You can tell by the title whether you want to read on or not.
Another hour on the phone (most just to get to a level 2 tech), because *drum roll with brass flourish*–Ta-Da! Cable ISP is acting flaky again. When it’s good? Well, when it’s good, it’s very, very good, but sporadically, pfzzt! it’s gone. Middle of a page load (or beginning or end), middle (or beginning or end): connection dies.
Two-and-a-half months of this kinda crap. Now, I didn’t complain when there was an 8.75 hour outage because some doofus cut soem fiber by digging where he shouldn’t have. Idiots just do things like that, and since it wasn’t an ISP idiot (as I verified) and I know how hard it can be to locate such improper digs and repair fiber while it’s coming down gully-washers (as it was yesterday), I had no complaint.
But thius intermittent service issue has been ongoing for 2.5 months now, and every service tech who’s come out has verified that the problem’s on the ISP end, not my end.
But. When it works, an 8+mbs download speed with a 700kbs upload speed beats my other “high speed” option, DSL.
Monthly charges for the ONLY DSL available from my location (from a lil mom n pop, 2-exchange POTS “service”):
DSL (128 kbps) w/o [Third World County] Long Distance* $ 55.00 per month with no contract
DSL (256 kbps) w/o [Third World County] Long Distance* $ 60.00 per month with no contract
DSL (512 kbps) w/o [Third World County] Long Distance* $ 67.50 per month with no contract
DSL (1 Meg) w/o [Third World County] Long Distance* $130.00 per month with no contract
DSL (1.5 Meg) w/o [Third World County] Long Distance* $180.00 per month with no contract
Static IP address $ 10.00 per month*Installation Fee of $50.00 applies
With a one-year contract, those prices drop all the way down to $37.50, $43, $50, $80, & $130.
Notice that the fastest potential download “speed” is only about 18% of my usual (when actually connected) download “speed” and the maximum upload “speed” (not listed here) is about 10% of my normal (when actually connected) upload speed. The kicker? When I used to have dialup with the POTS service (again, the only place to get it w/o long distance charges at the time), I had frequent disconnects caused by the POTS lines/telco ISP, and folks I know locally who use ’em for DSL have similar experiences with the (almost non-existant) “technical” expertise exhibited by those implementing the telco’s DSL servicve, so the connection woes I’m experiencing with my curent ISP and what I can in that regard expect were I to get DSL are pretty much a wash.
Oh, my costs with cable internet plus TV service? About what the 1mbs DSL service is alone, in fact, less.
Still, my tightwad’s heart says I’m not getting such a great deal unless I actually get what I pay for. Several days (or maybe just two) in a row of decent service, followed by a week of cutting in and out? Not what I pay for.
*sigh*
Oh. Well. Have to reorder my day AGAIN to be here “between 8:00 and Noon” tomorrow so the tech can come and tell me what they’ve told me over and over and over again… and someday, when I’m old and gray(er) and my beard’s reached my knees, someone will drop by to holler in my then-deaf ears, “It’s all fixed now.”
I hope.
Slight Update: The tech supervisor for this area came out this a.m. and confirmed yet again that there was no problem with my equipment and that the problem was “upstream” from my geographical area (he suspects a service junction he has recommended for repair/replacement more than “many” times in the past… w/o repair or replacement by maintenance–same junction is the likely failure point causing problems in TWO munic=ipalities within his service area). Got a call from a “new division” within customer service an hour after the tech supervisor left asking me to review the record of escalations over the past 2.5 months. *sigh* I corrected several items the caller said were in the record, noted that I have continued to report the SAME issue time and again, although the records this person reviewed with me reported several different “issues” as suposedly reported by me. Record did NOT reflect all the physical, onsite service calls that had been made, along with a few other discrepancies.
*sheesh!* Oh. Well. I do have connectivity right now, but that still doesn’t mean I’ll have it 5 minutes from now.
(Yeh, I know, sad: commenting on my own posts. *heh*)