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DIRECTV Broadband Shuts Down
Phroggy writes "Effective today (Friday the 13th), DIRECTV Broadband is officially out of business. The company will remain partially operational for the next 60 to 90 days, and we will work to transition our roughly 160,000 customers to another provider. Details are still sketchy. So, anybody gonna be hiring in the Portland area in a couple months?" There's a press release about the shutdown.
I guess it's "last post" for them!
For those of us who do tech support and sometimes run into DirecTV broadband issues, can I just say, yippee!
DirecTV is the only residential provider in my area that provides static IP, hopefully i'll run across somewhere else. btw the support phone number has a message basically saying that they are shutting down within the next 30 days and to please not call them anymore.
Please keep in my that my ADHD keeps me a little scatter brained and I sometimes can't focus long enough to
I dunno why they posted this under "Ask Slashdot", but here's some more info:
DSLReports (forum)
DirecTV DSL (info for customers)
Press Release from Hughes (parent company of DirecTV)
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Well, here's their customer FAQ that explains a lot.
Kill Trolls Dead. Here's
I swear I saw advertisements for DirecTV DSL just the other day. Is this sudden or what?
I don't read or respond to AC posts
Fsck! And I just said how good their prices and service was in the previous story! DirecTV is really hurting, they needed to cut their losses to keep their DBS system going.
What a shame! They might be missed.
Directvinternet.com
directvdsl.com (formerly Telocity)
telocity.com
The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.
Not too big of a surprise. You have no idea how many times people would ask me (sys admin) about internet connections and DirecTV-DSL came up. Of course the number one question - DOES IT WORK OVER THE SATELLITE!!!??? People could never get past the DirecTV name, and therefore seemed to shy away from the service because they were either confused or thought they had to subscribe to satellite service to get the service. The term "DSL" means nothing to anybody but people like us. To everyone else, they only look at the DirecTV part and make assumptions on that. I mean, their satellite service is named DIRECWAY - that's a hell of a lot more separation than DIRECTVDSL. Of course, they probably thought the name would be the selling point - but unfortunately, DSL and satellite service don't mix.
I don't see any mention of Portland in the press release. Is there a Portland office shutting down?
Well, if that's the case then join the party... there are plenty of us here not working.
So, how large was their employee base?
What does this bode for folks in nearby cities (like Seattle, for example) who are currently battling an already shitty tech market?
-Unemployed in Seattle
I got to reading some other headlines about broadband companies. This got me to thinking -- is anyone doing well in this market right now?!
... Satellites, digital subscriber lines and cable modems are the three ...
... DirecTV Broadband, based in Cupertino, was acquired by Hughes in April ... it's working ...
... help ISPs stimulate the UK broadband market, which has already boomed over the last ...
...
... necessary because he has heard residents complain about the lack of options from ...
... why doesn't BT act as a branded reseller for third-party cable service providers? ... Instead ...
This is really upsetting because broadband is so important to so many people these days. Geeks, eBay'ers, etc. need to be connected, and ISPs, telcos, etc. don't seem to be able to provide fairly cheap, reliable service.
Hughes shutdown strands broadband users
CNET News.com - 8 minutes ago
major ways Web providers deliver broadband to homes and offices.
Hughes to close terrestrial broadband operation
Bizjournals.com - 1 hour ago
toward transitioning existing customers to alternative service providers.
Hughes Shuttering a Fast ISP Unit - TheStreet.com
Broadband prices to rise in early 2003
ZDNet.co.uk, UK - 7 hours ago
12 months. "Recent advertising campaigns from BT and its service providers
BTw in new year ADSL promo - The Register
AOL's Iffy Broadband Deals
InternetNews.com - 12 Dec 2002
But the hefty carriage fees it faces from cable providers add up to iffy
prospects for making money off broadband, consumer advocates say.
The Layoffs That Stole Christmas - Washington Post
AOL's Iffy Broadband Deals - InternetNews.com
AOL's Parsons: "This Isn't Terminal" - BusinessWeek
Local cable TV, Internet choices debated
Hampton Union, NH - 7 hours ago
AT&T Broadband and Comcast, the town's current Internet and cable providers.
BT fails to make the connection
CW360.com, UK - 14 hours ago
of waiting until the local level of demand for broadband justifies an
...but it looks like I was beat to the punch. Oh well.
/. has the news. If anyone has info, or is in the same boat as me, please post any news you get about returning your gateway and dropping service before it begins. I figure it'd just be easier to wipe my hands of the service before it even begins, and sign up with someone else.
I JUST signed up with DTV DSL, and my gateway was in the mail as of yesterday. I'm really pissed, but at the same time I really feel for those hundreds of folks that came to work just to find out they didn't have jobs anymore.
I am a bit pissed that not a single email has been sent out about this. Apparently people are just finding out via forums, and now
Thanks, and good luck to those who were laid off.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Although the consumer broadband landscape is hardly a profitable area in today's business environment, the DirecTV unit's death could not be chalked up to slim margins alone. Just as they have utterly failed to prevent the theft of their premium television channels, DirecTV had placed little or no access control on their broadband network. I know this for a fact because I know of no fewer than five people who are able to get internet service from DirecTV for free, with some slightly modified equipment. Obviously, hiring a bunch of half wits to secure your network does not help the matter.
