by admin » Fri Oct 08, 2010 12:48 pm
Wireless: Verizon may eventually become a factor but right now I don't see any achievements in their wireless. At one meeting with their management group, they said there wouldn't be any expansion of services in the valley because they "Couldn't recoup their investment fast enough to justify improvements costs, what we had was all we'd get." They may have changed their tune with competition rumored but ATT seems to be the valley power tower at this point in time. They bought Xingular a while back, which was the only wireless that worked well the majority of time in the valley. Huge people draws like Whiskey Flat and seasonal crowd bursts for recreation would wreak havoc on the system, sometimes knocking out credit card, ATM and communication services for brief periods. There is talk of other options coming but I've been involved in the mix with various committees and organizations for many years and there always seems to be something blocking progress. A big rural communications stimulus was also supposedly doled that we might piggy back on and take us out of the dark ages but haven't heard anything further.
As far as your broadband post: They still haven't got clearance to lay the cable from Inyo-Kern to Onyx so they can link in at that point. Fibre-optic line has been strung at most major areas of the valley but doesn't help if they can't connect to the outside world. Current semi-reliable broadband is still going through overburdened leased Verizon phone lines and the Mediacom waiting list has to be well over 700, if not over a thousand now. I'd guesstimate that at least 40% of valley Internet users are still on dial-up...if they haven't opted for satellite.
Got 2 cans and some string?