FCC opened a case against CenturyLink

@MikeInOr

I'm glad to here you're getting some attention. We hope it leads to results.

However, you left out a CRITICAL bit of information. How does one go about getting the attention of the FCC?

I had a friend in Grass Valley, CA who had a similar story to yours. Suddenlink was/is the service provider there (95949). Service was out on a whole cul-de-sac (10 or 12 residences) for months. My friend sold the place and relocated before the cable was fixed so I don't know if or how it was resolved.
 
Frontier is our "provider", but the story is the same. No other options except satellite if you can afford it. My neighbor has been without phone service for 15 months, his internet finally went down 2 months ago. He was told the problem was between the local junction and his house. Because we are on a private road, they won't replace it, he has to dig it up. They finally came out and marked so he would know where to dig. They were kind enough to provide the wire and will connect him up once he has everything in place.

Someday I hope to live in a civilized country.
 
One of the issues I’ve encountered is that many services don’t take anything seriously unless it starts with a disconnection request. I had that issue with comcast, start every conversation with “I’m calling to disconnect my service”. They gave a special one or two year rate for internet service, then jacked it up to some ridiculous rate. Call for service disconnect and get another year or two special rate. When service doesn’t work, call to disconnect and suddenly they have a tech on site. I think this has become standard practice to the extent that every one expects it. I even read an article somewhere that there is a whole marketing/business concept based around maximizing how poorly you can treat customers before driving them off.
 
I had century linkless and got rid of them. The modem that they had us use died. Service was lousy anyway, so I decided to try our local fiber optic outfit. Hugh difference! Wife and I decided to keep just phone service. CL kept charging us for the internet even though our modem was broken and we did not want it any way. Finally after several on hold phone calls, I told them to take out their line as we now got cell. A month later, a guy comes to my door and says he can get me cheaper service. I asked him where is their office. He told me that I had to call a personnel rep in India or Lower Slobovia. Told him to get lost. It is real nice to be able to talk to a real person in a office in our town.
 
rabler said:
One of the issues I’ve encountered is that many services don’t take anything seriously unless it starts with a disconnection request.
Click to expand...
Century Link didn't even flinch when I called them to disconnect my service. All they said was okay it will be discontinued at the end of the day and to make sure I sent back the modem and cables or I would be charged 200 dollars.
 
Similar rural internet story here, with a twist.

Moved to WA a couple of decades ago. The choice was dial-up modem (0.056 MBPS!) or Hughes Net. We did dial-up for short while but then put in Hughes Net. Come to find out, it does not work with VPN, which is what I needed to get to work from home. I had called Century link to ask about DSL and they said it was not available in my area.

A year later I was having land-line issues and the technician that came out happened to mention that I should dump Hughes and get ISDN, which was available (and had been for years). Because I needed VPN to work, even slowly, I went to ISDN. It was reliable and worked very well, as long as there was no great hurry for downloads. This was before Netflix and other streaming became much of a thing.

A couple of years later I happened to run into a local Century Link technician at a neighborhood picnic. We talked a bit and I asked if it was possible to bridge 2 x ISDN lines together. He said "ISDN? Why would you be using that? Just get DSL, it has been available out here for years." So, the next day I called CL again. Same response. "Not available at your address." I persisted, dropped the technician's name and asked for them to get in touch. Long story short, I had DSL one week later. I could have had it from the start. Their database is just not up to date on our area. Over the last 15 years I've coached several new neighbors through the "DSL getting process". They still have not updated their database to this day.

So, DSL has been very reliable here. Once, a few years ago I started having connection issues and they quickly changed our connection over to a new pair of wires because it tested out better than the wires we were on. At that point the technician put in an order to remove any sort of throttling. My speed is now "as fast as it can go" given the line length and signal quality. It worked out to be about 12 MBPS. Reasonable for the long line we are on. Slow by "high speed internet" standards.

So, my CL experience has been mixed. Having run into a great local tech., armed with his cell number, we lucked out. I am toying with trying Starlink. I could use enough bandwidth for a Netflix stream while my wife is on Zoom etc. Right now, it is limited one bandwidth hog at a time.

To be continued... Join our story next year as I break out the chain saw to take out the tallest trees so I can "see" the satellites better...
 
When we were having problems with our Qwest (before Centurylink) phone, and getting no response from our calls of repair, my brother complained that it was like a Third World phone service. I told him that it was worse - in the Third World, you can bribe someone to fix your phone!

I am one of those who is stuck with no alternative to Centurylink. There is a possibility of fiber being extended our direction by a local Co-Op, and I've told them that I am VERY interested! I would have to say that we have had pretty good luck with CL, but every line from the house to the paved public road has been replaced by me (or my Business) since 1995. It does help that the line to my house also serves a rock quarry and also the water intake station for the local municipality.
 
For those who are considering Starlink, wait till they have more satellites up. In some cases, the coverage is not continuous.
 
For the Original Poster: the State of Oregon has a Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which is authorized to regulate public utilities that operate within the State. Based on it's performance, for the last 50 years, I have called it the "Practically Useless Commission."
 
I have had a lot of problems with AT&T. Finally got away from them and have a WiFi service. but it is a nightmare as there are too many people on the system in my area so the system does a restart constantly. Just drops you and you have to wait for the system to reboot.

Some have gone to the Starlink and love it. Yest it is pricey at $500 up front and then you wait for your turn. From what I have read, it costs them around $1500 to build the systems that you are paying $500 for. They hope to drop the cost as technology and volumes increase. The carry on cost, I can't remember, but it didn't seem out of line. My problem is with our boat under cover I don't have a clear shot at the sky. But will be moving to our retirement home in the months ahead where I most like will only have Starlink to draw from. That is fine as I will need it to continue to work from home and to run my side business. Price of staying connected.
 
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