Finally - Decent Broadband!!

I work in Albuquerque, but live in the mountains east of Albuquerque, in a place named creatively, in ignorant New Mexico fashion, the East Mountains. I've been out here for about six years. Until very recently, there was no broadband out here, and really no usable internet of any sort.

I tried dial-up (I got from 7-14Kbps). Then satellite. What a joke. Bandwidth throttling (FAP anyone?), high latency and poor reliability. Then I got a cell-phone connection. I spent a small fortune on equipment, including a YAGI directional antenna that I mounted about 70' in the air. What a joke. Bandwidth throttling, high latency and poor reliability.

Finally, I was notified by QWest that they were bringing DSL out here. 1 Mbps. Not bad -- it seems to deliver on its promise. Fairly reliable - only requires a modem reset once a week or so. So I'm pretty happy.

Here's the thing: I've lived about 1/2 mile from a fiber optic line that was laid just before I moved out here. Why the delay?

I think it's the fact that it will be possible to deliver wireless, non line-of-sight internet in February due to the fact that the U.S. Government sold off all the traditional television bands, and that QWest is trying to penetrate a market they know will disappear in a year. Thousands of people have been begging for broadband out here for years, and QWest doesn't care about penetrating the market until they realize someone else is about to.

I wonder what it's going to take to get electricity that doesn't go out every time the wind blows?