Under the title to this blog it reads "tied to the world solely by a low-band connection through a third-world phone company, one man reports on law, crime & justice." While that appears to be humorous, it is the truth. I live in a small town populated only be approximately 3000 people. We are held hostage by a third-world phone company: Valor Telecom.
I hate Valor Telecom. They're one of those crappy little companies that got a crumb or two from the deregulation that screwed everybody else. They don't have any support, they don't have any engineers, they don't have any infrastructure. What they do have is a billing system, and a bunch of minimum-wage phone-answerers and that's it.
This is what the Fat Guy said almost a year ago, on May 31, 2002. The last comment to this entry was made on March 3rd of this year. Those of us held hostage by this company are none to pleased about it. I asked about DSL as soon as they took over from GTE, about the time GTE became part of the Verizon system. They told me they would have DSL in 6 months. THAT WAS THREE YEARS AGO!
I have inquired about DSL often, every time I find some Valor Telecom employee. Of course, the answer never changes: "six months."
So, no DSL. Cable is on its way, but they keep having this or that technical problem, but I suspect they will be here before Valor makes DSL available. Someone did institute a wireless network here last year, but the installation costs $600. I need it in two locations, people, and $1200 is a bit pricy. All satellite alternatives have similar installation costs.
So I am stuck with connecting to a dialup network in a town twenty miles away, which is on a different phone system. Provided that Valor does pay the fee for connecting to that phone system (which they have failed to do on at least one occasion, though they denied that), the crappy static filled lines between my office and the server allow me connections at the blazing speed of 31.2kps, if I am lucky. I have actually gotten connections as low as 4.2kps. I have never figured whether it is due to the amount of static on the lines or the fault of the ISP, but I get dropped connections more often than subscribers to AOL. By the way, AOL does not have a local number here, so even AOL subscribers have to call into a town 20 miles away.
I do get a bit better connection at home, usually 46.6 or 48.0kps. I suspect that the lines are newer at the house. I also seem to get dropped less often, though it comes in spurts. I am generally connected at home during peak use periods, and am connected from the office during the day, when use is slower. I am also paying business rates for the phone service. As such, why is it so continually aggravating just to check my email SPAM?
| Dialup service in neighboring town: | less than $20.00 |
| Crappy Valor Telecom phone service: | approximately $50.00 |
| Stable low-cost high-speed internet connection: | PRICELESS |
I live in a small town in east texas and i too have the crappiest service that can ever be imagined. we have no option or choice of another one and getting any service or information is like talking to a total idiot. no service, no dsl, high prices, no choices or options, and total idiots, i don't even want to pay my bills because i have nothing but problems from this company, in fact they should be paying us for having to put up with their stupidity!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Lennie at August 18, 2003 06:53 PM