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Thoughts On Third-Party DSL Providers?
drut asks: "Due to a power surge last week, I lost my link at home. As a result of this, I've learned the frustrating truth of how my DSL provider processes its work orders that have to deal when the actual DSL line is involved. My provider, Flashcom, works with Covad and Bell Atlantic to give me Internet access. Due to legal issues involved in the ownership of the physical phone lines, I spent a week just having them go through the red tape of contacting one company, having them issue a work order with another company, then having the second company issue a work order with the third company, making me three times removed from the problem. Because of this system, no one at the first (Flashcom) or second (Covad) companies have any idea of the status of the problem, and don't have any contact information for the third company (Bell Atlantic). With all this hassle, next time I sign up for DSL (maybe I'll switch to cable), I'll probably sign up directly with the phone company, if they offer the service. This seems like an unfair advantage to the other companies. " Has anyone else had problems like this?
With the ones I have been involved with from an engineering and implementation standpoint they mostly used a redback switch as the main engine and in very cludgy ways wired in the authentication systems such as Radius. Most of the tpp are also selling batter and ground for local loop service that adds to the complication and because of this they don't own any repeaters because the costs are to high to integrate the DSL repeater with the local loop. This rsults in only getting access within a couple of miles of the CoLo. Anything further is done through resale agreements with still other DSL providers.
I finally had enough in my Bell Atlantic service area and went with a cable modem instead. So far service has been great the speeds are more than fast enough and as long as you secure your box in a reasonable manner it seems to be pretty secure. I get the service for about $34 a month and have wired all the workstations in the house through the one cable modem and this turned out to be much cheaper than the DSL service and with the exception of one outage when a telephone pole was hit near my house, service has been 100%.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
They have an utterly horrid reputation among the DSL community of being unresponsive, delay-prone, and having billing problems galore, among others. I think it's a matter of trying to be too big, too fast. That said, I'm a happy customer because:
(a) I only use them for my home pipe and DNS - I provide my own mail and web server. Unless I'm down, I only have to contact hostmaster if I create a new host entry. Other than one outage in August that lasted about a day, I haven't had any reason to contact support or billing since I got the service last spring.
(b) When I got the router, I configured it myself and they don't even have the password. So if I want to cange something I don't have to wait for them.
The way DSL installs work is that the DSL provider (several companies like Covad or, in my case, Northpoint) leases the UNE (Unbundled Network Elements or, in this case, the copper loop itself) from the ILEC. They pay around $8/month for this. Covad provides the DSLAM (DSL Access Multiplexer) in your CO, too. They partition it into several VPN's, one for each ISP that they work with at that CO. Flashcom is just one of the ISP's that works with Covad in your area - they provide the "value-added" services of email (outsourced, but I don't remember who), web hosting, Usenet (outsourced to Supernews), billing, etc. Most of the DSL ISP's, ironically, outsource in turn virtually all of their operation but the billing and DNS.
In fact, here in Massachusetts many of Bell Atlantic's Infospeed DSL customers are actually wholesale customers - serviced through a different ISP.
The biggest problem for DSL service is this: DSL is a non-tariffed service (unlike, say, POTS, ISDN or T-1). There's no service guarantee associated with it, and if it's out there's no grounds for you to report anyone to your state's DPU. If your ISP is unresponsive, that's a problem in getting the wholesaler notified properly. If the wholesaler and ILEC are on bad terms (Covad has a reputation here for a fairly adversarial relationship with BA), then the ILEC may "misplace" service requests for a while - that's just how they are. For $8/month, the ILEC generally isn't too motivated to help out.
One thing that can help is to cultivate a good relationship with the local ILEC techs if you have the opportunity. Who works on what at a CO is rigidly determined by rules (ILEC techs are not allowed to touch stuff belonging to their co-located CLEC's), but if one of the techs is friendly with you, they may just take care of the problem if they happen to hear about it. Easy fixes can happen that way.
As far as the CPE, you own that - though Flashcom bought it. Your contract paid for it. If it's burned out, you should be able to contact the manufacturer yourself and get it replaced. Or you can settle the matter by buying another one - DSL routers are getting cheap. Good luck either way.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Hi!
Your post ends with the magic words:
"With all this hassle, next time I sign up for DSL (maybe I'll switch to cable), I'll probably sign up directly with the phone company, if they offer the service. This seems like an unfair advantage to the other companies."
As it happens, Bell Atlantic is in hot water on this very subject. The State of New York just fined BA $10 million for anticompetitive practices with regard to competitive local exchange carriers (CLECs) and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Public Utility Commission has gone so far as to require BA to divest their retail phone operations (so the "wholesale distribution" side treats all carriers equally). The state's Consumer Advocate is presently on a campaign about businesses that have been harmed when they switched to a CLEC, and Bell dropped all mention of them from directory assistance.
In other words, the regulators are watching. If BA is jerking around CLEC DSL customers while providing a different level of service to its own customers, that's anticompetitive.
Call your state legislator--ask him or her to ask the Public Utility Commission for information on resolving complaints about poor DSL service. You may have to explain DSL to the kid who answers the phone (he's a political science major/groupie) but legislators love constituent service opportunities like this. They will ask for pertinent information (so the letter can say, "My good friend Elmer Stutzenfreud (Circuit ID #17X933099J32, Covad ID# 234234234, BA Repair order #NY0339993A3) has mentioned to me the severe impact of a DSL outage on his business....")
Regulated monopolies have zero incentive to listen to consumers. But they live and die by the whim of the legislature--and the legislators know it. Call your state rep or state senator, and ask for help.
P.S.: There is a quid to the pro quo: when your legislator comes up for reelection he will ask for your vote. If he has done an effective job representing your interests, you probably should vote for him.