Listen to this articleI started this journey back in 2014. Repeatedly getting offers from my local telecom provider and getting let down time and time again every time I inquired on better internet. You can read the previous posts about AT&T here and here.
It had been over 10 years since I originally ordered the only DSL service available in my area, provided by AT&T called FastAccess DSL. I didn’t require anything better because at the time, I only streamed music and played the occasional online multiplayer game. Come to find out, every service pole has an assigned number, and residence or business that receives service is assigned a service pole number. AT&T hadn’t updated the service pole number for my residence in ages.
Then the pandemic hit, I needed internet to work from home and an upgrade is the only thing that would allow me to meet the technology requirements. I couldn’t wait any longer.
I requested a technician to come out because unfortunately for me, at the time, we just had a bad storm that shorted out another modem. The technician that I was finally able to request to come out, said my assigned service pole was 8 miles in the middle of nowhere dirt road in the county I live in.
After the technician updated the service pole number for my residence, it populated in AT&T’s system (about a week), and I was finally able to order an upgrade to a faster yet inferior service called U-Verse. The sales reps at the local store said that AT&T was phasing out the service but the technician that installed my new service said that he still does at least one U-Verse install a week.
The light at the end of the tunnel is, if you live in a rural area and you’re stuck with only one provider with no upgrade path, request that the service pole number be updated. It might just open at least one upgrade option if not more for internet service.