There's probably no better way to announce that the broadband service you're providing is inadequate than the mayor of a town feeling compelled to write a letter to tourists, apologizing in advance for the lousy connection (or the complete lack of one).
Blogger Ewan Grantham came across the following letter in his hotel room in Tusayan, AZ (right outside the Grand Canyon).Dear Tusayan Guest-
As a guest in one of our wonderful Tusayan hotels, we know that like our residents, you have expectations in today's technology age of being able to easily and consistently access the internet highway during your stay in our community. Again, like our residents, we understand your frustration with the inconsistent strength of the broadband signal, or even total lack of an ability to connect. It is an issue that we have to deal with on a daily basis due to a lack of sufficient signal from our primary service broadband provider, CenturyLink. What bandwidth we have coming into the entire community has been severely over-subscribed (sold to too many users for the small signal strength available) and thus the poor quality of connectivity in our community. The situation is NOT due to a lack of effort or desire to provide you a quality service by the hotel where you are staying. It is due the lack of availability of broad bandwidth from CenturyLink.
The Town itself has been working for many months to try and resolve this situation by working with several entities to bring in a consistent and reliable service to meet not only our residents needs, but to also provide the level of service that we feel our guests and visitors to the Grand Canyon deserve. Hopefully we will be able meet those needs in the near future. Please understand that the issue is beyond our control as a whole community and not just this individual business and bear with us and we work to join the internet highway with quality services.
In the meantime, enjoy the reason you have come to our community, the Grand Canyon in all its magical and powerful beauty. We very much appreciate you choosing to stay in Tusayan and hope that you will also enjoy our great rooms, food & beverage services and the wonderful people and staff that call Tusayan their home.
Respectfully,
Greg Bryan
Mayor
Town of Tusayan
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Subsentient on Tuesday July 22 2014, @11:54AM
I'm near Phoenix, (in Mesa actually) right in the middle of a metropolis.
The service is good. Very good. I switched from Cox Communications when I found out that they'd give me a static IP for $5 a month, and that they allowed you to run servers. The connection is solid and faster than Cox, and I'm generally happy with it.
However, I do indeed hear that a LOT of people really hate Centurylink, and that the service reeks on wheels for a huge fraction of their customers. I believe it.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @02:47PM
Insightful? That post is definitely interesting, and one might also argue that it is informative, but I can't see any insight in it.
There's more to moderation than the +1/-1.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @07:03PM
As you can see, there are people with mod points who don't understand the word Redundant either.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Tuesday July 22 2014, @11:06PM
Well, that just goes without saying! Again!
(Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday July 23 2014, @02:56AM
Weird... I've been with CenturyLink since they were Sprint (before they were Embarq) here. For years, I sang their praises whenever anyone asked. That stopped after the borg with Qwest, they've become almost as horrible as the cable co. First my $5/mo static IP changed after 8 years with no notification, leading to a 3 day downtime since no one I called could find any info on it. Then it became $20/mo, they that "leasing the modem" bullshit the cable companies started, and now I have a hideous 5-foot PVC pipe in the middle of my front lawn.
Sadly, their competition here is Comcast
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"
(Score: 2, Informative) by chewbacon on Tuesday July 22 2014, @12:29PM
My dad used these guys and dropped them not too long ago. Now he tethers to his LTE phone. His connection was "slower than dial up" he claimed. Time and time again he'd call centurylink and they said the problem was his equipment. So he replaced Ethernet, switches all the way to the TNI. Still had the same issue. One tech who came out said this was a huge problem for all customers in the area and since centurylink acquire the area they had no idea what the hell they were doing with the network.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @01:34PM
If they are struggling for months already, this seems a very interesting case for a lawsuit. (Interesting to set precedents against overselling)
If the mayor goes as far as to write this letter, and all his constituents are complaining. A lawsuit filed by the town on behalf of all it's businesses and residents seems like a proper way to continue.
If they are vastly overselling, that shouldn't be to hard to prove either. Just have a few people run some speed tests, record them or have them witnessed by a bailiff or sheriffs officer and you got some very strong evidence. Something that a mayor should have no problems organizing.
(Score: 3) by meisterister on Tuesday July 22 2014, @03:24PM
CenturyLink is actually kinda alright where they have to actually compete with other providers, but in this case it's just awesome to see a a public official shaming any ISP monopoly.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 22 2014, @05:10PM
> CenturyLink is actually kinda alright where they have to actually compete with other providers
That's true for basically all ISPs.
My brother lives in Chattanooga where they have gigabit. Comcast and ATT are freaking great there. They aren't gigabit or anything, but they are only $20/month and no caps or any other half-assing like they do in many other localities.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Tuesday July 22 2014, @09:41PM
Maybe they can bridge the connection with duct tape and bubble wrap.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek