[conspire] (forw) Legacy DSL ending at Raw Bandwidth on 12/19/19 - please read carefully!

[Michael Paoli]

Alas, I'm (mostly) in same boat too with my current (ADSL) Internet
connectivity via Raw Bandwidth (over AT&T POTS copper pair).

And yes, that means changes in IPv4 IPs, most notably including
DNS servers, ... and "of course" also means arranging to get
some reasonable ISP service(s) to the residence ... including some
static IPv4 IPs.

I did also get this information in response to my query:

----- Forwarded message from mdurkin at rawbw.com -----
     Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 23:47:05 -0800 (PST)
     From: "Mike Durkin" <mdurkin at rawbw.com>
  Subject: Re: Acknowledged ... suggestions/recommendations?: Re:  
Legacy DSL ending at Raw Bandwidth on 12/19/19 - please read carefully!
       To: Michael.Paoli at cal.berkeley.edu

Michael,

> Acknowledged.
> Dang!  :-/ - service has been great*, etc.
> Hmmmm, recommendations for ... "replacement"?
> Sonic recently got their fibre to street I'm on ... and even to the
> (multi-unit) building where I reside ... so there is that.
> I do also run servers, including DNS servers, mail servers, list servers,
> ... traffic isn't all that huge.  Also presently have effectively
> 5 usable static (IPv4) IPs - will certainly need some (and more
> than one) ... 5 is and would be ample.
> And reasonable simple terms of service would be good :-)
> Raw Bandwidth quite has that (approximately:
> don't spam, don't do illegal stuff, and residential plan don't
> share outside dwelling unit).  Would be very good to *not* have
> ISP filtering stuff between me and The Internet (that generally just
> causes problems and/or issues with troubleshooting, diagnostics, etc.).
> I don't need no ISP playin' nanny on my traffic and what can/can't go
> in and out.
> And, "of course", also a reasonable price would be good.
> Suggestions/recommendations?

Sonic's fiber would generally be a decent choice, except the don't
provide static IP addresses on it and have pretty much said they
won't be.  You might be able to get a business service over it where
you might be able to get static IP from them, but I suspect it'll be a lot
more expensive.  You can get static IP from Comcast Business, or from
AT&T and their resellers.  AT&T resellers have the benefit of
no usage caps generally I think, whereas for AT&T retail I think
you either need 1Gbps FTTH to avoid usage caps, or bundling other
services might waive it.  AT&T (including resellers) provisions
static IPs a little strangely and I'm not sure of the details,
so you may want to read forums at www.dslreports.com to see what
you need to get it to as close as bridge mode as possible. I'm
also not sure if you need a business service on AT&T and
resellers to get static IPs, and am not sure about AT&T static on
fiber if they have fiber to the home available at your address.

You might also check www.wavebroadband.com to see if they can reach
you with their cable modem service.  I think static IPs would be
available on their business service if service is generally
available. It's same technology as Comcast but their own network if
they can reach you.
[...]
----- End forwarded message -----

> From: "Rick Moen" <rick at linuxmafia.com>
> Subject: [conspire] (forw) Legacy DSL ending at Raw Bandwidth on  
> 12/19/19 - please read carefully!
> Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 18:12:40 -0800

