[conspire] Communications, a lack thereof

[Ross Bernheim]

On Dec 30,  02007, at 10:30 AM, Rick Moen wrote:

> Quoting Ross Bernheim (rossbernheim at speakeasy.net):
>
>> Thanks to AT&T, someone of their technicians disconnected my DSL  
>> line.
>
> PacBell^W SBC^W AT&T seems to do this very frequently, and, oddly, are
> reported to almost never "accidentally" disconnect their _own_ DSL  
> gear,
> only those of competing companies.
>
> Me, I'd file a formal complaint with the PUC, citing particulars of
> every investigatory call I made to AT&T, and all the points on which
> they fell down.

It is a continuing saga. It is Monday morning and I am waiting for  
AT&T and Covad to
have their technicians have a joint meet at the Central Office to get  
things fixed. Covad
finally got a senior enough technician to know what he was doing to  
check their system
and it is good up until it goes into the AT&T portion of the CO.

I am appalled by the lack of even basic troubleshooting skills among  
both the Covad and
AT&T technicians. Given the symptoms they should have taken no more  
than a day or two
at max to find and correct the problem, not 2 weeks!

As to writing the PUC, Protect the Utilities Commission, it would do  
no good to tell them what
they already know and have ample documentation on and have failed to  
act to protect the
consumer on for years. It is no accident that there are almost no  
competitors left in the DSL
provisioning business anymore after years of PacHell, Staffed By  
Cretins (sorry, don't mean to
insult the residents of Crete.) and now the Death Star. Cost cutting  
to eliminate any competent
people, customer service, and anyone who believes in fair business  
practices have been doing
an excellent job of helping them "respond" to the needs of other DSL  
providers who use AT&T's
last mile of copper.

Unfortunately, I do not have cable where I live. We are unlikely to  
get cable, Sprint no longer offers
their wireless service to new customers, so my alternatives are  
limited short of moving elsewhere.
The FCC, State PUCs and a sleeping Congress have placed the US of A in  
the status of second
or third world connectivity with no end in sight.

Hopefully they will get it fixed this time.

Ross