Sorry, but DirecTVDSL had nothing to do with satellite broadboand, just dsl. They had a good service at a good price (never had a problem with mine).
Unfortunately, this was largely due to the large amounts of bandwidth unfairly utilized by the "power users" of the network, who used applications such as KazAA and Napster most likely to pirate music and other questionable activities.
This was not the problem. The main problem was having to do business with ILECs, which are monopolies that compete against us. A secondary problem was some not-so-bright management decisions, and not being able to offer value-added services (and collect additional revenue) because the main database system was designed by morons.
It is sad that we will no longer be able to get satellite TV here because a few people using DSL had to ruin it for everyone else by getting greedy.
Huh? DirecTV Broadband has nothing to do with DirecTV satelite.
Why can't people just take what they need, instead of running off with everything that isn't nailed down?
Because they're offered unlimited service.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I highly recommend speakeasy if you need another option. The provide good service and have the smoothest installation I've seen. I also got a free PS/2 out of them when I signed up :)
This sig has been temporarily disconnected or is no longer in service
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Nothing, it was just a DSL service that happened to be offered by DirecTV (they acquired it from some other company not that long ago). Cool thing (at least for me) was that it actually was what they advertised. I signed up online, got my dsl modem after being informed that my dsl line was up (and within the time period they specified) and I plugged it in and ran with it. Hadn't had a peep or problem with it since. A shame.
What does DSL have to do with a dish service? Did people have to have the satelite service + the DSL service as a package to get it? Was there any discount?
Marketing had some package deals going on, and I think they managed to get combined billing working, but other than that, no, DirecTV Broadband has nothing to do with DirecTV.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Stream, XO, Powell's, Wal-Mart, Plaid Pantry, Fred Meyer ....
Oh, you want a high-paying IT job? Better start thinking about your own business, and I don't mean consulting. It's death valley for IT in Oregon right now.
Finding God in a Dog
I'm on DirecTV DSL right now...so I have 60-90 days to switch to new ISP?
Funny, last night I was talking to my family about which ISP we should switch to, because my DirecTV DSL was down for about 90 mins, and once it was back up (past 11 pm PST) we went to DSL Reports. I looked at good backbones, Level(3) and SBC look good.
I'm lookin at PacBell DSL By SBC.
Does anyone have any good alternative for aDSL with a Static IP? (We are a family with a Linksys router and several switches)
About two or three years ago, Hughes bought out Telocity and rebranded Telocity as DirecTV DSL.
It was about that same time that (IIRC) Rhythms went under. Anyway, I remember I had something like 30 days to find another DSL provider because Telocity (now DirecTV) would no longer run on my Rhythms line. Too bad -- because it was SDSL 1500/1500. Pretty nice speed actually.
Anyway, I ended up going to Speakeasy and haven't had a problem. I pay twice as much, though -- almost 100 bucks a month.
*shrug*
So it goes.
That is crap. Just because a user is using tons of bandwidth does not make them a criminal. The business plan was flawed -- and that is the reason they are going out of business.
Great! Finally, an opportunity for the underdog to topple the stronghold DirecTV had on the Satellite Broadband provision network.
DirecTV Broadband has nothing to do with DirecTV satelite.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
no.. They charge $49.99 a month.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
Does this mean I stil have to mail them their modem or I get to keep it permently? I would nto mind keeping it so I can hack around with it. Any ideas? Can it be used as a normal DSL modem?
The funny thing is.. there is a sticker on it and it still says Telocity.com on it.
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
I would seek a "cancellation fee", hell the wireless and satelite companies have been doing it to us for years, now it's time to get one back.
Why is it ok for them to charge us to cancel but they can stop providing service at a moments notice and not be liable.
Kind of a double standard.
And yes I know it's probably written somewhere in the contacts that they are not liable.. blah blah blah. It's simply unfair to the consumer.
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
It was $49.99/month, and the vast majority of our 160,000 customers got good speeds. For those that didn't, our service was no worse than any other ISP offering DSL service on the same phone line.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
They saved me from low bandwidth hell a couple of years ago. They were the first to offer broadband service to my house.
$50/month with a static IP address. Hughes spent some money when they bought Telocity. When I first got the service (Telocity days) there were a lot of dropped packets and a few problems but it was better than nothing. Over the last year, it has been great. Never goes down, fast transfers.
I guess I need to go find a new provider now. Good luck finding a static IP for $50/month. At least I write off the service as a business expense so Uncle Sam takes part of the hit as well. Serves them right for their dipshit telecom policies.
Too good a service and too good a price, hence the money-losing company that had to be shut down.
Yep, over 10,000 domains set up for free. That means over 6% of our user base has domain hosting. Still more do their own hosting, which we allow (officially residential only, but we don't care unless you're causing a problem).
