Re: No pain, no pair gain?

krw wrote:

... It might be possible to bitch enough to get them to fix the problem (but distance may still be a problem). If there is cable available this is good leverage too.

The motivation of the phone company to grant such wishes will likely be low. First, they are usually a monopoly, so there is no competition except cell phone. Second, they do not make money off dial-up customers. On the contrary, if that customer uses a local dial-in node of an ISP not related to the phone company they won't even make money for the many hours of line time.

They are *not* a monopoly anymore and getting less so every year (and they know it). As you've pointed out one may have the option of cell phones (we went that route), but there is also cable Internet (went there too) and Vonage (not there - no need). If it's in an area that these alternatives might work l'il Missy Bell might be *very* motivated, since they're sucking swamp water. It can't hurt to twist some levers. The worst that can happen is a "sorry". The OP has already been told that he can get DSL. Add on Vonage and...


It's coming and may be that way some day, but in many areas not right now. Cell out here would become quite expensive if you'd ditch the land line. Just imagine you'd have to dial into the web when broadband is down. You'd hear a loud slurp and that were your "free" minutes. Gone. Cable, yes we have that but IMHO they aren't very smart in marketing and I bet Missy Bell knows that. They always tout their cheap fast Internet but when you want to take them up on it a wee footnote is in the way: You must subscribe to their TV deal to get that rate, else it's higher than Missy Bell's. Nah, not going to do that. That isn't what I call competition.

Same with TV. We don't have cable, don't want any. But Missy Bell desires part of that pie so now they want to break into that market which, whether we want it or not, is a de-facto monopoly. Meaning currently they can't. Which means the cable company can pretty much set their prices as they please.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
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