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You can also file a complaint against At&t here here, and here. I heard there are some other places too but I'd suggest one of these guys first.

terrible or good depending on your definition of coverage: http://www.cincinnatibell.com/consumer/wireless/coverage/ I've known several people who have moved (CA, OR, MN, FL) but keep their Cincinnati Bell service going.

Better than what TWC offers here: http://www.timewarnercable.com/cincinnati/learn/bundles/bundles.html

I don't watch much TV, so I'll stick with Cincinnati Bell https://services1.cincinnatibell.com/BundleOrder/BundleAdvisor/bundle.aspx

Competition is great, but I think they are slacking off here.

IIRC, the airlines prefer to wireless over wired connection for several reasons. The same number of wireless access points as ethernet ports requires less wiring and saves weight (antenna overhead as opposed to running cable to every seat). Putting hardwired ports shows some real commitment by Quantas since they would have to retrofit seats (which I guess they are already if they are providing power).

I hope the wireless catches on now that my cell phone is wi-fi VOIP (http://cincinnatibell.com/consumer/wireless/home_ run/)

project lilypad is a time warner thing in cincinnati... is lilypadusa like a prototype or something? i have heard about FON mostly in europe... they don't seem to have much density in the USA.

speaking of free access points for members, before lilypad in cincinnati, the local phone company cincinnati bell offers access to hotspots free for it's customers. the cinbell solution seems to be mostly gas stations and family restaurants.

Hosting servers in every city? That's a great answer for a handful of companies. Unless you're the scale of Blizzard or Microsoft, that's just not an option. Small projects simply don't have the revenue or client base to support millions of dollars in monthly server farm costs. Even somewhat successful projects like EVE Online which has over 100,000 users last I heard is based on a single server. (Multiple physical servers obviously, but all users use are in a single universe)

isn't that the point of a tiered internet? to sell preferential access to higher paying customers? isn't this the new revenue stream that the telcos are claiming will help them finance their fiber rollout? (you know, the one they promised us in 1996 if we deregulated)

the tiered internet wasn't my idea, it was theirs and i don't think it's a good one. personally, i don't really care if the telcos and the cablecos stay afloat or go under. the local phone company in my town is getting it's ass kicked by mobile phones, cable internet access, and VOIP, so they are cutting prices and increasing services in response. my cable operator just countered by kicking up my download speed to 10mbit not long after jacking up my cable bill. ain't competition wonderful?

now, if only a magical third competitor, say municipal fiber or wifi, or some competitive offering from my mobile operator, things in my neighborhood would really heat up. i feel sorry for the poor blokes that only have one if any highspeed access option.

I think they are trying to say that they are free from your ISP, but that isn't true either.

It's a bad example, but my DSL ISP did charge. They are now running a promotional offer though.

Thing is, you need to pay for "professional" installation to get 'free' which costs 100 bucks, and isn't needed. Now the DSL modem is USB compatible and comes with a step by step CD. They used to charge for installation of the AP and an equipment fee every month.

> My god, it would be sublime! Comcast, AT&T, Charter, Cox (and any other big cable companies) charge $$$$ for upload speeds over 128kbps

FWIW, here (in Cincinnati) our DSL is 3M down, and 768kbs up. (See this for details. Funny thing is, last week it was 768/384. I'm not complaining.

I have DSL through a local provider (Zoomtown/Cincinnati Bell). For $40 a month I get 768Kbps down and 384Kbps up. Sure, not the jaw dropping numbers you can sometimes get from a cable modem, but those connection numbers are rock solid, always. I've had three service interuptions over the past two years, none lasting more than 20 minutes.

I've never received any flak for excessive usgae even though I do leave torrents open from time to time. I just looked at the terms of service and although they reserve the right to cut off my connection for the standard list of unacceptable usage, I couldn't find anything relating to a "bandwidth cap" or "excessive usage."

Regarding telling folks to piss off:

Agreed completely! In fact, it's even worse than how you've put it: In many areas, people don't even have to spend $1500 for hosting rights/static IP: This plan from Cincy Bell, just to use the local example, gives you 768/384k (the "standard" speed offered by CBT), and static IP, no server restictions, for $110/month. No, it's not as fast as a T1... but that's compared to about $40/month for the residential version of the same-speed service. Is it more? Yes. But is it still a good deal, if you want to host servers out of your house? Absolutely. I agree completely that these folks that whine about their *residential* service not providing *business*--class service: I vote we shoot them.

I can't speak for Ameritech's services, since I just moved out of Ameritech's LATA and back into Cincinnati Bell's... however: Cincy Bell has their ADSL service that they call ZoomTown. Overall, it's kind of a PITA: It's $40/month, 768k/384k, dynamic IP, double NAT (IIRC), and, most annoyingly, you have to authenticate through this nasty web interface (don't get me started). This is the strictly residential program. They have other services that will allow you to bypass their auth portal, get static IP, get the TOS that allows you to run servers, have reverse DNS, multiple IPs, higher speeds, etc etc etc. At a price. The service that I'm going to sign up for, once I find a place to live, is around $300/month for no portal, 1 mbit/768k, static IP, reverse DNS, and, since it's a Business DSL hookup, the TOS allows me to run whatever servers I want (unless I provide spam or illegal things or the standard CYA stuff for the ISP). Since I work for the company that owns CintiBell, I think I might get it even cheaper than that. And I think they have a slightly slower version of that (768k/384k) for less bucks a month.

More than residential? Yes. But it's still a damned good price for that kind of service. I pay $40 for my cable modem today (one of the roadrunner service areas, which I'll be moving out of), and that IP is mostly static, but, in theory, my TOS prohibits me from running servers (so they could turn it off, or otherwise screw with me), and the IP does change some times, which is a hassle. Naturally, there's no reverse DNS, either.

So, the long and the short of it, is that there are areas out there that have the kind of service you're looking for, but it is not residential-class service. It's businnes-class, and you're going to have to pay for it. So stop whining.

I live in Cincinnati for one. This is being marketed to people who cannot currently get cable internet or DSL.

They are holding beta testing now, although I've tried to 'refind' the website before for another /. post I can't find one now. No.. I found the FAQ. From there you can surf through the other parts of the site to find more.

They've advertised this as a new way to get broadband in area's where there is none and claim download speeds of 250K, which would make me sign up for $39.95 a month.

The target here around Cincinnati would be the homes that aren't even close to the city but carry the WKRC station [Channel 12, "The new Generation of News!"-which is the same old people.]. This is a huge untapped market in plenty of area around Cincinnati.

As I've said earlier there will be many implementations of 'last mile' solutions. This may actually take off.

Considering Clear Channel 0wns this town's airwaves [thus politics and more!] I expect this service to take off somewhat. It isn't ideal anywhere but beats the similar 'Dish' technology.

Here is a PDF from 12/18/01 about the service... although it's been on TV for almost a year.

Sometimes we here in the 'Nati get things faster. We had HBO-On Demand first, and our Cincinnati Bell was featured as the first to offer 'Internet Call Manager' services. We were putting in Digital [two way] cable years before anyone had Cable Modems [about the time Time Warner bought out both cable services] and DSL was here pretty quick.

Maybe Mark Twain was wrong when he said: "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times."