External Modem Recomendation 3988

Yeah, you are right about that.

I live about 15 miles from a medium sized Texas town. Several years ago, before broadband was so available, people suddenly noticed that their modem speeds were dropping to less than half of what they had been and it was happening geographically - that is, the speed drop was moving in a growing pie shaped area around the town.. The phone company would not accept any service calls for modems. Their stock answer was that the law required them to provide good voice service on a consumer line and nothing else. If you need data service, contact our ISDN rep (with a large check).

So the local newspaper and a state representative started an investigation into what was going on. It turned out to be the shortest investigation on record - in fact, it just disappeared inside of a week. It was obvious, without having any proof, that the newspaper and the office of the rep were told to drop it and drop it yesterday and don't bring it up again. I buttume that there was an 'Or else!' along with it. They dropped it.

The husband of one of my compadres at work is a telco serviceman and told us that they were told to answer no questions on the subject and don't even admit that they knew what the ruckus was.

But what goes around comes around. As wireless and cable are taking over the town, more and more folks are cutting the line. I notice that my phone bill for standard service keeps going down and more and more offers of freebies come in every month. So maybe they are already seeing a significant movement away.

If I ever get a fast enough wireless link out here I will gladly do the same, but I will most definitely tell them why - with pleasure. I now have great cell phone access, but no alternate data link yet, although I am thinking of satellite.

Bob Hardy