Brief by Central Staff
Communications – September 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Although Colorado has a “do not call” list to discourage tele marketers, it doesn’t cover companies that you have an established business relationship with.
Thus at least once a month, we get an annoying call from Qwest, the local telephone monopoly, advising us that Qwest now offers long-distance service and we could enjoy the convenience of only one telephone bill, etc. We explain that we’re happy with our current long-distance carrier (MCI, which is bankrupt but still functioning well enough), and have no desire to switch, and would Qwest please quit calling until it has something we want, like DSL.
DSL stands for “Digital Subscriber Line,” and it offers high-speed Internet access through a regular telephone line, which can be used at the same time for regular voice calls. The Qwest sales agent sometimes hangs up, and sometimes explains that for some reason or another, DSL just isn’t available in rural areas.
A friend in the San Luis Valley lives outside of Villa Grove — that’s about as rural as telephone service can get — but the Columbine Telephone Company offers affordable DSL there.
And it gets better. On Aug. 1, Columbine reduced the price and increased the speed — something that may be unprecedented in the history of utility companies.
In general, the smaller telephone companies that provide local service in towns like Saguache and Westcliffe offer DSL. But not the big one, Qwest, that provides service in Salida, Buena Vista, Leadville, Alamosa, etc.
A couple of years ago, Qwest did try to sell those exchanges to a smaller company that might have offered better service — but the buyer backed out because it was suspicious of Qwest’s accounting. So is the federal Securities and Exchange Commission, but that’s another story.
