Hi to Ravencajun...thanks for the warnings. I looked at the links and did a google search and while it may be a hit or miss kind of thing and I may get "burned" by wildblue....I can not tell you how fed up I am with dial up. Willing to try anything!!! I looked into aircards too but not available in my area. At least not that I could find. My tech knowledge is very limited (read 33rpm in an I=pod world) and I generally rely on my children to guide me along. All I can say is hopefully the satellite thing will work out for me. It seems to be only option other than dial up at this point. I will try to post again and let you know how it works out for me. Please wish me luck. Murphy

I don't have problem paying for services I USE. I DO have problem paying for services I do NOT use, OR, services "not rendered" - (a whole different story), When we were moving into this house, I called to have phone service turned on. We finally got moved in, but no phone service! I kept calling, (from another phone), telling them I STILL don't have phone service. "THEY" kept telling me I DID! Well, I didn't. "They" said they would send someone out (btwn 8am-5pm). I was up early EVERY MORNING - sitting at dining table - waiting...all day long every day. Nobody ever showed. I kept calling - daily. They kept insisting I HAD phone service. I kept insisting I did NOT! Then I got my phone bill! I blew my lid! I STILL had no phone service, and I'm getting billed for it?!!! Took almost two months. Someone FINALLY showed up. He checked the lines, and guess what? There was no line connected to the house! Just about two minutes (literally) after the PHYSICAL phone tech told us the problem and said he connected a line to the house, the guy (whom I'd been speaking with that past couple weeks) who PROMISED someone would be out - about two days prior (which never happened) - called on MY phone to tell me the phone repair guy was running late! Well, needless to say, I had a LOT of stuff to say to HIM! And (besides all the carp I told him), I told him that the guy is NOT running late, as he's standing right here next to me and just NOW got my phone connected - and he was "just now in process" of calling the company to report the "problem". (The repair guy was literally on his phone right beside me calling into office about it). I passed the phone on so the tech could talk to the dingbat on the other end. I figured from beginning, that they are relying on a computer or something. The phone I wanted connected to begin with was an existing line to the house, and I KNEW it worked, 'cuz during escrow, we came to check some things out, and the previous owner rec'd a 'landline' phone call while we were there. I DID get charges reversed for "non-service". Now, this past week, DH called to have some "x-tra" services REMOVED from HIS phone service with this company (since he no longer has need for those), and they call back and say they can't... AMAZING...they will bend over backwards to "sell" their services (yes, we STILL get junk from them every week), but they can't do a simple thing to "REMOVE" services. DH "thought" he would just cancel ALL service and go with another company...the CABLE TV COMPANY I'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR ALMOST THREE YEARS NOW! Guess what? I blew it AGAIN! Told him he's crazy, and if he does THAT, I will certainly TOTALLY divorce him! LOLOL! I could NOT believe he even pondered that one - as I complain about it almost daily. Whatever...If HE wants to deal with THAT headache, I told him "If you go 'there', DON'T complain to ME, as I'm totally against it!" Funny thing is, all the phone company needs to do is send a truck out to switch 2 wires - and mission accomplished. But they don't want to do that. ================================= I've decided I'm not going to mess with phone cards or get a cell phone. (Altho, I'm still wondering why the "dial-around" didn't show ANYTHING on this last bill...did I get dropped? I donno...) I'm just going to make a point to call ex-hubby, or have son call every month on our landline LD. Which, BTW, I'm guessing it's time to call him this weekend! (Good thing we are still friends even tho divorced! haha)

tobygirl wrote: Wow, I can't believe the deals some of you get. We live in the country with one phone company and no cable available. Per month we pay $30 for local phone, $35 for DSL, $61.50 for basic Directv and about $25 to AT&T (for their 7 cents a minute plan), not including the cost of toll calls. Ditto for us! No cable and no DSL. $30 for land line (must have for my business) $5-20 for long distance (depending on usage) $90 for Dish (includes HD) $80 for cell phone service (2 phones) $50 for Internet (WildBlue satellite) It seems high to me compared to what others pay. :(

we have Brighthouse Road Runner Turbo, close to 30 Mbps downloads & 2 Mbps uploads. we did have lightning at 40 Mbps downloads but for the cost we decided DH could live w/ turbo for classes. if you have anyone using the net for either viewing classes or uploading classwk you can not have less than 20 Mbps or you just can't do either. DH still gets a lag time on viewing at Turbo but 2-3 minutes is not too bad to wait... it isn't cheap, we bundle w/ digital cable w/ no special movie channels for $125 mo. Turbo is about the slowest I can stand anyways... we've looked at Uverse, they are not in this area yet and my sis has them in the Indy burbs w/ terrible reliability but they are cheaper. i would give them a try if they offered a trial period, otherwise we absolutely can not have our service not work for even a couple of hours. DH has classes to be logged into, tests are taken and submitted at specified times, homewk has upload deadlines etc... i'll pay more for what has never ever let us down in 10 yrs. ~ liz