Stargazer said:
I went from bad to worse with dialup and it is out of my hands. I told them that maybe I should keep disconnecting service and connecting service back until I do get my 53K back. They said that they could come out and check the lines on the outside of my home but if they find no problems with it then they would charge me over $90 for coming out. I told them that was NOT acceptable. What other options do I have here or so I really have any other than the expensive two-way satellite internet? I live 7 road miles in between two towns that has cable internet and DSL.
If cable passes your home, keep bugging your cable company. If there is cable internet anywhere in your township, go have a chat with your township supervisor (or whatever they call the head honcho in your political jurisdiction) and ask if there is any way he can inspire the cable company to build out to your area. Chances are that the cable company has a franchise, and that franchise may require them to extend service under certain conditions.
As for the phone company, here is the best advice I can give, with the caveat that it may or may not work, but probably won't cost you anything to try. What you do is to file an informal complaint with your state's Public Utilities Commission (or Public Service Commission, or whatever agency regulates telephone companies in your state). Explain first of all that your line work perfectly fine for voice. Also explain that at one time you were able to get 53K dial-up modem connections until you switched to a competitive telephone company. Explain that at that point, you think Verizon may have done something to degrade your line because your modem speed dropped. In any case, you switched back to Verizon because of the drop in modem performance but now they cannot seem to restore the level of service you once had, and that further, they are threatening to charge you $90 for a service call if you call and complain because they know your voice service is working fine.
At the end of your letter explain that under no circumstances are you willing to pay them $90 for a service call because there is no problem in your inside wiring and no problem with your voice service. You just want them to restore the level of dial-up modem service you once had before you attempted to use the services of a competitive company. Say that you think that Verizon may be doing something anti-competitive if your modem speed is degraded that severely because you attempted to switch to a competitive service (be sure to mention that there are other reasons you don't want to go back to the competitor at this point). In other words, tell the PUC everything you told us, but lay it on thick about how your problems didn't start until you attempted to use a competitor's service, and you wonder if the phone company did something deliberately anti-competitive, and are now trying to punish you for trying out a competitor's service, by refusing to restore the level of service you once had.
Now whether this flies depends on how much your PUC is in the pocket of the phone company. In many states, even the hint that a company was messing with a competitor's service in this way would put them in the position of having to explain what happened to the PUC, and at that point your situation would be elevated to a person high enough in the company to order that your service be fixed correctly.
I once gave this advice to someone in another forum, many years ago. They basically replied that they did not want to go to the PUC because they did not want to be thought of as a complainer, and that they feared that if they did complain the phone company would retaliate against them further. I and several others responded that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, people who have a history of filing legitimate complaints with the PUC often got the very best service available. Case in point, and I still feel bad about this but it illustrates the point beautifully, I was having a second phone line installed several years ago and we had a major storm the day before. I figured all the installers would be told to do repairs before installing new service (especially a second line when there was already one working line in the home) but I wanted to find out when my install would be rescheduled (so I didn't have to wait around), so I called the phone company. The person there took one look at my records (which undoubtedly noted that I had complained to the PUC after my service had gone out something like 5 or 6 times in the first few months I had service) and said she'd have someone out there within an hour! I protested that it wasn't necessary, I just wanted to know what day they would be able to make it, but she insisted on sending someone right out.
Now here is the kicker. When the guy got to my home he asked who I knew at the phone company. He explained that he had been working on repairs when his boss called, and told him to finish what he was doing and immediately come over and install my service, and to make sure it worked perfectly before he left (I think his words were something to the effect that this service was to be "gold plated"). When he finished the install he took some meter readings, didn't like something he saw, and went to some junction point between the central office and my home and cleaned up some connections, then came back and did further tests until he was satisfied (in the end that line supported 53K!). I told him also that I really hadn't expected nor wanted him to be pulled off repairs, that I certainly could have waited another day or two. But I have heard similar stories from others that have filed PUC complaints.
But that was in the mid-90's, and I know that some telcos have managed to lobby state legislatures to get PUC's stripped of their former authority. Even so, filing an informal PUC complaint (which simply means making a phone call or writing a letter to the PUC) generally can't hurt - the worst thing that will happen is they will tell you there is nothing they can do. But very often they will at least pass the complaint along to someone at a high level in the phone company, and these higher level people seem much more willing to make customers happy if it is at all possible, and far less likely to make petty threats.
Thanks for clearing that up. One watt does not seem like much power to get back up there. But I could see how it could effect other sats if it hits it.
