If you’re a Schuylkill County resident and still using Verizon DSL for your “high-speed” internet needs, you have our sympathies.
Sure, it’s a reliable service.
But it’s still priced like it’s 2003 and honestly, it’s pretty slow. It’s not capable of handling a live broadcast, so you can’t do Zoom or other livestream calls out.
Major lag.
Logic dictates that you’d just upgrade to a cable internet. But in a lot of areas of Schuylkill County, that’s not available. And if it is, it’s either too expensive or not worth the expense.
So, when you go to pay your overpriced DSL bill on the Verizon website, you see ads all over the place or Fios.
You’ve heard of it. Seen the commercials. And wondered … hey, maybe I’ll get this Fios. It’s gotta be better than DSL.
You find the service map, enter your ZIP Code, and …
Well, maybe it’s coming soon so you decide to inquire with a Verizon customer service representative. And they give you one of two canned responses.
You: Hey, when will Fios be available in Schuylkill County?
Verizon: In about 6-12 months
Or maybe you’ll get the more optimistic rep on the line …
You: Hey, when will Fios be available in Schuylkill County?
Verizon: Looks like about 3-6 months
No matter what they say, it’s not happening. We got “3-6 months” about 18 months ago.
And frankly, we’re not hopeful for the next 6 months either.
We’ve got a better shot of getting served at The Chinese Restaurant on Seinfeld.
If only we had the money in County government to come up with some substantive plan to implement wide-ranging broadband internet across Schuylkill County.
It’s like, if someone would only drop about $12.7 million on us and say, you can use this to implement broadband where it’s not readily available in your area …
Schuylkill Commissioners Approve $6.11M Bonds for “Broadband Project”
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Earl Startzel
December 5, 2020 at 8:18 am
If anything these cable company’s should be looked into. Atlantic Broadband is terrible. Since the pendemic you can’t get them on the phone. I wanted to go over my cable bill to see where I could save some money because my cable bill is getting to high because they keep raising it and you can not get a rep. on the phone. I weighted over a half hour a couple of times and you can’t get anyone. Nothing comes on to tell you how long your weight is or give you the pleasure of a call back number music just keeps playing. They want you to do everything on line. Well there are some things you just can’t do on line and need to go over things on the phone to figure out your best cable deal. You can’t with Atlantic Broadband. Also if you have a cable problem at your house how do you get a hold of someone to fix it. If you send them a email it could take a week or more. I live in Brockton.
Dave
December 5, 2020 at 10:49 am
I agree with you. Had the exact same problem with comcast in June and July. Customer service by phone did not exist.
Wayne Micklo
December 5, 2020 at 2:55 pm
Fios has been advertised by Verizon for over at least 10 years now. also Dsl from Verizon is Broadband. have it for over 14 yrs.And is slow as the old Dial up Internet.
Canary Commenter
December 6, 2020 at 2:49 am
Yeah, we’ve used it for about 5-6 years now. It has its plusses (always on, rarely down), but there are a lot of downsides (COST and speed). It still barely fits the definition of broadband. The definition of broadband has also been updated to include wireless connections. Problems with wireless, however, are data speed throttling and an inability on most platforms to stream live TV.