Comments on: Bringing DSL to West Virginia: Will Frontier Provide the Service Verizon Never Did?

By: Stop the Cap! » Approve Verizon-Frontier Deal Because Frontier Can’t Do Any Worse for West Virginia?

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 01:35:01 +0000

[...] service that tops out at 7Mpbs, if you live in an urban area. Those that don’t have often waited years for Verizon to extend DSL service into their communities or neighborhoods. It’s a problem common in mountainous, often rural states like West Virginia where [...]

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:06:58 +0000

Never let facts stand in the way of a good yarn. Ask Ms. Carpenter Peaks who her new DSL is working, the service that was turned up after months of work just after this post. And no one from Verizon ever told any community in WV that their neighborhood would get DSL if they just pony up $100k. The fact is, Morgan County needed DSL. Their county leaders, and citizens expressing themselves in more, ah, subtle ways, sought more DSL. Verizon is delivering now. Working with folks. The main problem in their area with Frontier is that they do a better job of getting DSL to their customers — 92-94% versus 60% at Verizon.

The protest was in front of a completely unmanned building, and regardless of how you spin it, this and the protest was about the one customer wanting high speed Internet, not anything more.

By: Phillip Dampier

Phillip Dampier — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 02:01:32 +0000

Thanks for the correction. I will adjust the article appropriately.

By: Primus

Primus — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 20:43:58 +0000

Just a note, it’s Hawaiian Telcom, not Hawaii Telecom.

And there’s a very interesting story that you’ve just touched on. 4 years down the line from Verizon fleeing the state, Hawaiian Telcom is still in bankruptcy reorganization, is losing customers hand-over-fist, and still has appalling customer service. I was lucky I “cut the cord” a year or so before this all went down.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:30:07 +0000

Hey Me:
I don’t think Frontier wants to be digging thing up. If you have a pair of
phone wires you should be able to get some sort of net connection.
I agree there are plenty of places with 200,000+ in small areas with
no fiber. Rochester is a example of that but like electricity fiber providers
take the path of least resistance. Many of those cities or areas want a big
chunk of the monthly pie including huge license fees and they want their
entire government systems wired and serviced for free, libraries, public
access, etc. Fiber is a hot item right now and they can afford to just skip
over any city that makes business a real pain for them. They got years of
digging going already. There should be national rules and guidlines
so no town, city, or state can come up with their own set of rules
that usually conflict with each other and slow down the process.

By: me

me — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:23:30 +0000

The reason they have not ‘ditched’ these areas until now is the universal service fund. They have been enjoying the money party that entailed. Now that gravy train is start to come to an end they are finding ways to move out and foist it on someone else.

But if they have to dig it up anyway to put in better wires for better DSL why not put in fiber or both?

Also saying there is 35 houses per square mile make it sound like all the houses are evenly spaced. I would be willing to bet it is like much of the rest of the country with small town clumps and a few houses a few miles outside of ‘town’. If we keep feeding into their propaganda (which is what this meme is) it will never get done. There are cities that have 200k people and do not have fiber? This is about milking that infrastructure ma-bell built in the 40s-60s. I am beginning to think DSL was the worst broadband invention ever. As all it did was let the providers continue to sell the same sub standard service and call it premium.

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:01:45 +0000

Ok Paul, so you want the phone company to flip the bill on that? Come on man, I can see why they don’t want to do it. It is a money pit for them. If WV’s want broadband, they are going to have to do it themselves. Might as well think ahead and install fiber instead of DSL. That way, when you are done building the network, it won’t be outdated and antiquated which would cause the same problem a few more years down the road because people will want more and we would be back to people complaining about inferior service yet again. Yes the start up isn’t going to be cheap but you don’t have to do it all at one time and also there is the broadband stimulus that could help with the situation. But think about when they get it up and running. It would be state of the art for one. Two, they would recoup the costs I think rather quickly by offering TV, internet, and phone service to the area. Three, it will be more attractive to prospective businesses to locate there. The name of the game is foresight and if you don’t have any in the technology game you are dead in the water.

By: Uncle Ken

Uncle Ken — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 10:35:36 +0000

Don’t write off DSL just yet. In many areas that is all your going to get. Housing at 35 per square mile? Think about it from their point of view pure economics. Millions spent and even then not all 35 are going to sigh on. Morally good but economically a disaster for a provider. They want a quick return on their investment and as a business they deserve that. They are not going to get that return where signal mirrors, smoke signals, and drum beats are the main forms of communications. DSL can provide a service given you have a phone line. It may not be very fast but most of us here remember dial up and it was a thrill to connect to the rest of the world back then no matter how long it took. Now everyone wants 50/20 speed. That is not going to happen to some small area of West Virginia nor the three other states here in NE nor much of the inter United States because it can not provide a quick turn around to the billions providers would have to spend. Obama wants broadband for the entire country he better start providing the money for the necessary infrastructure required except all the money goes to banks who just hold onto the money or the 3 week long construction projects. Making your own high speed loops around you area is a good idea except the providers are going to fight you every inch of the way and that can be settled in Washington but the lobby is too big. Ill be blunt, As CEO of Verizon I would have ditched these one stop light 2 stop light towns YEARS ago and I question Frontier on their march sucking up all these poor unpopulated areas but at least the phone wires are there. Let’s see who wins in the end.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 04:09:25 +0000

“DSL is a dying technology. They would be better off doing what the City of Wilson, NC did and install fiber instead through the government. That way, they could recoup the cost of install through subscriber usage just like the City of Wilson, NC”

Ok Tim.

Morgan County:

230 Square Miles. 8,000 housing units 35 per square mile.

City of Wilson:

23.3 Square miles. 18,660 housing units 801.3 per square mile

You are comparing apples with Ferrets. Do you have any idea of the cost of laying fiber, where is the money coming from?

By: Tim

Tim — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 03:31:50 +0000

DSL is a dying technology. They would be better off doing what the City of Wilson, NC did and install fiber instead through the government. That way, they could recoup the cost of install through subscriber usage just like the City of Wilson, NC.