Adelphia sucks

My mom has been convinced for the past few months that she needs broadband. Finally.

DSL is out. My parent’s place is too far from Verizon’s local office (some 40,000 feet I understand, and DSL only goes 15,000). Across the street is SBC territory, but they won’t come into Verizon’s territory.

That leaves cable modem. With Adelphia. The company that, when you cancel your service by not paying the bill, leaves your cable tv on for years on end.

The contractor is supposed to show up on Friday, between 3 and 5. He arrives at 4:45. After 2 hours of work, (which is about the time I estimated for it) we plug everything in…. and not enough signal coming down the lines. While we had cable tv at one point (canceled it in favor of satellite), it’s the wire coming in at the pole that doesn’t have enough signal for internet connection.

With the contractor there Friday night, I speak to his supervisor, asking me (or someone) to be home from 8am to 7pm yesterday. My mom stays home all day. She calls Adelphia at 5pm. She’s told that someone is on his way now. 7 pm rolls around. Nothing, nobody.

Tomorrow, I get to make nasty phone calls..

We really need a third broadband option, so we are not stuck with the duopoly of cable and phone companies.