Remote terminal?
DSL Availability
DSL availability is usually figured out by distance from the CO right? (Rhetorical question) The family that lives around the corner from me has Road Runner, their promo ended now they’re complaining $45 is too much to pay for internet. Somehow they found out Verizon now offers DSL in our area for $20 or $30. I verified it myself using Verizon’s website, but how can this be when we are 17.3 miles away (MapQuest Miles, not as the crow flies) from the Verizon CO that’s located a few towns over? They’re tying to talk me into switching so they can get a referral right off that bat, yeah right, that won’t happen. I have absolutely no interest in switching to DSL, I’m just wondering how is it possible that we get DSL being so far away from the central office?
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The quickest way I get the telemarketers from Bell South around here to shut up about DSL superiority is to ask them to guarantee in writing what they are offering. They won't do it. All they can do is say "up to" when quoting speed. DSL is great when that's all you can get. But Cable delivers. Expensive? Maybe but around here, for same bandwidth, it is 1/3 the price of DSL. If your friends can swing the cost, they should just stay with cable modem. But if that is the real problem then they need to pay less for way less depending on their location. DSL is a crap shoot!
I think it would be more accurate to say "from the nearest digital point of presence" than "from the Central Office." Obviously, Verizon has a digital POP closer to you than the CO.
This is the first I've ever heard of remote terminals, I did some quick research and that makes sense.
Don, as much as I'd love to keep these guys on cable, they have big money issues, it's all due to their own fault and I don't feel sorry for them, but all they see is $19.99 versus $44.95. They don’t care about nothing else. When they tried to get me to switch they said 'that's a lot of money to save every month'. I pay $69.95 a month for 15Mb I'm not going to downgrade myself to 3Mb or worse yet 768Kb to save a few bucks a month. It would be like going back to dial up for me.
Don, as much as I'd love to keep these guys on cable, they have big money issues, it's all due to their own fault and I don't feel sorry for them, but all they see is $19.99 versus $44.95. They don’t care about nothing else. When they tried to get me to switch they said 'that's a lot of money to save every month'. I pay $69.95 a month for 15Mb I'm not going to downgrade myself to 3Mb or worse yet 768Kb to save a few bucks a month. It would be like going back to dial up for me.
Around here the average DSL Bell South customer is lucky to get 200kb with a few getting 3 times that. I know because I run into it all the time with my clients who are on it and can't watch my videos in real time. Then I show up at their business with my laptop on EVDO, or evem my cell phone on EVDO and demonstrate how you need at minimum 350kb for most internet video. But your people are correct, most don't need to be spending what we do for bandwidth. While I have no need here for 15mb download, even with several computers pounding the net, my provisioned 6 Mb and 1.5 upload is fine for now. I believe gamers online like the additional bandwidth.
A friend who works at Verizon told me they put in a fiber optics link that provides my phone service. There is equipment nearby that converts the light pulses into Voice and DSL.
When I signed up for DSL, Verizon was charging me $34 a month and my downlink speed was 720,000 bits per second. When they started advertising that speed for $15 a month I asked them to either increase my speed or lower my bill. A very nice CSR told me they couldn't increase my speed so she lowered my bill.
I find the service to be adequate for my needs and consider it to be a very good value.
--- CHAS
When I signed up for DSL, Verizon was charging me $34 a month and my downlink speed was 720,000 bits per second. When they started advertising that speed for $15 a month I asked them to either increase my speed or lower my bill. A very nice CSR told me they couldn't increase my speed so she lowered my bill.
I find the service to be adequate for my needs and consider it to be a very good value.
--- CHAS
Generally, 720kb is quite adequate for most single users doing simple text surfing with small graphics. Add video and sound downloads at some websites and you'll want twice that. When you need more than about 1.5 Mb is due to multiple users pounding the net at the same time. Add two or more pounders downloading video and soon you will see why some are clamoring for 8-10 Mb from their ISP.
Personally, I might be downloading a 25-100 Mb file sets of podcasts to my PDA, while I am uploading some video files to my server on another computer, then surfing the web on another while my wife is working, surfing, on another. For all that activity, we don't notice too much slowdown and I pay for a guaranteed fixed data download of 6.0 Mb here. I pay a little more but it is a commercial account with mission critical status flag and it is guranteed that rate constantly or they credit my account.
Personally, I might be downloading a 25-100 Mb file sets of podcasts to my PDA, while I am uploading some video files to my server on another computer, then surfing the web on another while my wife is working, surfing, on another. For all that activity, we don't notice too much slowdown and I pay for a guaranteed fixed data download of 6.0 Mb here. I pay a little more but it is a commercial account with mission critical status flag and it is guranteed that rate constantly or they credit my account.
