So this might be excessively funny for a lot of people; particularly those who know my take on telecomm. Weve used Verizon ADSL at my house since ADSL was available in 1999. We were literally in the first wave of houses able to get it when it was introduced back before Verizon brought Bells Network here (I actually still have the old branded Westel ADSL modem laying around someplace, and it still works on Verizons network). We were literally in the pilot program. Since then, Verizon has NOT updated the network and has done the minimum updates possible; worse yet due to the utility companies sweet heart deal in PA made in 2003, utility companies are no longer liable or civilly sueable in PA for negligence. Any initiatives under the Bush or Obama administrative to try to increase the bandwidth capacities across the country have essentially been met by Verizon (and Comcast in this area) pocketing the money, expanding their network to new customers but not maintaining or upgrading ANYTHING for current customers. They notoriously used slick tax or business maneuvers to make it look like they are doing stuff, but in fact theyve been able to pocket all the tax grants for depreciation of equipment or network upgrades that are SUPPOSED to be in place to encourage upgrade and progress. Bluntly, they literally have been scamming the government and the public. I think I said it best to a friend tonight when I said Verizon might literally be one of the top ten most crooked companies in the United States that managed to pay their way to keeping a good reputation through strong social engineering in advertising. Being an ADSL customer for 14 years as of August 2013, we were stuck paying $39.99 for the service and only getting 768 kbps on average capping at 1.25 mbps. To be clear, as of 2009, this is no longer considered broadband. The FCC reclassified anything slower then 3 mbps as thinband to attempt to encourage ISPs to upgrade (you may sit back and recall that about this time a shift from ISPs changing their marketing from broadband to high speed; this is why). For those asking Why didnt you ask Verizon to simply drop the rates? --- we did. They always gave us the run around and never did anything about it. In August 2013, we actually canceled our subscription of 35 years (that is including our phone subscription) to re-setup ADSL so we could get the proper $19.99/mo cost for the level of service we were actually getting AND get them to fix the lines since theyll bend over backwards for new setups, but apparently not for current subscribers. Now that the clock has turned over to 12:00A, its officially been seven days (not to the hour, but in days) that Verizon has been screwing around with our service and its been down. Being that were stuck in this stupid monopoly, Verizon is the only guys who can get service to us. Luckily, because we setup T-Mobile when we switched over all our telecomm stuff back in August, we havent missed too much of a beat with our internet being down. After doing a little math crunching, my dad and I realized something pretty funny: between requiring a phone line, all the stupid taxes and surcharges Verizon throws at us, our $19.99/mo for ADSL is actually more like $37 and change. Even at that, our services bluntly sucks. T-Mobile has very strong service where were at, we have 7x faster speed; we can still add up to two more lines our plan. Were playing with the idea of activating an my old Galaxy S1 on our T-Mobile account and using it as a hotspot. It WILL in fact only cost another $19.99/mo and WILL be faster --- its just a matter of weather the connection will be stable enough. Considering were in the crosshairs of two 500 gigawatt towers, it actually may be more reliable service then we ever could consider from Verizon (or Comcast). Beyond that, I NEVER hate giving Verizon the finger and love supporting T-Mobile, because they love giving Verizon the finger too. I think the next few days may be interesting as we consider this and play with the possibility of this working out or not. When I sit back and think about the totality of this for a second; Im forced to recall a conversation I had with a customer long, long ago when I worked at Staples around 1999 or 2000. He said he was never going to get a cell phone till it was more economical or cost effective then a traditional land line. I wonder if that time has finally come. If this works out, to quote one of my friends, Id gladly love to fire Verizon; preferably out of a canon.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 05:33:36 +0000
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