To my ISP: prepare to be trounced

You may have read earlier in this blog that Kate and I are somewhat dissatisfied with the broadband offerings in the Lehigh Valley. There is apparently no near-term solution to the problem since PenTeleData has a monopoly on our township. PenTeleData is using old technology (in computer terms) and, in my opinion, is hanging on by a technological thread. While our connection doesn't completely drop, we do frequently have data packet loss that renders VoIP usage painful.

I recently read that Verizon's FiOS technology is getting another speed boost. That means that FiOS will offer approximately 20 times faster bandwidth than PenTeleData -- at approximately twice the price. But we're still stuck at 3.5 Mbps downstream and 350 kbps upstream with no ability to easily purchase more without spending an arm and a leg ($125+ per month). And even if we switched to an expensive commercial account, our upload bandwidth would still top out at a measly 1 Mbps.

Despite the fact that I dislike Comcast on principle, I did love their zippy and reliable broadband Internet offerings at our previous house in Whitemarsh. And at least we had a choice of Comcast or Verizon for broadband. I'm wondering (hoping?) if Comcast or Cablevision is eyeing our cable provider, Service Electric, for a takeover. Moreover, I'm wondering if Verizon isn't ready to come into this area with FiOS and basically put the cable company out of business by offering a superior product. (Verizon -- are you listening???)

I'm watching Sprint Nextel's WiMax implementation called XOHM. While it's nowhere close to being deployed in the Lehigh Valley, it's an interesting concept. They aren't marketing it as a fixed point Internet solution, but I don't see why it couldn't be used as such.

Yearning for bandwidth in the Lehigh Valley

Kate and I have discovered one down-side to living in the semi-rural Lehigh Valley. Reasonably priced (true) high speed Internet access is impossible to come by. Our cable company, Service Electric Cable TV (SECTV), offers what I would term a "passable" package of 6Mbps downstream and 400kbps upstream. Bundled with their digital cable service and a one-year contract the price is a very reasonable $80 per month with taxes. The download speed is quite sufficient, but the upload speed is significantly lacking.

What about a user that needs more than 400kbps of upload speed? Forget it. It will cost at least $80 per month (plus $125 installation) to double the upload speed (but it will actually decrease the download bandwidth). To get anything above 400kbps, one needs to invest in commercial service instead of residential service. Never mind that the service is still provided by SECTV's partner, PenTeleData. According to the sales rep at PenTeleData, he has not heard of plans to upgrade the network to DOCSIS 2.0, so I doubt that the speeds will improve any time soon.

Consider, for a moment, that Comcast's lowest service broadband tier provides about the same downstream bandwidth but 1Mbps upstream. Service Electric's best offering today is what Comcast offered about 3 years ago.

What about FiOS? Nope. DSL? Nope. With the lots in our development at 1 acre apiece, the houses are spread quite far apart. To run fiber to every house would be expensive in such a low density neighborhood. And we are apparently too far from the telephone CO to have DSL.

What are our other options? A full T1 line (1.5 Mbps) would be $300 per month. That's a little too rich for our pocketbook. I've looked into a wireless provider, CAWInet, but they seem to not want our money. Filling out a contact form earlier this week on their Web site promising a response "within one business day" went unanswered. A call to their sales phone number today went to voicemail.

Lulu's First Pug Meet-Up

On Saturday despite the threat of rain, we hopped in the car with Lulu to head to her first pug meet-up in Allentown. There were a total of about a dozen pugs of various ages.

In this photo Lulu looks like the odd-pug-out as she is surrounded by three (less common) black pugs.

Here is the pug version of "social networking":



We managed to avoid the rain until we were on the way back home when it started drizzling.