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Why do I get the feelign the same thing is going to happen, as when Flashcom, Winfire and part of megapath went down, a large number of dsl modems will be sold on ebay?
NO! NO! Please don't mod me, I'm too young to die a troll. *click* Oh the pain, the pain...
Not sure if DirecTV offered a Linux compatible satellite internet solution, but I think I would have noticed it if they did.
As far as I know, you're correct, DirecWay and DirecPC are Windows-only (maybe Mac too, but I'm not even sure of that).
As opposed to DirecTV Broadband, which has UNIX installation instructions in the manual.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
No, they aren't. Leave. Leave now. I searched for vain for a year for any position in Portland/Vancouver after being RIF'd.
There are no jobs in Portland.
Run. Run very fast.
Stay away from Hughes "Directway" Sattelite Internet!!! They have a policy affectionately known as "FAP" (Fair access policy) that effectively turns your "high speed" connection into something closer to dialup... for more information, see this page.
I got nothing but crap from DIRECTV Broadband in the wake of the Rhythms collapse last fall. Despite being guaranteed that my SDSL service would continue, it shut down mid-September. I tried for three months to get it repaired and got repeated promises that it would be fixed. Finally, I "cancelled" (how can you cancel non-existant service?) in frustration. Three months later, the bills starting rolling in. DIRECTV was trying to charge me for two months of service I never got, and they claimed that I cancelled my service!
Needless to say, I was furiously pissed. I spent six months trading letters and faxes, got sent to collections, appealed, and was denied. I finally deemed the issue not worth my time and paid the stupid bill.
So, F*ck You, DIRECTV. You got what you deserved. I've spent the last year at 26kbps dialup. Thank God that AT&T/Comcast will finally be completing their broadband upgrade in my city next month.
- Necron69
Too good a service and too good a price, hence the money-losing company that had to be shut down.
Does make you wonder exactly what the economics of it was. Their price was decent, comparable to cable and their service was reliable (at least for me). So was this a case of simply not having enough customers, customers hogging bandwidth (I wouldn't believe this one, if so why didn't they just put bandwidth caps and offer tiered service?), to much profit going to the telcos for the lines, etc?
I posted a Programming position in the Oregonian and all I got was 20 replies. I mean, just cus your out of a job doesn't mean you should stop looking. Where are all the real programmers? So is the market really that bad? Flyondawall
Rhythms was nice. I was plenty pissed when they went down and Telocity was the provider picking up my line. Their terms of service and prices sucked. That's when I switched to Speakeasy. Turned out great. I still have both the DSL modems from Rhythms and Speakeasy.
I guess it may be their last post, but this operation has always been kind of a "phoenix", rising from the ashes. (Or perhaps soiling themselves with said same.)
Here's why:
DirecTV DSL, a subsidiary of Hughes, which is in turn owned by General Motors, was formerly known as Telocity until Hughes purchased them in July 2001.
In my part of the country, the switch to the corporate entity Telocity occurred at about the same time as Northpoint bankruptcy forced a CLEC switch from Northpoint to Covad for some customers of Megapath. In October 2000, Megapath had purchased the assets and customer base of an ISP. Megapath kept the business customers of that ISP and spun off their residential customers to Chicago-based Telocity.
And the name of that ISP? Formerly-St. Louis-based Phoenix Networks, founded by a guy named Peter Roberts, who evolved a one-man network integration business into a rapid-growth internet service. Of course that Phoenix should not to be confused with Phoenix the BIOS that has the legal team that is making Phoenix the superlative web browser change it's name, none of which is happening in Phoenix.
Dizzy yet? I know I am. Hope I got at least the broad strokes right. Anyway, I'm glad I got off that Merry-Go-Round during what seemed to be a weekend-stay at MegaPath, though I supported a few friends throught the multiple changes that followed. Maybe the ride finally is coming to a stop.
...they are going out of business. How exactl do you propose they pay you a cancellation fee? If they had any money to pay you, they'd still be in business!
"And like that
"What does DSL have to do with a dish service?"
They have one very important feature in common: Neither of them are cable.
DirecTV is competing directly with the cable companies (and doing damn good job of it, IMHO). The cable companies, what with their government-mandated monopoly on coax, gets to offer "deals" where you can subscribe to digital cable for X years and get "free" (or at least "cheap") cable internet service. DirecTV wanted to compete against this with their own broadband offering, but DirecWay is still too pricey and still (for the most part) requires USB. So they decided to offer DSL service as well. The theory was that, just like with Cox/Comcast/TW/etc, you could have TV and broadband on one bill. That, and you get to continue to tell your local cable company to sit on it and rotate.
Anybody know when EarthLink will lower the price of their DirecWay prices and/or offer ethernet hardware?
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I'm a former sys-admin who is working at Stream right now. Its not very high paying, but sometimes helping people out is pretty rewarding. There is a career path - its comforting to know that all my supervisors, site director and service delivery manager all started out on the phones just like me.
Plus its amazing how much you learn - I know more about the product (desktop publishing/graphics software) I support then probably most anyone on here.
