[Cialug] [Slightly OT] High-speed DSL availability in DSM metro

[bofh at visi.com]

Lucky you.

Last November, I spoke with the CSR/sales person at 
Qwest's Jordan Creek Mall kiosk.  She told me more than 
I'd heard over the past couple of years:

1) Qwest had a DSL upgrade plan for the past couple of 
years.  However, the floods of 2008 decimated much of 
their infrastructure along the Cedar River (think Charles 
City through Iowa City), and the majority--if not all--of 
their capital budget from '08-'10 was blown on 
rebuild/replace.

2) Qwest is no longer Qwest. Qwest is merging with (read, 
being acquired by) CenturyLink, and Iowa was the first 
utilities board to approve the merger. Other Qwest service 
states' util boards are following rapidly.  The company to 
be acquired almost always goes on a spending freeze. 
(http://news.qwest.com/IowaApproval) 

Although CenturyLink is promising to spend "a minimum $25 
million in broadband deployment in Iowa over the next 5 
years", I'll believe it when I see it.  Of course, 
CenturyLink's residential Internet page lists their 
highest speed at 10 Mb/s.



On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:36:35 -0600 PAUL COWLEY 
<pncowley at msn.com> wrote:
> 
> What I don't quite understand is why Qwest seems so unwilling to make ANY investment into their 
>infrastructure, even in core areas where the payoff should be relatively fast.
> Paul
> KB7VML
> 
>> From: bofh at visi.com
>> To: cialug at cialug.org
>> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 13:19:31 -0600
>> Subject: Re: [Cialug] [Slightly OT] High-speed DSL 
>>availability in DSM metro
>> 
>> I just called Qwest, and received the runaround again: 
>> "With the New Year, they're looking at upgrades, but we 
>> don't know where or when".  As I told them, I dislike 
>> Mediacom (left them due to the outages), but I'm about 
>> ready to leave Qwest--and will drop the voice line.
>> 
>> Seems like everyplace I go outside the Des Moines metro 
>> area has no problem with getting high-speed (7 Mb/s+) 
>> connections--metros and rural areas alike. Des Moines 
>>has 
>> become an even worse technology backwater than it was.
>> 
>> 
>> On Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:53:09 -0600
>> jrnosee <jrnosee at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > I concur. I live on the border of Waukee and 
>>Clive/Urbandale. Every time I check it says I'm only able 
>>to get a 1.5 > connection.  (Although I have gotten some 
>>reports that it may be due to no open 7mbps+ ports free 
>>on our
>> > DSLAM?!).
>> > 
>> > I REALLY want to drop Mediacom. We loose our 
>>connection or most of our bandwidth on cable at the drop 
>>of a 
>> > hat. I got home Monday night to .9mbps downstream. 
>>0.9!!!!! on a 12mbps connection! Does anyone know any 
>> > outdoor cable monkeys for mediacom? They were supposed 
>>to come put a new line in for us MONTHS ago and 
>> > never did. They just keep sending the indoor guys who 
>>scratch their (butts) heads and say "well, it's fine 
>> > right now."
>> > 
>> > Seriously... Any takers? $20 on that being the outcome 
>>of yet ANOTHER mediacom appointment I've got 
>> > tomorrow morning.
>> > 
>> > At least they dropped my price for all the hassle I've 
>>had.
>> 
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