even get me started about how hard it'd be to get Texas completely cabled up.
Though technically speaking, everyone's capable of getting satellite, but that's not what we're discussing, really.
"Time traveling terrorists are no laughing matter, Malor." - *Legion* quote #30201
XBox Live: Novopain