Wolfcrane Says: Cell Phones

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Monday, February 15, 2010

Google Fiber for Communities:
This article was sent to me by a friend who knew I was on dial-up internet access:
Your new ISP? Google launches 1Gbps fiber-to-the-home trial

he also sent me this link:
Google Fiber for Communities
Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today, over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We'll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

From now until March 26th, we're asking interested municipalities to provide us with information about their communities through a Request for information (RFI), which we'll use to determine where to build our network.

If you are interested in bringing this to your area, go to:
http://www.google.com/appserve/fiberrfi/public/options
Get involved: Request for information

Google is asking local governments and residents to express their interest in the fiber optic trial, and to provide information about their community by completing our request for information.
There are 2 options at this page:
For local government: Tell us how much your community would like to join the trial and about existing facilities and resources in the community.
For residents and community groups: If you'd like a Google fiber optic trial in your community, complete this section of the request for information.

I live in a rural area in Citrus County, Florida. The only choices for internet access on my road is: dial-up, satellite internet, and internet via cell phone.
The latter 2 are way too expensive.
I am on dial-up access, and on a good day, I can connect at 38kbps, usually my connection is 26-28kbps.
Most things beyond just e-mail access for me is out. I can't watch videos, I can't stream audio. I can't use voice or video chat. Most web sites just won't function well with dial-up anymore.
I am disabled, and sometimes the internet is my connection to the world, and that is a very limited connection.
If there is something I have to do requiring hi-speed ( downloading a large file, or watching a video, or downloading a large audio podcast ), I would have to go to someone's home that has it, or go to the public library.
I am asking Google to please consider putting Google Fiber for Communities in our area.
I am now asking my fellow residents of Citrus County, and of Florida, to do the same. This will be a massive improvement for all of us. It will not only affect our access to information, but it will affect our wallets, and it will affect our service providers. They will have to take notice, and start offering more services, better services, and at a lower price.
This is a message to City, County, and State officials of Florida: If you want to do something for your community, and it's citizens, please take part in this also.
Thanks.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

My first impressions of Net10 Wireless cell phone service isn't good ( http://www.net10.com/ ). I'd just bought 2 phones, and had activated them, because we needed to keep in touch in case of emergencies. Meanwhile, we were trying to port our Verizon cell numbers over to the newly activated Net10 phones. First, Net10 customer service tells us we need new SIM cards, which they'll mail to us in 3-5 days, on the 5th day, after not getting the SIM cards, I sent an e-mail asking where they were. They replied: the shipment was canceled, and the porting of the numbers has been finished, I only needed to activate them online. I tried the website, and was unable to. I then called their number to speak to someone to get it taken care of, he had me enter a lot of codes, and supposedly everything had went through. I hung up, only to discover that I could make calls out on one phone, but not receive calls on it. The other phone could do neither. I called Net10 back, and the customer service person had me enter more codes, to no avail. He told me to wait 2 hours, and try the phones, and if they didn't work, to call back again. Well, they didn't work, so I called back, and this representative had me enter lots of codes, and then she decides I need SIM cards after all. Which will take 3-5, or even 7-10 days. Now, we have no cell phone service at all. I have also used up minutes trying to activate the phones.
I had asked the customer service rep to give me an alternate number to call, so I could have this matter escalated to management level. She didn't provide me with that info., I have also sent an e-mail to Net10 customer service, and no replies so far.
I must also point out that I am hard of hearing, and I had a hard time understanding the representatives because of their accents, and the phone connection was extremely poor, I strained to hear everything they said, and could barely make out what they were saying.
With a special needs child, and also several family members with serious health problems, and disabilities, we needed to be in touch whenever we needed to.
I am hoping that Net10 will get this straightened out soon, but am doubtful.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Google Voice

I would love to see Google Voice come out with their own cell phone service. Unfortunately, we will be canceling our Verizon ( Alltel ) service because we just can't afford the service anymore.
The economy has hit us in a variety of ways, and we have to cutback where we can ( we'll be going back to dial-up too, because we used our cell phone as a modem for connecting to the internet ). We still need cell phones, so a pre-paid plan looks best for now.
I do have a Google Voice account, and really like it. If Google Voice wants to run a beta test of a cell phone service, please sign me up!