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]