Hello Google!!

I’d like to nominate my hometown of Springtown.

Springtown is 30+ miles from Fort Worth, TX and for years we’ve never had anything that was new, exciting, and groundbreaking.  Some of the most exciting things that have happened to us in the past included getting a McDonalds or Subway.  So as you can imagine, getting high-speed Internet in Springtown has been something of a task also.  For years we’ve all been forced to use dial-up Internet because no companies wanted to come out our way to install high-speed Internet.  They either didn’t think it was cost-effective or just simply didn’t think that we would use the technology.  Over time, wireless Internet companies popped up and started offering high-speed Internet, but of course that came at a cost (that being $60+ a month for speeds less than 1Mbps, $200 to have equipment mounted to our homes, and then agreeing to a contract for 2 years). 

Many of us bought into this wireless Internet technology from a company called PrairieNet (that’s still operating somehow), and got burned.  The service would drop constantly, and when we’d call for tech support, no one would answer the phone or return our calls.  We (a majority of their customers) finally got sick of it and cancelled our service only to be charged a nice fine for doing so (the fine print on the contract said that the service would drop or experience several blackouts and they weren’t reliable for it, so they covered their tracks).  After the wireless Internet craze started going out here (because it was all we could get), a few more wireless companies popped up.  Many including myself tried them only to have the equipment get blown out of alignment by wind (thus knocking out our service), or we would experience slow downs to the point it seemed like we had dial-up.

Finally, after years of waiting Verizon finally decided to roll out DSL to Springtown just a few months ago (December 2009).  After speaking with the technician who installed my DSL, I found out Verizon didn’t want to give us DSL because they didn’t think that there would be a high demand for it in our area and they didn’t want to spend the money to upgrade the service center to handle the technology (so they are renting lines from SBC to give us DSL?).   Regardless, we have DSL now but many of the residents of Springtown are still without the technology because they live outside of the 2200-foot limitation that DSL has.  Therefore, they either still have dial-up or they have to use the wireless companies that are out here.  Several of my friends and family keep hoping that Verizon will expand the range of the DSL, but Verizon has told the newspapers that it’s a long way off and that they want to see how the initial run of DSL does. 

Please Google, we are a small town that is growing rapidly because of the people who are leaving the city (Dallas/Fort Worth) for “country” life, and we (students, educators, gamers, professionals, etc.) are in need of high-speed Internet that will be fast, affordable, and most importantly reliable.  The outreach of support would be fantastic and it would be a great test to show that the Google network can reach distances and cover the country in small (or used to be small) out of the way places like Springtown.

Thank you for your time!!!

Jeremy Baugh