We have Comcast high-speed internet, Vonage phone service and DirecTV satellite and I'm quite pleased with all of them, although customer service is the worst with Vonage, which seems to have a direct line to Bombay. Once the problems are settled with them, though, it works fine. As far as Comcast and DirecTV, I've never had a problem, but with Comcast, it can be hit or miss, and you may end up with someone who doesn't know what they're doing. But that's been the exception rather than the rule, at least with me.

Posted by foobar2 (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 12:01 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanks for posting a link to that essay by Ms. Brooks. I hadn't read it before.

Posted by Lakym97 (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 1:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Comcast customers should stop complaining.

Most of us in western Loudoun have no cable options at all and would love to have Comcast available. We live with satellite as the only TV option, which works, except when it rains or snows, and has customer service on the same level as Comcast.

No cable, no fiber, no DSL.

For broadband internet, many have no options at all (satellite can't be considered broadband). Others are in the coverage areas of the wireless providers mentioned, but must live with very expensive service ($300 installation & three times the monthly cost of cable internet), that provides slow and unreliable service, that rules out VOIP phones, web conferencing, or anything else that needs access without interruption or lost packets.

This picture is pretty sad for an affluent county that has high-tech industry, including key hub telcom components of the internet itself.

Loudoun has technical infrastructure that is below that available in many third-world countries. (Not surprising, I guess, when one considers the lack of other basic local infrastructure, likes roads, bridges, or reliable electric service...)

Posted by blueridgepro (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 2:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Very cool essay by Brooks, Erica--nice cross-reference. We have Comcast and DirectTV and have had zero problems with either. We recently switched to DirectTV from Dish Network because DTV became the sole carrier of Major League Baseball's Extra Innings package which broadcasts almost every MLB game on the league's schedule. That's a must-have item in our household but we were happy with Dish as well. I'm still amazed, though, that given the bazillion channels I have access to we only watch three or four with intermittent consistency. I mean how many times can you watch "Sweet Home Alabama" on USA before you get fed up with the commercials and buy it on DVD? I think the Waterford residents were right to question the presence of Cablevision in their town. It would be interesting, though, to know if they feel similarly about Internet access. I think the "Your kid's at a disadvantage without it" argument might be more potent there. Even so I don't know many nine-year-olds opining about the elements of Greek tragedy so maybe they're onto something out there in Waterford.

Posted by fielders_choice (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 2:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Blueridgepro, many of us in Eastern Loudoun would like to live where the population density isn't so thick, the home lots are bigger, the pace of life is slower, there's a beautiful view of the mountains, and the main road doesn't require a $4 toll to use each way.

I suppose neither of us can have it all.

Posted by hphokie (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 2:44 p.m. (Suggest removal)

hphokie, the problem is that most of us do have to deal with the Greenway that live West.

Posted by Hoqenishy (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 3:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

We use Comcast for internet and DircTV for television. I don't have any complaints about either one and enjoy the fact that if one goes down that I still have the other since they are different providers. However, when FIOS becomes available in my area I'll certainly take a look at the options then.

Posted by yaddayadda (anonymous) on July 23, 2008 at 5:38 p.m. (Suggest removal)

Telcos and cable providers need to be regulated by the government to prevent "cherry picking", where they wire only the most profitable high density areas and leave others unserved. If they get a license to serve a county, they should be required to serve the WHOLE county.

This regulation is what made the US telephone and power systems work. No one was allowed to be left without service.

The tax burden covers county-wide shared services, like schools, police, etc., regardless of whether the taxpayer lives in a city or rural area. Telecommunications is simply another shared service. The county should regulate communications providers to the same rules. For those that don't believe in this, what would you think about a "pay as you go" model for schools, police, fire, etc.?

Posted by blueridgepro (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 7:24 a.m. (Suggest removal)

For those areas that have FIOS its wonderful. I was an original DirecTV user since Version 1.0 and I have switched. The picture quality is wonderful. Now I am not talking about the HDTV channels; I am talking about the Standard Def channels. On DirecTV they do compression on the SD channels but in FIOS there is no recognizable compression. The SD challes are clear and non-distorted even on a 80" HDTV I have. We had some growing pains with Verizon and their customer service is far from perfect but for the problems I had (very few but one major problem) then replaced the equipment in less then 3 hours. I cant comment on how much better then Comcast it is except I have read some articles out of New York city where they tested both and they though FIOS was the clear winner. FYI the Internet speeds are better then most people get at work

Posted by lewandow (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 7:49 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I have comcast, and hate it... we had problems with our service ever since we got it a year ago, the SD channels are very, very crappy, even on a S Def tv, back in April we didn't have cable for a month, after about 20 calls and 3 service visits, it turns out, that no one put the boxes numbers on our account, so they weren't authorized. I'm still fighting with them for a credit for that month. Verizon just laid the lines for FIOS at the start of July... Guess what I'm getting when it's ready to go!! SO LONG COMCAST!!!!!

Posted by rredding0919 (anonymous) on July 24, 2008 at 10:43 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Full disclosure - I work for Sprint.

That said, I live in Taylorstown, about 8 miles from the Lovettsville Sprint tower and about the same distance from the Lucketts Sprint tower. I purchased a broadband modem and Sprint Evolution Data-Only (EvDO) service and now receive broadband internet service. I'm very happy with it. There was a period a few weeks ago when my signal was weak, and there are intermittent periods where the signal fades. Right now, I have two bars of signal and measure 331 Kb/s downlink with 63 ms latency. I take my EvDO air card with me, and when I'm in Lovettsville or other parts of the county, the service is great. I can get up to 1.2 Mb/s downlink.

Posted by jonathanweintraub (anonymous) on July 28, 2008 at 5:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)