Also I'm learning a lot about how to deal with diffucult people - a must in almost any job. I've literally made people who were screaming at me apologize for being so rude.
After all this I still want out because it is a very hard job for the pay. In the end though if I was in charge of hiring someone on a help desk I would look for call center (tech support) experience. Especially when you consider the success rate of most support techs here. Personally I can take a cold call - not know anything about the customers system, its quirks etc (I support mac, windows and sometimes unix products) and well over 90% solve there sometimes complex problem.
Just yesterday I got through a week and a half of tech support of finally getting my dad's DSL up and running without going down for hours at a time and they hit me with this. I just hope whoever (if) takes over has as good tech support. Seriosuly though they had some great tech support personell, very helpfull.
Ironic...
Eddy.WriteLinux.Com
I've been through a lot of providers in the last 2 and half years (phoenixdsl sdsl, megapath sdsl, telocity sdsl, and directvdsl most recently, all "ceasing service" for one reason or another), and have just (luckily, and by chance) signed up for speakeasy dsl to replace my directvdsl (sorry speakeasy customers, this may doom them too). So far, speakeasy has been great, even though the service was due to work as of today and does not yet. But overall, even with the bellsouth-provided hardships I had with directvdsl, I have to say their tech support people were by far the best I've ever encountered. A particular one named "Erin" was the best broadband techie individual I've ever experienced. In this day of really really really lousy tech support (bellsouth, bellsouth, bellsouth and bellsouth) they were a shining beacon of hope. Hate to see them go, even though I was about to cancel anyway (speakeasy gives me adsl with 2 static ips and better upload). Good luck to their tech support dept.
All those people in the marketing and sales departments were just canned with no warning.
I'm surprised no one has picked up on the fact that DirecTV DSL's demise was largely due to the failed merger between Hughes and EchoStar (owner of the Dish Network). Anytime a large merger fails, the losers have to jettison the dead weight that might have otherwise been supported through the strength of the combined companies. DirecTV's broadband operations are expected to lose more than $100 million this year, so it's not surprising that Hughes pulled the plug. Especially when you consider the service did not share infrastructure with the satellite operations (essentially Hughes bought Telocity a year and a half ago and repackaged it with the DirecTV service).
I've had it for two years and have had good service, aside from the flaky Fujitsu Speedport modems (yeah, I know they're not technically modems). The tech support guys are friendly and go out of their way to return calls, send people out, and fix problems.
The service is pretty cheap, too. I got in when it was 32.95/month + fees. Now I think it's $39.95 which is still a good deal for 768/384 up/down kbps, dynamic ip. Dynamic IP hasn't been a problem since I use dyndns for a free domain name.
To abuse department: HA! I told you that you were ruining the company! Shut my connection down for a month because I had a virus for a few days (which I fixed before I was disconnected) See what happens? Put this on your shoulder and walk home!
To everyone else: My condolences, but I warned you that abuse department was trouble...
I've waited almost a year for revenge.
But seriously, anyone else know of anyone this cheap with static IP?
I think a lot of people do. I think that had a lot to do with their problem. Even though I knew better, I stayed away from them, because I figured this was going to happen sooner or later. There are enough people clued into the fact that Satellite Internet sucks. They should have called it DirectDSL...
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
I know the HR people for the large IT employers (NIKE, Intel) they numbers show IT unemployment at 30-40%.
A large part of that is not just the economy, its overseas contracting thats taking a lot of Jobs.
I suggest you write our elect officials and get them to impose some sort of tax or tarif on over seas out-sourced labor. Yes, Im serious. It is impossible to compete on a monetary level, and most management just see the numbers now, not the numbers for the people to fix the crap they get from overseas.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
DirecTV DSL. Think about it. A satellite communications provider, who is... uh... borrowing land-line cables from the local telephone company to provide DSL access, the same that everyone else does, straight to your house, with very little distinguishing characteristics. DirecTV didn't seem to have any special advantage in this market. In fact, it really didn't have a whole lot to do with them. (Sure, there was a tangent relationship to their DirectPC or DirecWay service.)
If the Internet boom had continued for much longer, maybe they would have integrated it into a land-line video distribution service or something. But that would have taken an even bigger Internet bubble to happen (and an even bigger bubble to prevent that from failing when the bubble popped).
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
It may be different where you are, but under state law here, cable companies may NOT be given an exclusive franchise by the local municipality. Rather, it's simple economics that leads to most areas having only one system: very few places (think: Manhattan) have sufficent population density to support competing cable runs.
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
their shit is a mess
run the other way
screaming
My local DSL provider is the telco co-operative, so I'm not too worried about ever losing service on phone or DSL. I guess I am one of the few lucky ones who have that luxury.
I've got similar service from Road Runner (although it sets me back $50/month), but as we all know the cable pipe is *shared.*
The original poster took that into account.
35*40=1400/month/subnet
Maybe you share with 50 others to get the cheaper price.
KFG
Speakeasy is a good service, but expensive, and upload is capped at 128K (Covad) for low-end residential ADSL vs SDSL.
