Much to my dismay, due to lack of cable service in my area, and the fact that the Bellsouth telecom station is too far for DSL to reach me, I cannot get high-speed internet. That is, until now.

For two years, since having bought my house and countless subsequent searches for a high-speed provider, I have been unable to find a solution. Dial-up was as good as it got, and something I had to live with until several months ago, when I found a viable solution to get a fast(er) connection via my Cingular Blackjack. By synch-ing it w/ my PC, and using ICS (Internet Connection Sharing) through XP, I was able to get speeds up to 160Mbps. I even bridged the network connection to my Xbox to do some online gaming. Better than dial-up, to be sure, but not blazing by any means, and XBL was laggy at times.

Last week, I stumbled across a website for a local company called BamaWISP, a Huntsville-based Wireless Internet Svc Provider. The REAL deal. NOT satellite, not voice-based (although the technology is similar to cell phone network), but a pure data signal with dwnlds and uploads just as fast as cable and at a price just as good. And here's the kicker: they recently added another tower on the mtn, close to the Ledges.

Looks like my slow internet woes are almost over.

I learned of this by talking to the company's Director of Sales and Marketing. He says the tower is ready, and all that's left is to get it turned on. As soon as it is ready, he's going to give me a call so I can get signed up.

If you'd like to learn more, goto: http://www.bamawisp.net/