I honestly don't know where to begin with this.
Actually, I'll begin at the beginning. Why not?
Let's rewind to 1998. About 18 years ago, as my mom recalls (and CenturyLink has actually confirmed, though I wouldn't trust them alone for reasons that will become painfully obvious later), CenturyTel starts offering internet services where we live, and my mom becomes a CenturyTel customer. She receives her 56k modem and sets it up, hooking into the two Windows 98 machines my mom and my older brother had at the time with a powerful 128MB of RAM each. I suppose they thought this was awesome (keep in mind that I was only about -4 years old back then) at the time. I mean, the way I understand it, 56k was really the best you could get for home use back then. Also, talking to people from around the world?! No way!
Anyway...
I was born in 2002, and remember having dial-up until I was 6. (This is where it starts to get a little fucked up, since I had dial-up since 2008.) At this point, I started getting really into computers. It wasn't until I was 11 that I really started to realize just how shitty our internet is, so I thought our new DSL internet was extremely fast just because it was an improvement. CenturyTel has "evolved" into CenturyLink!
Needless to say, I was very naïve.
From this time to 2011, we had a nice phone/internet repair dude working in our area that my mom quickly became friends with. Well, as I remember it, one day, he said, "Fuck, man. 768Kbps. How do you guys even LIVE? You know, I'm gonna put you guys in the testing T-span so you get a slightly faster speed. Don't tell anyone."
During these three years, I remember watching YouTube in 1080p just fine. Now I can barely stream 144p.
Eventually, this guy quits working at CenturyLink and moves to Florida. In a few weeks, our internet goes back down to fucking horseshit. I don't remember how I didn't notice it, but I think all I did back then was go to school and play on my DS and Wii. Good times, I guess.
Now, go to 2013 or so, when I start acquiring many of my own computers and start using internet a lot more.
This is where it all starts clicking for me.
From 2013 onward, I start learning more and more about this, well, situation.
What I Learned:
The main issue with all of this, and perhaps the most complicated, most overlooked, and least understood one, is the permanent bandwidth exhaust.
As much as I hate Facebook, this explains it pretty well, and shows that I am not alone in this.
We're just fucked, basically.
So, yeah, that about covers it. My mom has literally called them 961 times(!) to date. We have gotten nowhere. They have no plans to ever fix it. Fuck CenturyLink. I'm tired now.
Actually, I'll begin at the beginning. Why not?
Let's rewind to 1998. About 18 years ago, as my mom recalls (and CenturyLink has actually confirmed, though I wouldn't trust them alone for reasons that will become painfully obvious later), CenturyTel starts offering internet services where we live, and my mom becomes a CenturyTel customer. She receives her 56k modem and sets it up, hooking into the two Windows 98 machines my mom and my older brother had at the time with a powerful 128MB of RAM each. I suppose they thought this was awesome (keep in mind that I was only about -4 years old back then) at the time. I mean, the way I understand it, 56k was really the best you could get for home use back then. Also, talking to people from around the world?! No way!
Anyway...
I was born in 2002, and remember having dial-up until I was 6. (This is where it starts to get a little fucked up, since I had dial-up since 2008.) At this point, I started getting really into computers. It wasn't until I was 11 that I really started to realize just how shitty our internet is, so I thought our new DSL internet was extremely fast just because it was an improvement. CenturyTel has "evolved" into CenturyLink!
Needless to say, I was very naïve.
From this time to 2011, we had a nice phone/internet repair dude working in our area that my mom quickly became friends with. Well, as I remember it, one day, he said, "Fuck, man. 768Kbps. How do you guys even LIVE? You know, I'm gonna put you guys in the testing T-span so you get a slightly faster speed. Don't tell anyone."
During these three years, I remember watching YouTube in 1080p just fine. Now I can barely stream 144p.
Eventually, this guy quits working at CenturyLink and moves to Florida. In a few weeks, our internet goes back down to fucking horseshit. I don't remember how I didn't notice it, but I think all I did back then was go to school and play on my DS and Wii. Good times, I guess.
Now, go to 2013 or so, when I start acquiring many of my own computers and start using internet a lot more.
This is where it all starts clicking for me.
From 2013 onward, I start learning more and more about this, well, situation.
What I Learned:
- CenturyLink is really the only ISP available here.
- As I said quite emphatically in my first blog entry:
Petraplexity's Plerplexitally Plerfect Plog said:- CenturyLink mainly operates in small areas where it can oversell the area, creating bandwidth exhaust.
- HughesNet is available in Roscoe, but I live in just the perfect position to where we don't get any exposure to any of their satellites.
- As I said quite emphatically in my first blog entry:
- We get 768Kbps internet (about 90KB/s)/
- This speed is fucking terrible.
- It's the highest package available here.
- Roscoe suffers from permanent bandwidth exhaust (covering this below).
- CenturyLink fucking sucks.
- More stuff that I can't remember right now...
The main issue with all of this, and perhaps the most complicated, most overlooked, and least understood one, is the permanent bandwidth exhaust.
As much as I hate Facebook, this explains it pretty well, and shows that I am not alone in this.
We're just fucked, basically.
So, yeah, that about covers it. My mom has literally called them 961 times(!) to date. We have gotten nowhere. They have no plans to ever fix it. Fuck CenturyLink. I'm tired now.
