Disqus - Latest Comments for dmccarty

Re: A closer look at rural broadband

dmccarty — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 13:55:26 -0000

Rural america has an immage of a farmer with 80 acres and a few cows. Rural america consists of many of corporate america that can afford to live in the country. These highly skilled and qualified individuals need broadband deployment more than the inner city projects but are treated as second class citizens. The broadband provider that addresses the rural customer is going to make a lot of money. For example, I run two businesses out of my home in rural Portland, Oregon. The cable company does not serve our sub-division. I am 10,000 feet from a Verizon Remote that is fed by T1 instead of fiber so ADSL is not available. Our city of Newberg is completely FIOS, but I and another 125 customers in my rural area, are forced to use Sattelite DSL which is half the speed of smell. Our cables and terminals are in a disaray because if it doesn't say fiber Verizon does not maintain it. Because of poor maintenance practices we are not getting the Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) quality that we are paying for. When will I see fiber to my home? Not in my lifetime.

Re: Verizon's FiOS effect on Cablevision still invisible

dmccarty — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:12:11 -0000

Ah, but I love the competition. Prices come down and channel selection goes up. Any cable TV provider offering of one premium channel for every 50 worthless channels shouldn't be in the business. What good are 900 channels when only 50 channels are worth watching. Quality providers should provide quality service at a reasonable price. Hopefully Verison is listening to the consumer.

Re: Broadband stimulus puzzle

dmccarty — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 20:31:27 -0000

rural areas get subsidies for Plain Old Telephone Service.(dial tone). Companies like Verizon cherry pick high density areas for the triple play fiber to the home and abandon the rural subscriber. if a company is going to offer a service it should be to all customers. the government subsidised POTS and they need to subsidise broadband for the rural subscriber.