Centurylink looted El Paso County Telco when they took over. Before Centurylink, the internet was on the same Battery backup system that powered the dial up phone lines. Power could go out - but if your modem was on a UPS you still had a net connection. May not seem important - but I remember laying on the floor in the dark with all the east facing windows and skylights smashed in, baseball sized hail ripping the linoleum floor to shreds, watching in realtime via internet the radar image of a tornado moving past my home about 1.1miles away. If its path had shifted we were going to have to risk the baseball sized hail to make a run for the well system pit. That storm did $80,000.00+ on my property.

Now - the net goes down every time the power fails or more often. I live in an area which is kinda like a black hole for cell service, so I am screwed either way.