The Neotimer has just woke up from a Rip Van Winkle sized blogger nap. In keeping with his original theme of giving an old timer's perspective on emerging trends, he wants to tell you that he has converted his DSL internet access to U-verse from Southwestern Bell. The same Southwestern Bell who gobbled up the old AT&T Long Lines and now calls themselves AT&T. (And who now calls U-verse something else too, but for simplicity the Neotimer will still call it U-verse.) The same outfit that BellSouth could have been if BellSouth CEO Duane Ackerman had not been so timid back in the early twenty-dot-Os.

SWB,(DBA SBC Corporation, their post-divestiture name), had already gobbled up PacTel and Ameritec and the old minority-Bell-owned Southern New England Telephone so they were packing a pretty big gun in their holster when they came calling on BellSouth. I knew it. I just knew it and I told my old telephone compadres so, but they didn't want to believe it. Now most every former Bell phone company, except for the Mid Atlantic and Northeast states who have changed their name to Verizon, and the mountain states and the Pacific Northwest who are now run by what was once a small independent telephone company in Louisiana, falls under that old AT&T umbrella. But the faint writing on the umbrella handle still says Southwestern Bell, for that is who is running the show. No matter what name they choose. But that's no matter. Companies do whatevcer they have to to survive.

Tarzan would have never gotten through the jungle if he had held on to the same vine all the time. Therefore, the Neotimer decided it was time to explore alternatives.  And he is glad that he did!! Let me tell you, that U-verse is a whole 'nother animal than DSL when it comes to reliability.  The DSL was up and down like a window shade and when it did go down the old DSLAMs had been manufacturer discontinued so long that it was nigh unto impossible to get parts. The U-verse hasn't been down since it was installed. It consistently gives me 8 to 10 Megabit service and it's cheaper.

And ... I swung my local telephone number here in Fairview, which had previously come to me via a copper pair as direct current -48 volts from the Digital Loop Carrier terminal by the trash dump, over to Voice over Internet Protocol, (VoIP) and got all the features I had and more for less money. Now some folks will tell you that your burglar alarm won't work on a VoIP line, it has to have that local tip and ring cable pair. Pshaw! Works like a charm.  The alarm companies, rightly so, want you to have phone service when your power is off. That ain't going to happen with U-verse because that little data set is powered off your incoming AC like everything else in your house and when the power dies, it dies too. But, MTEMC has upgraded our feeders along Hwy 100 and has several cross feed routes so a power outage of any extended duration is a thing of the past out here on the highway.

I have a friend who is still splicing fiber for the aforementioned company, who, as much as it hurts, I will call AT&T. He sent me a picture recently of "rural fiber" where the customer is served from the CO all the way to his home via a fiber optic connection. That's going to put data speeds out in the country in the same ball park as they are in downtown Nashville. You can't just sit around and pine for the old days. They never will come back. The Neotimer has always embraced leading edge technology and the times we live in are the greatest, technologically, that he has ever known. Technologically, the Neotimer is happy. You should get happy too.

Until I wake up again,

The Neotimer