I have come to understand that accross the CenturyLink system, even within a single town, even from house to house served out of the same central office or remote terminal, there's a very huge range of products available, and while one home may have 40M Internet service with 20M upload speeds, another within a mile of that home may only have 5 or 12M available, and just one more mile, and only 1.5M will be available.

 

I also understand that some of this is normal variances in the length of a phone line from a remote terminal to a specific home. However, for customers served on old equipment, or who want more performance than might be available on a regular "consumer" network line, it's difficult to get CenturyLink to talk about when that might be available.

 

I also understand that installing access technologies other than DSL (a DS3 or Metro Optical Ethernet or a home-focused fiber service like those being trialed in Omaha and Las Vegas, as well as new FTTP installations around the country) is very expensive, it's difficult to get anybody at CenturyLink to talk about what the cost of installing something like this may be, even for a customer willing to pay to have it done.

 

I don't know if it's a matter of CenturyLink documenting the networks that it has inherited from acquisitions and mergers, although it shouldn't be because those networks should have been documented under their former brand names, or if it's simply a matter of "this is what's normal, and we're not willing to work with you if you're normal.

 

I recommend CenturyLink if somebody's address qualifies for good service and they express a desire to NEVER have more network performance than what CenturyLink can promise today, but I have never recommended CenturyLink based on what they may be able to do in the future. Given many of CenturyLink's competitors that deliver Internet via DOCSIS cable systems feature system-wide yearly performance increases, it's unfortunate to believe that whatever any given location might have today, they may well have for another decade.