Replace DirectTV DSL with Cyberonic (Worldcom/UUNet reseller)...
1500/768, static IP, no port blocking, $40/$50
http://www.cyberonic.com/int_for_home_dsl.shtml
There are consumer reviews of their service here:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/
I had Speakeasy for two years, excellent, but pricey. With Cyberonic (dumb name!) I get similar pings to my Speakeasy SDSL, and massive uploads.
Da Blog
If the users were allowed to max out their connections for long periods of time under their service agreement it doesn't matter. It isn't the responsibility of the customers to keep the business viable, it is the responsibility of the executives and employees of the company.
Speakeasy is a good service, but expensive, and upload is capped at 128K (Covad) for low-end residential ADSL vs SDSL.
Replace DirectTV DSL with Cyberonic (Worldcom/UUNet reseller)...
1500/768, static IP, no port blocking, $40/$50
http://www.cyberonic.com/int_for_home_dsl.shtml
There are consumer reviews of their service here:
http://www.dslreports.com/forum/
I had Speakeasy for two years, excellent, but pricey. With Cyberonic (dumb name!) I get similar pings to my Speakeasy SDSL, and massive uploads. Teh support aren't as friendly, but I don;t have to stay on hold for 30 mins at a time.
Da Blog
Just FREAKING great.
Damn Slashdot finds out before the freaking customers do.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
Hear, hear...
I had great experiences with DirecTV DSL tech support. If I could remember their names I'd be naming them right now. Nice to have support by a person with a clue, not just someone reading a script. Also, the initial set-up was alarmingly easy. Whole thing took about 3-5 minutes.
And for the usual slashdot crowd, their description of how to setup with Linux, something along the line of, 'just plug it in, it already works'
...fuck. I have been with them since they were just Telocity and have thoroughly enjoyed being with a provider which not only specifically allowed me to run a server but supplied me with a static IP as well. The static IP is negligable, thanks to dyndns.org, but I hope my new provider is as serever-friendly as DTV was. Bummer. I had a bit of trouble with my connection ever since the beginning and it finally went away last month. Crap. Oh well. Such is life.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Warning! Don't click on his sig!
You're using her as bait, Master!
My understanding is that its proprietary, and wont work with any other providers.
The reverse has not been true however. There were other models of DSL devices that would work with Telocity.
----- LoboSoft specializes in Digital Language Lab
Not to knock slashdot (read: please don't mod me down, I promise I'm not a troll!), but I am disappointed to learn of this here. I would like for them to have informed me of this directly. I mean, jeez, did they fire the guy who keeps track of their mailing lists already?
I've used the service since the Telocity days, and am profoundly sad to see it go. Not many ISPs out there value freedom of information enough to be server-friendly/static IP, and I don't much enjoy seeing less of them in the world.
I guess I'll spend the next few weeks poring over AUPs. :sigh:
Does this mean I stil have to mail them their modem or I get to keep it permently? I would nto mind keeping it so I can hack around with it. Any ideas? Can it be used as a normal DSL modem?
It's not fake, it really is a router - so no, it won't work with another ISP, unless you could get the ISP to spoof Telocity's servers, which they could only do if they had inside knowledge of exactly what the gateway is looking for when it tries to download configs.
You'll notice you're on a 4-IP subnet. Add one to the last octet of your IP address; that's the gateway's LAN interface. The gateway also has a WAN interface on a different subnet. It's a router.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
>Unfortunately, this was largely due to the large amounts of bandwidth unfairly utilized by the "power users" of the network
Funny, I would have blamed it on the corporate dumb-heads that didn't do a cost ananlysis of the situation.
That's what one normally does. Does one blame Ford or customers for Ford going out of business if they said to everyone "Go ahead and take a Ford, for free, for as long as you need it" and noticed everyone keeping them?
A proper business plan would have included a limit. For example, 10 Gigs for $50.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
So within two years I ran the whole gamut:
No my former roommate, who still lives there, will be going to BellSouth as his ISP. I just went ahead and ordered Bellsouth at my new house anyway, maybe I knew this was coming.
-CausticPuppy "Of all the people I know, you're certainly one of them." -Somebody I don't know
You just slashdotted kavi. I do this, too. Whenever some mononeuronic bozon refuses to hire me, about twice a month, I let everyone know that said fool is looking for someone who can really make Flash spit wooden nickels to promote sophisticated websites, or something else that a typical loser would jump on. Then the guy gets buried in email that he would probably like if he didn't get so much of it.
I guess I'll be logging off for good. I've used every available provider in my area, either first hand or second hand and I promise you NONE of them have anything near the service of DirectTVDSL/Telocity.
In fact, in this town there were only two classes of provider. All of them that suck (all of them), and Telocity which didn't.
Static IP, no PPPoe bullshit, 256k uplink (384 if you're lucky), fixed price, and they let you do whatever you want.
I've run my web-server off of their service for over a year now, and I can count the number of times my connection has failed on one hand.
