Received Some Answers From Earthlink

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Not long ago I wrote about Earthlink dropping their DSL service in my area. I will no longer be able to get Earthlink’s DSL service after this month. A bit sad since I’ve been with Earthlink since 1999. I was told it was due to upgrades. I figured it was Earthlink upgrades. That was the wrong assumption. What I found out was Centurylink, my landline phone company, is upgrading. Centurylink decided to cut ties with Earthlink and no longer allow them to have DSL service in my area. Centurylink is replacing all the old copper wiring with fiber optics. This surprised me. Several years ago I had trouble with my landline phone and when the repairman came to fix my problem he said it was due to the old phone lines in the area. I asked if they were going to replace them. “No,” the repairman told me. “There isn’t enough money in landlines anymore to make it profitable to replace the wiring. Everybody is changing to cellphones. That’s where the money is. The way things are going I don’t see a future for landlines.” Now you can understand how surprised I was to hear they are putting in all new fiber optics. Why, after being told they had no plans of replacing the old wires, are they now replacing them? Maybe it’s due to new businesses coming into the area. Most businesses use landlines. Or is there an upsurge in DSL users? Or landline users? I really don’t know, but the phone company must have decided it is now profitable to upgrade the wiring. Back in 2000 I worked for a company that made landline telephone components. They made automatic telephone switchboards among other things. The company had several patents. One of them was for inventing a way to make the light impulses go around a corner in the fiber optics. Before this invention the light did what light does. It bounced off the corner in all directions. Yes, fiber optics work with light impulses instead of electrical impulses used in old copper wire. Then it is converted into electrical impulses before entering the wire going to the house. Fiber optics is supposed to make telephone conversations clearer. That’s all I know about fiber optics. So I can no longer be upset at Earthlink for taking away the DSL service in my area. I have also had my landline service through Centurylink for many years. Long before they changed their name from Qwest to Centurylink. Actually I had it before Pacific Northwest Bell changed their name to Qwest. So I had it long before Earthlink. Before Earthlink I had AOL for three to four years with the old dialup. A problem occurred when I updated the expiration date on my credit card. They didn’t get the information so my service was shut off. After three or four calls to correct the problem and being promised each time my service would be up within 24 hours, it was not. I finally told AOL to take a flying leap. So this will be only the third time I changed internet providers.