Nelson County, Virginia
Martins Store Substation BPL Update – April 17, 2009
There is little to report this week as the crews were all pulled to do storm work. They will return Monday and we will continue to optimize the networks. We have done a better job with the map. The new one shows the same information but is cleaner and easier to read.
Thanks,
IBEC Customer Service
I saw an Elliot truck on I-81 on Thursday. I was on my way to Ingleside golf course. I am not saying anything but I am not not saying anything too.
Still not hooked up. Still no word on when I will ever be hooked up. I contacted Lynn at BPL who told Customer Service to call me w/ status. They called me to tell me they had no status.
I’m only sticking with this because I seem to have no other options. The only option I haven’t tried is Alltel’s $60/month air card. I’m not ready to fork over bucks to Verizon after they slow-rolled the BPL installation and haven’t provided us any other reasonable/cost comparable alternatives.
For those who might be hooked up, does the system work?
Truck was ELLIOT & they are subs on way to storm work or play golf! We are all in same boat
as it hurts to pay $80 a month for service, I would keep current provider as IBEC is a test site
here! & have 2 (back up) Patience!!!!!! That hurts too! What I have heard it works most of time
but the plus side it has same uploads as downloads & is great for web site work! steve
It was an Elliot truck and they are a sub, but I was under the belief that they are the people who are referred to as “the crew”. I could be mistaken I saw them on my road today. I live on a road that is only a quarter mile long,approx. I would just like an update of information that leads us to understand how they are hooking people up. Or how much longer they believe it would take. I know that people have a set schedule. I would just like to know if they are on schedule or not. If they are not then how far ahead or behind are they.
C.R.,
I am using alltel and BPL right now. Alltel is great at certain times but HORRIBLE at other times. They don’t have a good explanation for this…they just tell me to get over it in so many words…
My bpl is still going strong. I am averaging around 350kbps down and 200kbps up with around 100-200ms ping.
Tommy
Rev. Tommy –
I had Alltel service w/ a Franklin CDU air card from October – December 2007.
It started out great but my signal strength deteriorated very rapidly, starting after about two weeks.
I spent many hours on the phone w/ their tech support (tier 1 was useless to me) trying to troubleshoot the problems and even put in a trouble ticket w/ their field tech. (Not impressed at all w/ their customer support.)
The last straw was in Dec ’07 when I got blocked out of service for 17 hours because of an error that said that my “username and password were not valid for the domain” even though I had kept my PRL updated.
Alltel had told me that this error – which was the most prevalent in my “sessions log” (download this to Excel so that you have a record of your errors b4 it gets wiped out) – was because of a US Cellular signal in the area and that US Cellular had very strong voice but did not do data so Alltel could not have a roaming agreement with them?!
I never did get back online w/ Alltel after that 17 hours freeze-out. My patience had run out and I managed to get out of my contract.
I eventually got a Verizon aircard but ended up getting rid of that too, in great part b/c every time the card needed an update I’d have to drive across the mountain to W’boro ( a true broadband area) in order to reconfigure it. This happened relatively frequently and without warning.
In the end, the quality of service that was provided w/ these cards – at least when I had them – was a kind of wireless dial-up and simply not worth the $60 / month.
I’d also be curious to know if wireless users’ signals are degraded now that things are greening-up outside.
In Nelson, it all seems to be about where exactly one is located – hit or miss.
So I’m still waiting on BPL too and was thinking about circulating a petition to Verizon amongst my neighbors to bring in the DSL from across the road but am not sure that would work (I’ve heard a lot of different stories) and, like CR, am loathe to do business w/ them after their foot-dragging on the BPL rollout (also I reported them to the FCC for that)
[BTW, the FCC finally recently sent a letter saying they are investigating that complaint & IBEC acknowledged in a letter that they rec’d a copy of it, but I’ve gotten NOTHING from VERIZON, which was the target of my discontent!]