I literally would rather go without an internet connection than use the alternatives available to me. And that's sad but it's true.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
A larger issue was the database of "availability", which was maintained and abused by the local bells. This list kept me from using their service and must be one small part of the "regulatory environment", refered to in the give up letter, that prevents profitable operation in the forseable future.
I got one of their modems when they were Telocity and thought the service was better than cable due to their enlightened and friendly user contracts. They gave you a static IP with no restrictions other than don't do anything malicious. No port blocks or any of that, just a simple line deal.
Then I moved a few blocks. BellSouth told me that service was not available in my new house and could not tell me how long it would be before it was available. I asked to be notified of availability and killed my DSL contract. Two week later, before I'd even sent the modem back, BellSouth calls to tell me that service is available. Great, I tell them, I'll get back to you. Phoning DirectTV, I'm informed that I can't just keep my modem and transfer my account to my new address. The service must be formally killed and fomally started. All of that fomality takes more than a month and service is, suprise, not available when it's over. Nor has it been available for more than a year. I checked regularly and have both BellSouth and DirectTV primed to notify me.
BellSouth's contract, if you can find it, sucked. It had server prohibitions, unilateral change clauses and all the other stupid stuff to make it useless for all but browsing. Why would a telco do that? Gee, I wonder why.
The internet is dying as it becomes more difficult for indivituals to run their own sites. It's not that they don't get it, it's that they don't want you to have it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Warning! You really have reached the end of the internet. With us at least."
"We shall show mercy, but we shall not ask for it" -- Winston Churchill
F*ck You, DIRECTV... Thank God that AT&T/Comcast will finally be completing their broadband upgrade in my city next month.
You will be sorry. We all know what kind of service you get from the local bell. If it were not for them selling my number to telemarketers, I'd never consider paying them for an unlisted number or any of the other expensive anti-anoyance so many fools feel compeled to purchase. Read their ToS, weep, and know it will get worse as their competitors die off. Ever heard the phrase, "You can't fight the phone company"? You will come to learn what it means. Just try telling the local Bell to fuck off, it might be a federal crime.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Do you do windows and route tables?
"A proper business plan would have included a limit. For example, 10 Gigs for $50."
No.
If we're going to take this simplistic view of their business model, let's at least think it through to a minimal level. First of all, you lose a number of potential customers who fear going over the limit (or know for a fact that they will). Secondly, you have additional costs associated with such things as having to constantly tell people how close to the limit they are and having customers dispute how much they've transfered in a given time period. You'll then lose those customers who you don't give in to and they'll generate significant bad press. You can also forget collecting the last month's bill from many of those who leave who will decide that since your company is so incredibly greedy, you deserve nothing. Next, for the few customers you have left, most of them will switch as soon as an otherwise comparable service without the 10GB limit becomes available to them.
So, after cutting off potential revenue, alienating otherwise loyal customers, racking up huge numbers of "uncollectable"'s, and generating enough bad press to make Arie Flischer cry, your company's offices are raided by your creditors just before your disgruntled former customer burn your offices to the ground. Congratulations.
Caps work in very specific situations: when you have a monopoly on high-speed internet access, when your customers are perfectly happy to take limits on their use, and when any potential competitors also have similar limits. A better idea would be to introduce a tiered pricing scheme with limits on speed, as opposed to data transfer. A service at around $20 per month with speeds only slightly higher than dial-up would slaughter the dial-up market (same cost, better speed, no dialing up/missed calls/annoying modem noises), a $50 tier with speeds similar to what we see today in home broadband, and one or two higher end services with speeds that go up along-side the price; perhaps in the $100 and $200 ranges. This effectively limits your customers' total monthly data transfers without imposing limits that would increase costs to you while alienating your customer base.
But then again, any business with a single and specific method of generating revenue is pretty much doomed to fail anyway. Diversification is a necessary component in any business model, along-side strong management and adaptability. While you may wish to turn a cold shoulder to the so-called "power users", I would much rather solve the situation by putting a well thought out tiered pricing scheme in place, and modifying it once a year to ensure costs stay in line with revenue.
Then again, I'm a "power user" who eats up plenty of bandwidth (no comments about pr0n/warez/etc necessary, I'm talking about dBase transfers), yet I pay Comcast twice as much as their average home user, and do so without complaint - as I suspect many "power users" would do if offered the chance. The simple lesson to be learned is this: don't restrict your customer, give them more options to choose from and ensure that any choice they make benefits you. You come out looking like the good guy while still maintaining a strong revenue foundation.
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
> As long as T1's and T3's cost the price they do,
> _someone_ has to bear that. The customer
> complains it shouldnt be them it should be the
> ISP. But why is that exactly?
All this hype that has is circling around about 10% of the users sucking up 80% of the bandwidth and thus killing broadband companies and causing the price to rise is complete and utter bullshit.
I did an economic report on the broadband industry (I would gladly post if if I had more bandwidth) and the problem is *not* that too much bandwith is being consumed, but that *not enough people have signed up for braodband thus negating the economies of scale the broadband companies projected*!!!
