Well, the FCC screwed us yesterday; they ruled that local phone companies no longer have to provide DSL capability to competing companies (eg., Earthlink, Speakeasy, etc.) at rates other than those set by the local phone company. Consumers Union has denounced the ruling because it will "stifle competition" and even Earthlink admits it is going to be tough. This is the same thing they did to the voice phone service a year or so ago. Customers and ISP's are given 12 months to decide what they are going to do, before this goes into effect.

Now what?

Karl

It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Here is a good [url=http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/12319362.htm]article[/url] on the ruling. Sounds like the people that might get hit hardest are the ones in rural areas. I think it would really cause too much of an uproar if they were to clip everyone in a big city.

I don't know about that; SBC drove AT&T (which they are now trying to buy anyway) out of the phone service market in Dallas, TX, so I don't see why they can't drive out Earthlink, Speakeasy and others from the broadband market the same way.

Karl

i signed up with SBC in april 2005 because i didn't think i was able to get other service for one reason or another. from the beginning i was bumped off the internet because of using the phone (the whole reason to get DSL!) and crappy phone service - static on the line etc...while on the internet. last week, my internet just went down - over the course of a week, i spent about 7 hours on the phone with SBC and they couldn't identify the problem so told me it was the modem and sent me a new one which took 3-5 business days which fell over the weekend so my service was down for 8 days! when i got the new modem, it still didn't work so i called my computer manufacturer - i had to spend $99 for the support since i was 5 months beyond my warranty but they helped me - SBC took me through virtually all of the steps the manufacturer did except about 2 - SBC should have been able to help me with this - they were 2 steps away from solving the problem but since they stick to the scripts and prompts, they kep passing me around. now, SBC has offered me a $5.32 in my bill - i asked for a month's compensation and a waiver of the early termination fee - they refused - i recommend looking for any other service than SBC and i will definately be looking so that when my contract is up, i won't support them anymore!

If you live where there is cable service (and I assume you do if you can get DSL phone service) read the latest update (scroll to the bottom if you don't want to read the whole thing!) to my nightmare exerience with them at [url]http://sbc.karltipple.com[/url] .

I have received some really helpful advice and suggestions from other readers of my site and this thread.

P.S. I'm sorry the link above did not work before; just discovered it and fixed it November 26.

KarlT

I have had nothing but trouble with SBC for my phone (local and long distance) and my web service. The last couple of weeks have been so bad its absolutely remarkable. About a month ago I opened my phone bill to find out my long distance plan had been hijacked by Sprint. SBC said that there was nothing they could do even though I was signed up for their long distance plan. It took over 3 hours on the phone to get it cleared up.
2 weeks ago my e-mail stopped working. After a couple hours on the phone with them the final result was "too bad you'll have to get another e-mail address and start over:. I was so fed up that I cancelled my phone and internet on the spot.
Guess what ...they charged me $200 for ending my contract early! I couldn't believe they cut me off and then I cancelled the service but they want to charge me for it.
I have never encountered a more incompetent bunch in my life. The process of fixing anything with these people is worse than I've ever experienced. You can spend hours on the phone only to be cut off.

Good Luck getting your $200 SBC AT&T Yahoo or whoever you are.

I have recently found that if you write their Chief Operating Officer rather than the worthless over paid crook CEO, you do much better. It finally dawned on me to write to him, certified with green signature card receipt, and in less than a week, a woman from his office called to ask what she could do for me. Try it!

Mr. Randall L. Stephenson, COO
SBC Communications, Inc.
175 East Houston
San Antonio, TX 78205-2233

Next, get yourself a web site and run your email thru it, and you will never have to put up with the problems of any ISP's mail, which is problematic at best, based on my experiences with SBC and before that, with AT&T.

[URL]http://sbc.karltipple.com[/URL]

It is the same in Australia as even those a certain phone company called Telsuck (people in Australia would know who I am talking about and why I call it Telsuck) owns the line, other phone companies rents the line off Telsuck.

Yes, in theory you can sign up with another telephone company, but in practice, the US government has ruled that local phone companies who own the lines no longer have to rent their phone lines to anyone else at a reasonable price. Same with cable companies. As a result, in the US, it is almost impossible to get much financial advantage any more (in my experience) by trying to go with someone in my area other than the owner of the phone lines (SBC in my case).

Yes, there is about a $5/month gain in going with a competitor, but that leaves one in a mess when the phone lines get messed up . . . who do you think is going to get their DSL service back up first?

Also, before SBC bought out AT&T, I was with AT&T up until almost 2 years ago for my regular phone service because I was on dial-up with AT&T also, and altho they used the SBC lines, when I asked them for DSL service, they said "Go with SBC if you want DSL"! And that was before the government ruled against them!

Of course that is all academic now because SBC has bought out the remains of AT&T, having helped run them into the ground (altho granted AT&T management was mostly responsible for their demise).

KarlT

[URL]http://sbc.karltipple.com[/URL]