darrelld
12-02-2000, 10:49 PM
I hate the phone companies for many reasons,and this is one of them. I waited for a year for Uswest to figure out how to get DSL to my home which was 1000ft. beyond their limit. While I waited I contacted 3 other ISP's that could give me DSL using my existing phone lines. The catch was it would take a minimum of 45 days to get it installed, because of whatever it was that Uswest had to do to my lines.
This is an excerpt from an article I just read:This week, the stock prices of digital subscriber line's primary service providers-- Covad Communications Inc., NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. and Rhythms NetConnections Inc.-- hovered around $1 amid news of layoffs, failed deals and scuttled expansion plans. And as insiders pointed to the slack Internet economy and the powerful ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers) as keys to the providers' demise, those same ILECs such as Verizon Communications and BellSouth Corp. are poised to push DSL further.
"What have the ILECs done to slow down or impede our growth? In short, everything they could do," said Brian Farley, Rhythms' associate general counsel, in Englewood, Colo. From taking too long to provide lines to demanding unacceptable terms and rates for co-location, the incumbents have hurt the fledgling DSL providers.
"I don't think [the Regional Bell Operating Companies] have played fair," said Marc Liggio, an analyst at Allied Business Intelligence Inc., in Oyster Bay, N.Y. "When it takes three, four or five months to get a line rolled out, that delays growth."
Those delays made growth difficult and profit impossible. Analysts now question whether the DSL companies will survive at all, particularly NorthPoint, which is reportedly down to its last $150 million in cash.
Needless to say I went with cable, which I should have done a year ago, and it only took them 5 days to get it installed.
If your looking for broadband and your only option is DSL through your phone company by all means get it, but if there are other options available please give them serious consideration before supporting these kind of business practices.
Darrell
This is an excerpt from an article I just read:This week, the stock prices of digital subscriber line's primary service providers-- Covad Communications Inc., NorthPoint Communications Group Inc. and Rhythms NetConnections Inc.-- hovered around $1 amid news of layoffs, failed deals and scuttled expansion plans. And as insiders pointed to the slack Internet economy and the powerful ILECs (incumbent local exchange carriers) as keys to the providers' demise, those same ILECs such as Verizon Communications and BellSouth Corp. are poised to push DSL further.
"What have the ILECs done to slow down or impede our growth? In short, everything they could do," said Brian Farley, Rhythms' associate general counsel, in Englewood, Colo. From taking too long to provide lines to demanding unacceptable terms and rates for co-location, the incumbents have hurt the fledgling DSL providers.
"I don't think [the Regional Bell Operating Companies] have played fair," said Marc Liggio, an analyst at Allied Business Intelligence Inc., in Oyster Bay, N.Y. "When it takes three, four or five months to get a line rolled out, that delays growth."
Those delays made growth difficult and profit impossible. Analysts now question whether the DSL companies will survive at all, particularly NorthPoint, which is reportedly down to its last $150 million in cash.
Needless to say I went with cable, which I should have done a year ago, and it only took them 5 days to get it installed.
If your looking for broadband and your only option is DSL through your phone company by all means get it, but if there are other options available please give them serious consideration before supporting these kind of business practices.
Darrell