The marginal cost of extra bandwith is miniscule compared to the capital cost of the equipment deployed for broadband. ATT, Verizon, etc all own the backbone and have a *lot* of dark fiber they could utilize at any moment if the demand were there (the cost of a T-1 is *only* expensive to businesses because they have to pay *extra for a balanced line specifically for them* -- and their business is a much further away from the hubs then a broadband router). The problem is that *demand is not there* and the users that they do have have to offset the capital costs that they sank.
Americans are not computer educated and have no need for broadband in general. Furthermore, there is no way to generate demand for broadband until broadband is widely used (for instance, to make high-quality video availible over the Internet the companies have to have a lot of users, but there won't be a lot of high-bandwith users until high-quality video is avaiable).
Furthermore, due to the FCC deregulation causing media keiretsus, the broadband companies will not offer any service to boost demand due to conflicts of interest. For instance, Verizon could *easily* offer long-distance toll-free telephone over DSL, but this would cause the substitution effect against their own telephone service with very little income effect becuase there is little demand for broadband.
Face it, this bullshit about 10% of the users costing broadband companies too much is just that -- bullshit. If it were really an issue they could implement token bucket weighted fair queueing and everything would be fixed. It is an attempt to convince their inelastic consumers that they are hurting and need more $$ from them. It is so they can suck up consumer surplus from their inelestic consumers by introducing a-la-carte pricing while avoiding backlash by spreading this myth.
The broadband companies are hurting very much, but it has *nothing* to do with people downloading too much -- it is completely due to the fact that the number of people that have signed up are *nowhere* near their projections thus they are trying to offset their capital costs by sucking $$ out of their faithful customers.
If you need evidence of this bandwidth myth, just look at South Korea -- they have 20Mbit connections to their homes chepaer then we do and they don't have bandwidth issues. What they did as opposed to us is that the government boosted demand before broadband rollout by offering computer education virtually free to the entire country -- thus the demand was high enough to offset capital costs at the introduction and because everyone had broadband they could create apps for broadband causing more demand for broadband (and the self-feeding cycle continues).
We never met that critical demand mass here.
In summary, don't listen to the bandwidth crap. It is marketing hype to calm the masses before they start introducing by-the-megabyte pricing to suck up consumer surplus (the people who use the most bandwith are the least likely to completely drop broadband, afterall). All of this is worse then the stupid 'viral' GPL marketing crap that MS put out and now everyone seems to quote.
If I upset you, mod me to hell. If you want to discuss make a good argument.
But so many posts above were looking for other alternatives, as thier ISP is shutting down... Hence, the warning to avoid Directway as an *alternate* ISP, as they are NOT a good choice in my opinion, and from my experience...
Sure I can go back to HellSouth DSL. Pay the same price for a dynamic IP over PPPoE, dig out the crappy USB Alcatel Stingray and stick it on the laptop (only dual boot machine I have left) before calling tech support. Sounds yummy.
p.s. The actually wouldn't talk to me until I answered "Which version of Windows" while I was trying to tell them my Alcatel Speedtouch Pro (Which they provide to their business customers so it isn't unknown to them) had dropped the line sync light. Never got a usable answer to "What does my OS have to do with the modem losing line sync?"
Democrat delenda est
For my situation, Telocty (aka DirecTVDSL) was the best deal from technical and economic standpoints. Damn. They offered rock-solid static IP service that was down for only 2 hours out of the last two years. Damn. Their autoconfiguring routers were a joy to use and get up and running. Damn. I really don't want to go to SBC/PacificBell(SpecificHell) for my connectivity. Oh gawd no. Damn.
DirecPC was my only viable alternative to AT&T's now total monopoly, thanks to DSL's crappy restrictions. I was hoping sometime in the next month or two to be able to get set up with an account, latency issues be damnned, since it would no longer require me to move house just to be closer to a telco office, and could be relocated quite easily, as opposed to setting up fresh service everywhere I go.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
I truly enjoyed the year I had with SDSL, even though I had to survive three different ISPs. By far, the worst one was DIRECTV Broadband. If they can't manage to serve someone who was pounding on their door desperately trying to remain a customer, then they deserve to fail.
Have you considered the possibility that the poor service was the fault of those who will now take you r money and give you even worse service? The local bells conspired to kill all DSL providers, any and all service problems in my case were attributable to BellSouth.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Service.
I have a little horror story of my own about these guys. About 7 months ago, my internet stopped working. I called up DirecTV and ask them why...they say because my credit card had been declined. I say oh right, I forgot to tell you I switched cards...here, have my new card number.
Here is where it got ludicrous
"I'm sorry sir, I can't reactivate your account. You'll have to go through the 4-week provisioning process again."
"What! Why? I already have the equipment."
"Because your account has been cancelled."
"Why?"
"Because its been three months since your card worked."
"So why didn't you notify me, or turn off the service before cancelling my account entirely?"
"I don't know sir."
"So you won't turn my account back on?"
"No."
"Then why should I pay you?"
"Uh..."
I went round and round with them for an hour, with exactly no results. I'm now using Earthlink DSL...and I kind of like PPPoE, even if I don't get a static IP anymore.
