FairPoint DSL

[jazzman]

Good news is the island tech called me, I explained the problem and he called someone who fixed it in 10 minutes... Guess they migrated me to another port, but never did the back end setup work to make it live.

Only a monopoly can get away with a 7 day outage for simple crap like this.

It's such a shame we have good LTE up here now, but it's too damned expensive to use.

I can't see the islands ever getting upgraded equipment for anything more then 1.5mbs

[dlucas10]

Originally Posted by jazzman

I can't see the islands ever getting upgraded equipment for anything more then 1.5mbs

It'd be sweet if the US ever got Google Balloon (or some technology similar to it)!

http://www.google.com/loon/

It seems like a great way to get high speed internet to places like islands or rural areas!

FWIW, we have Metrocast at the lake (WAM) and I see issues with it where it'll drop Internet connection. I'm monitoring it now, and if I see it happen on a fairly regular basis then I'll have proof to them about the issues with their services.

Dave

[wifi]

Originally Posted by jazzman

.....I can't see the islands ever getting upgraded equipment for anything more then 1.5mbs

I'm sure it costs Fairpoint more than it makes to supply and support (plant wise) DSL on islands and at remote points. I could give you 10 megs on my little wireless system, but there would be no way to even break even with the ongoing support, never mind recoup the investment I would need to make.

I hope some magical breakthrough happens in technology, or Bill Gates decides to become an island dweller, but I'm not holding my breath.

[jazzman]

Well, the theory is that "utilities" are allowed to be a monopoly and given access to public property (roads, spectrum bandwidth etc.), in exchange for serving the entire public. They're not supposed to be able to cherry pick the most profitable customers and dump the rest.

I'd guess that the islands don't fall into the profitable category.

It seems like the right long term solution is wireless, but at $10/gb it's off by at least a factor of 10 to be useful.

Comcast = ~.20/GB
ATT/Verizon = ~10.00/GB

[wifi]

Originally Posted by jazzman

Well, the theory is that "utilities" are allowed to be a monopoly and given access to public property (roads, spectrum bandwidth etc.), in exchange for serving the entire public. They're not supposed to be able to cherry pick the most profitable customers and dump the rest.

I'd guess that the islands don't fall into the profitable category.

It seems like the right long term solution is wireless, but at $10/gb it's off by at least a factor of 10 to be useful.

Comcast = ~.20/GB
ATT/Verizon = ~10.00/GB

In the perfect Socialist world, if one person in Manchester got fiber,
then everyone in Coos county deserves the same. Coming down
to how it relates to the Lakes Region, lets take a few examples.

Moultonboro first had Amrac cable. Owned by someone that owned a
cable company in another state and a house in a development in town.
They would only run cable to Rt 109, 25, Mboro neck and a few to select
developments. Even Time Warner, today, a sucessor after a few
buyouts has a number of areas they aren't willing to service, yet the town
has them as a monopoly.

Take Tamworth, another town in the lakes region family, Time Warner only
ran cable to the most populated areas, the others are left to their own
resources. Trying to abbreviate this as much as possible.

Lets take a contrast, Alexandria for example. They required that everyone
with a power drop also have a cable outlet at the closest pole to every
building. Hence, even the remotest shack anywhere in town has an
outlet a pole distance away. That is Metrocast territory. Then there is
Sandwich, they required the same, and Time Warner has declined to
service any area of town.

So, whats with Fairpoint servicing islands at an obvious loss.... Well, when
they agreed to buy out Verizon, they had to agree to connect 90% (this is
a close guess.... someone can Google this) of the state, regardless of
their location. Indeed it took them a few years, but they are almost at
that point. They are doing this at a loss to get the states copper landline
business.

One other point, which is current technology. Suissevale, in Moultonboro
(very, very dense funnel development) was afforded a early DSL. This
was back when cable wasn't TW, but Adelphia (if memory serves me right),
they had 4M speeds max and Verizon had a fiber linked terminal box in the
middle of the development, this was 15 years ago. Verizon topped out in
the old DSL at 3M and they sold it at quite a discount. Well, in the last 15
years, Time Warner will offer 50M (if you can afford it) and Verizon (now
Fairpoint) will not upgrade to their new new technology, which will support
15M. Can you blame them? Why pay to install their new gear at 15M
when people can get 50M ? Why should Fairpoint pay anything at all,
since the area qualifies in their 90% area?

So back to Islands, the original thread. Take Welch, Fairpoint is meeting
their commitment to the PUC, no reason to upgrade, when outer
mongolia, NH has nothing and that can increase their % yield for their
PUC commitment. Whatever anyone has with Fairpoint is where they will
stay, unless there is an external factor....

Sorry to bore