DSL Woes

Covad is in the news this week for unplugging ISPs who didn't pay their bills. Covad, in a partly helpful, partly self-serving gesture, has attempted to get disconnected customers hooked up with other ISPs using Covad's service. Oddly enough, the submissions seem to blame Covad - it looks to me like the ISP was the one to blame, taking subscriber payments but not paying off Covad. Covad's financial situation is best described as precarious, with one-third of all its DSL customers not paying - Covad's trying to throw off the dead-weight. So what's the deal with CLEC ^[?] 's these days? Is there any hope of survival against the incumbent phone companies who will do anything to squash competition?

Comments

Re:What else can you do with deadbeats?

[Anonymous Coward]

Working for an ISP that was in this situation with Covad, let me explain how this is really going:
1) Covad sucks. Bad. Their turn-around-time on trouble tickets is from 3 days to 3 months, sometimes longer.
2) Covad does not know what they are doing as a collective whole. Their ordering department knows more about the install than the high-school dropout they send to do the install.
3) Covad does not want to resolve these issues, and then expects payment.
4) ISPs have been WITHHOLDING PAYMENT until Covad FIXES their problems.
5) Covad disconnects them rather than fix their problems.
6) Covad will file Chapter 11/13 due to this behaviour.

And that is business with Covad. There are few "deadbeat" ISPs but they are NOT the norm. Bills are being suspended because of a customer service problem; nothing more.

Good business technique

[ca1v1n]

Before anyone goes ripping on these folks for screwing the end user, keep in mind that they're working to keep the end user hooked up. Of course this is self-serving, but it's their duty as a business. They had 14 DSL providers default on them last year, and they've got another 4 filing for bankruptcy. If they didn't do this, they could face a shareholder lawsuit. As for what DSLnetworks said about it being an attempt to bring in more customers, I would say that it is a perfectly valid effort to bring in PAYING customers. A customer is only a burden if the middle-man doesn't pay up. Sucks that it had to happen, for all involved, but it sound to me like they were well prepared and kept the end user in mind.

What else can you do with deadbeats?

[Seinfeld]

Anyone who has had people owe them money knows how to spot a deadbeat. Covad knows their customers. I would not be surprised if most of the customers that Covad turned off were just trying to stall with "payment plan" negotiations they mentioned in the article.

If a customer is going to file bankruptcy in a few months, then if you wait to turn them off until then, you'll never see a dime. If you turn them off while they still need the service, then you stand a reasonable chance of collecting *something*. What Covad did is just good sense dealing with bad customers. Deadbeats in translucent-plastic, high-tech decor and stylish casualwear are still deadbeats. Cut 'em off.
-----------

Looking for a new DSL provider?

[abischof]

If you're looking for a new DSL provider, I'd highly recommend checking out DSL Reports. In the DSL Finder section, you can even search for DSL providers by Zip Code.

And, no, I don't work for them, but I did find my current DSL provider (CapuNet, which I'm very pleased with) through this method.

Alex Bischoff
---

no wonder flashcom is bankrupt...

[dogas]

For over a year I've been receiving free service from flashcom. Occasionally, they would give me a call stating how much I owe, and I continually said, "send me a bill and I'll pay it". They never send me a bill. They do send me newsletters, so they know where I live, and currently, I still have service as if nothing happened. Did I fall through a crack or what? How many others aren't paying a dime for flashcom's service? Is it any wonder they went bankrupt?