||| from Sandra Parker |||
My husband and I live on the east side of Orcas Island in Washington state. We have been T-Mobile customers for the past two years. We chose T-Mobile because we needed a service that would cover the entire island where we live. As it turns out, the only place where we have problems is at our house near Olga. The cell phones work sporadically at that location. Calls are frequently dropped. At best, our calls ”break up” and our friends, etc., complain they don’t get the entire message. At worst, we have no bars—no service—at all.
In the past, we have had RockIsland Internet. When we returned to the island this year after summer break, we were informed that RockIsland can “no longer get a signal” at our house, so they removed their equipment. In desperation, we contacted the Doe Bay Internet Users Group. They say they are “no longer accepting new customers”.
So, in desperation, we opted for a T-Mobile Hotspot, which worked for two weeks. I cannot even begin to explain how many hours I have spent on the telephone trying to solve the hotspot problems. This morning, I was told that we used 23 G of high speed internet between the house of 1 a.m. and 4:20 a.m! (Needless to say, we were sleeping.). Since we are now out of our gigabyte allowance, our hotspot will not work at all.
Also, in the past, we had a CenturyLink landline (2017 and 2018). Remember landlines? When I called CenturyLink this morning to reinstate our service, I was informed that they cannot serve our address. Something about the lines being “too crowded.” Does that ever happen??? I was very clear that I was not talking about internet service. I just want a telephone that I can pick up and make a call!
Can anyone help? What does one do these days if they cannot get telephone service OF ANY KIND?!
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I feel ya! In 2014 CenturyLink would not add DSL to my landline. DBIUA was not an option. Signed up with a satellite firm called WildBlue. Had to hire a lone ranger installer from Friday Harbor. It was expensive but worked. If you can get internet that way prrhaps you could at least make internet calls. Good luck!
Their website is exede.com.
Call the Washington State UTC about landline issue.
Check with Orcas Online. They just setup a link to Lummi that solved both my Rockisland and century tel issues. I was also o. T MOBILE. With my cell about was always having connection. Called Consumer Cellular and had them switch me to AT&T and problems are gone.
Orcas Online solved our godawful CenturyLink (less than .5 mb internet and continual telephone problems) by getting us 10MB via some kind of radio (because we’re far from fiber) which allows VOIP.
I know people on Waldron that are in “dead” spots and they use Hughes satellite service for internet AND Hughes now sells a phone modem that works with their satellite service with NO time lag when speaking.
Ocas Online’s “radio” connection works well, but you have to have a clear sightline of the northeast end of Lumi.