Centurylink took the worst from Qwest and made it even more. I'd drop them in an instant if there was ANY viable alternative to DSL. I seriously looked at the newer high speed satellite systems, like Skybeam, but their monthly cap on bandwidth usage makes them totally useless for anything other than casual surfing. If you want Netflix for Hulu, forget it you'll use up your monthly quota in about a week or less. If anyone is getting 1.3 down on a CTL DSL line its a very good day. I typically see 700-800K down. NO choice but to wait it out for now and hope someone comes up with an alternative.

I can understand the confusion, but...

Skybeam is land-based microwave transmissions between your small dish or panel, and a series of land microwave repeaters. No Satellite is used.


Wild Blue and HugesNet are the bandwidth-choking services. Also latency makes gaming and VPN and Skype impossible with satellite.

Lazierfan. Your right, my bad. But the "paddles" or dishes are line-of-sight which probably precludes us as we're down in a hallow at the end of Wamblee Valley. I seem to recall several threads about Skybeam being just as bad as CTL in regards to actual bandwidth and outages. I'll look into it though.

Hopefully someday soon Google Fiber could seek a rural setting for roll-out!
http://googlefiberblog.blogspot.com/
Imagine a 1GB internet connection!!!

Sigh. CL will have to send a tech out to our house
and the soonest that will be is Thursday.

One entire week without home Internet
access. Makes me feel grouchy.

Engineer... I know not a lot about this.. . but I too do not like Century Link.. Qwest was bad enough.

But one thing you said strikes home.. nationalizing all telecoms... they were till 1984.. then they broke up ATT and the Bell System.. Judge Green..

may he rot in a cabbage patch.. nothing bad meant of course!



Mr. AC worked for ATT.. for a lonnnng time.. and when the break up occurred it really messed with a lot of workers.. and customers.. prices went up and I understand over the years that they would... however..
ridiculous to have to pay what we do for just local now.

I've had my say... I suppose Greene/Green had his reasons.. but it has really hurt a lot of people... job wise and cost of service wise.

and those techs you work with!

Drives me nuts.. sometimes I know more than they do!

And that is no joke.. but I learned a lot listening and learning from Mr. AC... technologically... I'll share this.. we went to a Christmas party one year
and happened to sit across from a management person.. she came from Human Services.. I talked to her about the current problem from the technological side.. she looked at me and she said "I have no idea what you are talking about.. I admit it.. but I am going to try to learn."

Imagine that.. someone who didn't even work on the tech end knew more
than the manager who supposedly knew "everything."

She was a good person.. really..just knew very little or nothing. Let me verify.. she used to be head of Human Services... but was now head of the tech end for whole building..

I've had good luck with the CenturyLink techs on the few issue's with my account. Had a rather nice conversation with some of the employees. Items resolved reasonably and within expectations.

WarrenK, in addition to Skybeam being radio-based rather than satellite, it has no quota. We replaced our DirecTV with a Roku, and use both Hulu Plus and Netflix every day with no problems. Although we're in Burland, I have a very early long-range unit that points back to Conifer mountain. Can you see that from your place?

Mmm... Century Link. " Hi, where are you speaking to me from?" Sir, this is your CL whatever person, my name is --------. "Yes, you said that twice already. I'm getting the impression that English is not you language of choice, where are you speaking to me from?" Sir, this is CL's offshore technical center, how may I help you? " I've already told you and the two before you how you can help me, my phone and DSL line are out, and I need a tech to come repair the problem." Sir, have you tried installing another phone into the jack, yadayadayada....... "No. As I told you and your co-offshore workers, I had a lightning strike that took everything out, and I don't have a phone on that line." <breathing> THESE PEOPLE ARE MORONS! English as a second language doesn't work, they're reading from prepared scripts, and have zero clue regarding conversational English. To top it all off, CL sent me an email questionairre, to rate my experience. Based on my experience I'm working on working Century Link out of my life. <rant>

Addendum-- they also added an "insurance charge" to my DirecTV bill last month, $5.99. I called and was told they had no idea how that was added... no I didn't pay it.

Waterman.. I really am glad you have had a good experience with Century Link.. maybe it's location.. maybe certain tech groups cover different areas..

thanks for telling us.. good to know that they have served you well.

Always always always nomatter what company you are daeling with, when you call customer support the first thing out of your mouth should be:

" I would like to speak to an on shore rep as close to (name your town and state) as possible, thank you, I will wait."

Saves lots of wear and tear....