--"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
As for bad press, I'm of course not talking about CNN covering how much your customers hate your company; people almost expect any large company to be hated by most people (a sad fact). I'm talking about people going to places like DSLreports where they can lower your ISP rating and denounce you as the new Satan on the boards there. You then get a snowball effect as many other current and former customers chime in with the always-popular, "me too" rants. This too cuts down on your potential customer base, as many people really do check out sites like DSLreports before signing up to a new ISP.
When you're a monopoly, you can do whatever you like. "Don't like this 10GB cap? Go back to dial-up." Most people can't imagine going back to dial-up after using broadband for a while, so they'll take whatever abuse you hand them. As for packet loss, I would venture a guess that upwards of 90% of people on the internet have absolutely no idea what "packet loss" is. Aside from slashdot, you've got grandma looking up cooking tips on Martha Stuart's homepage and Jr. trying to get into that pr0n site to impress his buddies. Do not forget that the elderly make up the fastest growing group of internet users. Trying to advertise a "slower" service to them by saying, "but we have less packet loss than company A!" looks like you're trying to pull a fast one on them. This is the same reason Intel doesn't try explaining pipeline stages and SSE-2 instruction sets to its customers, why AMD and Apple both try to explain similar CPU concepts, and why Intel dominates the market. You post bigger numbers than your competitors, you get more customers; regardless of quality of service.
A limit on speed is indeed a limit on data transfer. The point I was trying to make is that you can limit data transfer and keep costs down without all the problems previously mentioned by offering more choices to your customers. When you offer more choices, most people see more options without noticing the implied restrictions. As for the first tier, I would probably say go with 60/60kbps service, just so you can plainly tell people that it's faster than their 56k modem without explaining FCC regulations regarding telephone line interference. You want to get across the point that it's faster, better, and more reliable. I'm completely astounded that no one has thought to make a $20/mo broadband service, as this would effectively wipe out the dial-up market in their area.
The crazies aren't the only ones who will complain about the cap; I will. Right now, I have the ability to do much of my money-making work from home. This is side work which I make extra money from, but it involves massive databases. Now, I could sit at work this weekend and do some of these things, but thanks to an unlimited connection, I can get stuff done any time, any day I please. Do I max my connection out 24/7? No, but thanks to my much slower upload (384k as opposed to 3.5mbit downstream), I end up maxing the upload out for 2 or 3 days at a time. This was a very painful process before tier'd service became an option, so I signed up for the higher tier as soon as it became available (even before they began advertising it). As for the "Nimda patients", many of these people are folks like your mother or your grandmother. I think you would be pretty pissed off if your mother's ISP sent her a $400 bill and she had no idea why. Especially if they refused to back down (which you suggested they ought to do). What's worse is if she decides to pay that bill before cancelling the service, despite the fact that she can't really afford to do so. And sure you can say spam costs you money, but that gives you the right to complain; nothing more, really. For me, with unlimited service, spam is an annoyance. For you, spam (potentially) is a financial burden. I fail to see how that puts you in a better position. The quality of service for my connection has been excellent. As much as I dislike Comcast (they try to squeeze every dollar they can out of every customer, while often providing sub-standard service), they internet service I've had from them since they took it over from @home has been very good. The service since I went to the higher tier has been incredible. In the 6 months or so since I switched, I think I've had about an hour of downtime total (two times, one was about 15 minutes, the other was close to an hour), and that was a few weeks after I switched. Since then, I've had a truly 24/7 connection available to me at a reasonable price. While I'd love for them to offer a similarly priced tier with something like 1.5/1.0 instead of 3.5/384k, I'm not about to complain about what I have.
All I'm trying to say is that you can reach the same goals by tiering as you would by capping without most of the negatives associated with the latter. You and I both apparently think very highly of different tiers, and we're both very willing to pay more money for better service. I suspect there are many, many others like us, and many others who would love to pay less for a slower service. I would suggest the following as a strong tier system:
-- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
And that's what DirecTV DSL did... they do/did limit the amount of bandwidth you can use (2 GB uploads/month).
Technically, you don't even need DHCP. I've been with Telocity/DirecTV for almost 3 years, and have never used DHCP.
Let me guess, you're in Sterling/Ashburn, too.
I can empathise.
I want someone from directTv broadband to explain why I got a call TWO days ago trying to sell me directtv DSL? I didn't take them up on the offer but why are they selling to service to new people two days before they shutdown. BAHHH
Two days ago, only upper management knew, and they didn't tell any of the rest of us.
$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
DIRECTV is the television channels beamed down from a satellite business. They don't know nothin' 'bout them DSL connections, Miz Scarlett. This is the equivalent of someone in 1960 calling Delco to ask about a Frigidaire product just because GM owned both at the time.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
They are doing very well, actually. Listed last year as a "fastest growing company", the promo's and services they have been offering indicate that they are doing well. Evidence is that after last year, they are still around. I certainly like em, and they're getting a whole lot better than everyone else.
Check my Go-related blog for beginners: DGD
Directv has finally decided to tell its subscribers. I just now got the e-mail.