I switched from Comcast $42+ dollars per month to Verizon DSL $29 per month. I live 11,800 feet from the Central Office and my connection is 2.8M download and 560k up load. I have read that DSL is up to 18-27k feet from the CO. Depends whether you get ADSL or IDSL. Included in the $29 dollar deal, Verizon gives you a wired/wireless router that works very nice. I have 3 laptops wireless and 1 desktop wired and 1 printer wired to the network. Only catch is you must have Verizon Telephone service. Verizon also offers a $17 DSL plan. I have a friend who has it and is very happy, even though the speed is less. You can check your distance from the CO at dslreports.com
Kirkman-
Thanks for the dslreports site. Just checked mine and it reports 12660 ft. and three services available
144/144; and two at 384/384. Pretty pathetic! I'll stick with Comcast at 6Mbps guaranteed, residential at 10Mb not guranteed. Those are the services here.
A few years ago, my daughter had DSL in her Apartment in South FL. I was impressed with the speed and it was 1.8 Mbps but when I checked the upload it was at 12 kbps. I called the phone company and they said that is the way they provisioned the service and was normal. However, she did fine with it and shared the service with 2 other college roommates. It was just a bit slow sending the rts for each URL request.
Thanks for the dslreports site. Just checked mine and it reports 12660 ft. and three services available
144/144; and two at 384/384. Pretty pathetic! I'll stick with Comcast at 6Mbps guaranteed, residential at 10Mb not guranteed. Those are the services here.
A few years ago, my daughter had DSL in her Apartment in South FL. I was impressed with the speed and it was 1.8 Mbps but when I checked the upload it was at 12 kbps. I called the phone company and they said that is the way they provisioned the service and was normal. However, she did fine with it and shared the service with 2 other college roommates. It was just a bit slow sending the rts for each URL request.
Damn, 384Kb down, that’s pretty bad! Time Warner just increased speeds here 10Mb (up from 7Mb) for Road Runner and 15Mb (up from 8Mb) for Road Runner Premium. RR is $39.95 with Cable TV or $44.95 without. RR Premium ranges from $64.95 - $84.95 depending on what other services you have. Most TW markets that have seen speed increases have also seen dramatic price DECREASES on Premium. While I would be grateful, I hope that is not the case here. Last thing I want is for the Premium service to be $5 or $10 bucks more than standard, then have everyone opt for Premium and bog the network down using their full allotted bandwidth on Bit Torrent downloads. I have no problem paying $70 for internet, I used to pay $85. Keep Premium priced high enough so only those who really want the speed will get it.
The extra speed comes in handy for downloading Linux distros and TV series off of iTunes. I can’t imagine how long it would take on the almighty Verizon’s DSL service. It’s also nice being able to stream 196K audio, while downloading music, while downloading Microsoft Updates, while surfing the web and have no slowdowns in sight. Beep Beep
The extra speed comes in handy for downloading Linux distros and TV series off of iTunes. I can’t imagine how long it would take on the almighty Verizon’s DSL service. It’s also nice being able to stream 196K audio, while downloading music, while downloading Microsoft Updates, while surfing the web and have no slowdowns in sight. Beep Beep
I was way out on the fringe of DSL getting a reasonably reliable 768K. But I had to pay $49/mo to get it (comparable to cable but I didn't want to give any money to Adelphia). Verizon wouldn't believe that I was in range until my dial-up ISP proved it to them so I felt obligated to give the ISP my business, at least for a while.
Well, Verizon now had 15Mbps fiber for $44. Guess where I went?
Well, Verizon now had 15Mbps fiber for $44. Guess where I went?
DSLreports can't take into account that you are behind a RT.. they use the figures that the incumbent phone company puts into the system that they are allowed to pull from and that figure is almost always the copper distance from your home/business directly to the CO.
The Remote Terminal approach solves at least a few problems for the incumbent phone company.. they don't have to dedicate rack space in a CO for the now-numerous pieces of equipment required to service dsl (called a DSLAM), they don't have to maintain aging copper to each home (2 pairs of fiber is all that is required to give a RT a redundant connection to multiple CO's), and the important thing..
The incumbent phone company isn't required to allow third party carriers to have a presence in these RT's.. they are just too small. This last part is the main reason why there just isn't any real competition available for folks who live closer to the RT than the CO.
The Remote Terminal approach solves at least a few problems for the incumbent phone company.. they don't have to dedicate rack space in a CO for the now-numerous pieces of equipment required to service dsl (called a DSLAM), they don't have to maintain aging copper to each home (2 pairs of fiber is all that is required to give a RT a redundant connection to multiple CO's), and the important thing..
The incumbent phone company isn't required to allow third party carriers to have a presence in these RT's.. they are just too small. This last part is the main reason why there just isn't any real competition available for folks who live closer to the RT than the CO.
It could be worse. You could end up like me in the middle of no where and the only high speed option is ISDN. I pay $60 a month for my ISDN line plus $30 a month for the internet service. And thats only @ 128kbps! But I work from home sometimes and take online learning courses so dial-up simply won't do. Especially around here where there is excessive noise in the lines and the best dialup speed you can get is 26.4kbps.
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