> I've been a (deservedly) loyal Raw Bandwith Comunnications customer
> since Jan. 2001, when NorthPoint Communications suddenly went out of
> business and I was obliged to find a quick replacement for NorthPoint
> SDSL service.
>
> Although sadly I'll not be in Raw Bandwidth's (reduced) DSL service area
> starting Dec. 19th, I continue to strongly recommend that company to
> others who're in their service area.
>
> Obviously, my residence will soon be making some changes.
>
>
> ----- Forwarded message from Mike Durkin <mdurkin at rawbw.com> -----
>
> Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2019 19:35:43 -0800 (PST)
> From: Mike Durkin <mdurkin at rawbw.com>
> To: [my contact address for billing purposes]
> Subject: Legacy DSL ending at Raw Bandwidth on 12/19/19 - please read
> 	carefully!
>
> Rick,
>
> This notice is only about your DSL service on top
> of landlineline phone number: 650-561-9820
>
> Please read this notice carefully, and let me know if you have any questions.
> Please reply to acknowlege receipt and confirm that you understand the
> implications of this notice in any event, because I will be proactively
> contacting anyone who hasn't acknowledged it in order to make sure everyone
> affected understands what's happening and the implications, and
> a quick acknowledgement to this email if you understand will make
> that process go faster...
>
> You are receiving this message because you're a Raw Bandwidth/Tsoft
> customer still using Legacy DSL, where the DSLAM equipment and network
> is operated by AT&T/Pacific Bell on top of an active voice/landline phone
> service line from AT&T, who then hands off data to Raw Bandwidth in order
> to provide the Internet service on top.
>
> Unfortunately the time has come that we have to retire this particular
> platform's service, and we will no longer be able to provide Internet
> access at your location as of December 19th, 2019.  It's imperative that
> you begin the process of switching to another access provider to ensure
> continued Internet access of some sort before then.  Depending on the
> provider you choose and type of service, it may take up to several weeks
> to switch service (typically at least several days).
>
> Note that this notice applies only to Legacy DSL on top of an
> AT&T phone service line at speeds up to 6Mbps per line (the underlying
> phone service phone # noted at the top of this email).  If you have
> other service with us using our CLEC DSL where we operate the DSL
> equipment ourselves and provide standalone DSL independent from phone
> service (including at speeds both below and above 6Mbps), this
> notice does *not* apply to that service.  Our CLEC DSL has a much
> narrower geographic coverage area than Legacy DSL, and any customers
> we can service on our CLEC DSL have or soon will be contacted
> to migrate to that, rather than receive this notice.  If you're
> receiving this notice directly from Raw Bandwidth however, at least
> one of your services is affected and we don't have viable replacment
> DSL service for your Legacy DSL service location.
>
> Your service should continue to function through December 19th if you
> haven't switched (and if your landline phone service remains
> functional with AT&T), but will cease then.  If you switch to another
> provider prior to then, please let me know and we can end your
> DSL service with us early.  Once your particular end date has
> been determined, you'll receive a prorated refund or credit
> adjustment for any period of time paid beyond your DSL service's end
> date.  Most customers on Legacy DSL don't have loaner DSL equipment
> to return, but in the event you do, I'll provide return instructions
> separately.
>
> Additionally, if you have any other adjunct services with us that
> you want to retain, that is generally feasible, including email,
> web hosting, and shell accounts.  Please contact me to sort out what
> you'll be retaining, but in any event if you have adjunct services that
> appear to be in use, we'll confirm your intentions with those before
> closing them.  Note for our shell and hosting services, we're about
> to begin migrations to a new server with the most up-to-date software
> and increased disk quota.
>
> This service retirement is *not* related to the USTelecom Forebearance
> proceeding that I emailed about back in late August 2018.  That
> proceeding ended with AT&T and the ILECs getting a lot of the
> forbearance they requested but mostly related to voice service, and
> left in place access to the elements we most need for our CLEC
> DSL, so our CLEC DSL continues largely unaffected for now.  But Legacy
> DSL operated by AT&T was actually set on this path largely because of
> rulemaking that the FCC did back at the end of 2005.  After the Brand X
> loss at the Supreme Court in early 2005, the FCC was left with discretion
> as to how to harmonize treatment of cable modem and DSL for third-party
> access.  Instead of opening up cable modem service to multiple Internet
> access providers on top like ILEC DSL had been since its inception, the
> FCC chose to relieve the ILECs of their layer 2 wholesale obligation for
> their DSL, what I'm calling Legacy DSL here.  (It did not affect
> the Telecom Act obligation of ILECs to rent the copper pairs
> for a competitive provider to service with their own DSL equipment
> like we now do with or CLEC DSL.)  Technically by late 2006, AT&T
> had the right to kick all other Internet providers off their
> Legacy DSL network, but instead they chose to more or less freeze
> it and allow the third-party ISPs to stay, while deploying their newer
> and often faster U-verse DSL network along with video service
> with no third-party access to the newer network.
>
> So we continued to have access, but speeds were never improved,
> standalone DSL (without the phone service) was never offered on
> the wholesale side of Legacy DSL, and over the years AT&T's support
> for the remaining Legacy DSL lines has faltered compared to what it
> once was, fallen to sometimes unacceptable experiences.  In addition
> as demand for faster speeds and availability of it has come about,
> our and other provider's customer counts on Legacy DSL have slowly
> dropped through attrition and have had slowing to non-existent new
> sales.  Today, we don't have enough customers left on Legacy DSL to make
> it financially viable, because of high fixed backhaul costs to
> interconnect with AT&T.  So the time has come to end our support
> for the service.  Most other ISPs using the Legacy DSL platform
> have stopped taking new customers on Legacy DSL years ago, if not
> also ended their own support for it.
>
> On Legacy DSL, at one point we had customers served across about
> 95 different AT&T central office buildings in the SF Bay Area.  We have
> deployed our own CLEC DSL equipment to 18 central offices, mostly
> in SF and down the Peninsula to service as far a south as the northern
> end of the City of San Mateo (which is served from the Burlingame
> central office), with a couple more in Oakland and around the bottom
> of the Bay in Union City, Milpitas, Santa Clara, and Los Altos.
> Over the last couple years it's become apparent that continuing
> to expand our CLEC DSL would not be a wise investment--both because
> of the regulatory situation with the threat of Telecom Act forbearance,
> and the competitive issues with Fiber to the Home becoming more widely
> available, and the speeds available via DSL more limited in comparison
> to other options.  Even within some central offices that we continue to
> have CLEC DSL available in, some of our customers are so far
> from the central office building that they needed to be served
> from remote terminal DSL equipment on Legacy DSL, where the DSL
> equipment is in a cabinet on the side of the road closer to shorten
> the copper wire distance, and only AT&T has put in remote terminal DSL
> equipment in the Bay Area, so those customers needing remote-terminals
> for DSL due to a long distance from the central office are not servicable
> on our CLEC network.
>
> Some ISPs have chosen to resell AT&T U-verse service (which they
> now just call AT&T Internet whether it's delivered via DSL, fiber,
> or other means), but AT&T's U-verse/Internet service has never
> been available at layer 2, that is it's not available in a way that
> third-party ISPs can deliver their own Internet access over the
> top of it, it just always has AT&T's own Internet access bundled
> in even if you're getting it through a third-party ISP.  We have
> chosen not to resell AT&T's Internet service due to the limited ability
> to improve it, and instead focus on areas where we can continue
> to deliver our own Internet access service.  To that end, we'll continue
> to deliver our CLEC DSL to locations where it is viable and as long as
> the regulatory and competive environment alllow, and will focus
> on trying to expand into multitenant properties in particular
> using fixed wireless and fiber where we can, then distributing
> service on site using local DSL, ethernet, fiber to the home, etc.
> We are also looking at some competitive options for layer 2 access
> on wholesale networks to reach single family homes and smaller
> apartment buildings to expand geographic coverage again. But for
> now, we don't have a replacement access option to reach your current
> location served by Legacy DSL.
>
> Please take steps to begin deciding on your replacement service,
> determine leadtimes needed, etc. to ensure that you have replacement
> service in place by December 19th.
>
> If you have any questions, or need assistance in locating a
> suitable alternative service, please reply.
>
> thanks, Mike
>
>
> ----- End forwarded message -----