The Daughter had moved a couple weeks ago from Tucson to Safford. A bit of an adjustment for them, as it is sort of like going from a bigger city, to a much smaller one. Driving around a bit in Safford, it seemed to have many of the amenities that the larger Tucson had: several fast food/restaurants, shopping stores (Basha's, Walmart, etc), even a Dept. of Motor Vehicles, and a Post Office! Seriously, there didn't seem to be much they should be missing from the big town.
They quickly got the propane service turned on (for their heater/water heater and range). Electricity and water are covered in the rent. Trash scheduled pick up and postal service are up and going. Lastly, it leaves cable, phone, and internet service. Both of them have cell phones, so there really is no need for a home phone. So just cable and internet. Therein lies the problem.
It seems that they are just a short distance (basically on the wrong side of the railroad tracks - literally) that the two local cable companies do not provide service for them. It comes down to satellite service, or the big phone company, Centurylink. Both providers offer a download speed for the internet of like 1-2 Mbps. Considering they were using like 20Mbps in Tucson, it is a major drop in speed for them, both of who do quite a bit of online gaming, movie streaming, etc. To get a speed similar to what they are used to, there is a data limit, which they would be past within a matter of days instead of a month.
I spent yesterday morning before work searching the internet for possible other solutions/plans in their area, and thought I had found one. I spoke to the Daughter, who later int he day asked me to send the link to her phone as they could not find what I had told her about. After looking it up after work last night, I read that at the speeds available, online gaming would not be possible. So I searched some more. As usual, I had no luck. I called and spoke to them, and I think Centurylink is their best bet. They can bundle and use DSL, and get up to 5Mbps (from what I read) which should be enough for just the two of them and their gaming. They are going to check it out more, and see if they can find possibly some other company/deal I missed. No sweat off my brow, it is them that have to go without basically until they decide what to do.
That being done yesterday, this morning I woke and did my morning routine, which includes getting on the computer to check my email. No internet connection. Spent several minutes trying to figure out why, thinking, maybe the Wife forgot to pay the bill, but I know it had been done the other day. Finally, after a few more minutes, a connection was made. I don't know why it took so much longer than usual, but at least it connected. Otherwise, I couldn't have bored you this morning.
PeacE
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