Byte by Bite

Discussion on Faster Internet Needs Support

by Marv Dealy

It turns out that it occasionally does pay to keep banging away, even when you’re not sure anyone is listening.

I got a call this week from Mark Thornton, who is, of course, the District 4 county supervisor. I’ve known Mark for years – met him as a fellow judge at a chili cook-off. When I got the call from Mark my first instinct was what’d I say? as Mark and I don’t always agree.

It turns out Mark is a recent convert to the cause of faster Internet, having finally gotten DSL installed at his place in South County. “I’d always thought that because they were government PDFs, that was jut how slow they downloaded,” he told me. “With the new DSL line, which is on all the time, I can be on the Internet and talk on the phone at the same time, which is great, and the PDFs download in just a few minutes.”

I asked Mark if he hadn’t availed himself of the fast Internet in other places and he allowed as to how, no, he hadn’t. And he hadn’t understood entirely what all the fuss about lack of broadband Internet was all about until he got his DSL.

Well, don’t you know that Mark has been working the past 6 weeks or so with SB&T (formerly AT&T and SBC) and they are sending some talking heads to a supervisors meeting on April 11th to explain what their plans are for broadband and communications in general in the County.

Put it on your calendars: Mark says it’s agendized for 10:30 am. Show up in force and demonstrate to SB&T that We Want Our DSL.

It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a business owner, if you want and can’t get DSL come on down and join the crowd. If you’re trying to work from home and avoid the commute to the Bay Area or Sacramento and are sick and tired of struggling with barb-wire-fed dialup, come on down. Or if you just can’t stomach paying $50 or more per month plus hundreds more for wireless or satellite Internet service, come on down. After the show maybe we can all go to lunch.

I don’t know what the talking heads will tell us, but it’s kind of hard to imagine them not having something to offer when they show up. You’ll remember that they just recently began to quietly offer and install DSL in the Phoenix Lake to Crystal Falls area. Let’s see what they’ve got for the rest of us.

The “yes, you can have DSL, now you can’t” light has been flashing madly in South County recently. Reader Bob Oakley reports that he has been obsessively logging onto the phone company’s web site (just type sbc.com and you’ll get to the new site) where you can select whether you’re inquiring as a residential or business customer, then enter your phone number to check for availability of DSL Internet service.

Bob reports that one minute, the web site will confirm that he’s eligible for DSL and actually accept his order, and the next minute the order is cancelled. Sounds somewhat like the wizard behind the green curtain is spinning deliriously in circles, whacking away at this and that button with a stick.

Bob also reports the story of a gentleman who bought a house in Pine Mountain Lake in part because it already had DSL service exiting at the location. Following closing, the new owner called the phone company to switch the service into his name, only to be told that service wasn’t offered at his location. He protested that it was there, now, working, and was told in a line straight out of Alice In Wonderland, well, we’ve redefined the limits and that address isn’t serviceable any more. Gotcha.

As Mark says: “I want the public to demonstrate their need for broadband Internet and their concerns about phone service generally in Tuolumne County to the representatives from AT&T.”

You can bet your buttons that I’m interested to see what the talking heads will have for us. Be there.