Can't find ISP? Help!

[babylon5guy]

Hi,

I have a elderly friend who is just getting into the internet. Problem is he can only afford about $20 a month so he just wants a dial up service. He lives in Marion NY, area code 315, the exchange is 926 and there is the problem. For some reason only the phone company knows, any number he dials outside that exchange is a toll call, and you guessed it no ISP I've contacted has a toll free number in that exchange. I've contacted over 50 ISP's including the big ones like earthlink and AOL, and no dice. Some have 800 numbers that charge like 10 cents a minute. Would anyone know of ISP that may cover this obscure exchange or have a toll free number to dial? Or anything I haven't come up with.
TIA

[Statica]

I dont know if these work but check out Carl Price's sig .. just remembered having seen the ad on his sig here.

Carl Unlimited Access Internet Access $12.50 per month. USA and Canada Too! LINK Choose internet access from quick links menu on left. Integrity is it's own reward! If you don't know what you are doing, and you double your effort, you will probably compound the problem by 100%.

---

Anyway from that list I found http://cognisurf.com/ and http://cognigen.net/surfbest/ that seem to have that area code listed.

Hope that provides some solutions

[babylon5guy]

Thanks Statica I'll check them out, the area code is not the big problem it's that stupid exchange 926.

[Statica]

http://www.flare.net/dialup.html

[babylon5guy]

Wow thanks Statica! This looks promising. I'll let you know how it turns out. I spent 5 or 6 hours looking at over a hundred ISP's and I never saw that 926 exchange. I put togeather a computer for my friend for free as he is on a fixed income. He just can't afford a broadband connection, but wants to email his grandchildren who live across country. So thanks again!

[Statica]

Hope it works, had actually made a mistake with my prev. post in the thread and checked for the wrong area code, and so posted back. Incidentally I did an area specific search on Yahoo directories for Internet service providers. If the above link is no good try searching along those lines.

Hope something worthwhile comes out of it.

[babylon5guy]

Thanks, you've been a great help, and are going to make an old man very happy. I used Google and was checking out hundreds of sites, all dead ends. I never thought of Yahoo as I usually have better luck with goggle.

[glc]

Can he get extended local service from the phone company, or at least a flat rate where he only pays something like a dime a call (unlimited time) to neighboring exchanges?

[babylon5guy]

Yeah I told him glc. He checked into that and that was the case, however he didn't seem to like it as the phone company wanted to charge him to switch to that kind of service although I think it was a one time charge. I explained that if he just went online once a day it only amounted to $3 a month. I suppose if I had pushed it a little more he might have gone for it, but he didn't seem happy about it. It sure beats the 10 cents a minute the ISP's charge you to use their 800 numbers. I'm hoping Statica's link pans out. Some ISP has got to have that exchange or a toll free number. I was just hoping someone on this board knew of something like that.