IronChefMoto
Premium
join:2001-02-08
Alpharetta, GA
| All well and good...but...
From what I understood from a friend who tried to do this under the GA provisions, BellSouth makes it nearly impossible to keep the DSL without jumping through 100 or so paper, fax, and mail hoops.
They'll find a way to make the switch as unbearable as possible for consumers.
IronChefMorimoto
--
Desktop: Abit NF7-S 2.0 | AMD AthlonXP 2500+ | 512MB PC2100 DDR | 128MB ATI Radeon 9500 Pro
Laptop: Dell Latitude C810 | Intel PIII-M | 512MB PC133 SDRAM | 32MB Nvidia GeForce2 Go |
|
Maggs
Premium
join:2002-11-29
Woodside, NY
 ·RCN CABLE
| They make it all but impossible
Most companies even if they are legally required to allow users to switch to a competing provider will make it such a hassle as to discourage consumers from switching. This should be against the Sherman Anti Trust Law. This seems like the looks of unfair trade practices. Most consumers are forced into what the law calls "Contracts of Adhesion".
Contracts of Adhesion include:
- Car Rental Agreements
- Cell Phone Contracts
If you don't agree to the terms of a car rental agreement then you cannot rent the car. So there is really no point in reading the contract if you need to use a rental car, since you are bound to it anyway.
Cell Phone contracts offer only one way out. This is called Liquidated damages, but the cell providers call this an "Early Termination Fee". You agree in a contract to accept to pay an "Early Termination Fee", if you wish to change providers. Although, there is a couple of ways out of the contract such as:
-Comapny's failure to provide adaquate and reasonable service.
That is why most companies give you a way to get "dropped call credits" like with Sprint my provider. If they don;t offer you any recourse, then unfortunately you are 9 times out of 10 forced to go to binding arbitration, as specified in your contract. This binding arbitration clause in contracts constitutes a piece of a "Contract of Adhesion".
Bellsouth and SBC teamed up to form "Cingular Wireless LLC". This is a joint venture between the two companies to provide nationwide cell phone service. Cingular Wireless has the highest new customer rates in the wireless industry. AT&T Wireless on the other hand, is now falling prey to its over capacity on its networks. Since most cell carriers go into billions of dollars of debt to finance cell network restructures. AT&T is a likely target for a buyout by Cingular Wireless. If you don't believe me read Business Week the last couple of weeks.
I like the fact that Cingular has rollover minutes, but I am under contract with Sprint Spectrum LLP, aka Sprint PCS (Personal Communication Service).
Sprint's coverage is lacking in the upstate NY area, though. I guess not too many people are customers in that area. The only option is analog at .40 cents a minute as per my contract.\
I get 3000 N/W Minutes
400 Anytime
Nationwide LD
All for $15 a month since I work at a retail store and they offer discounts for the salespeople who sell the phones.
In my experience, Sprint has pretty good coverage except in Lower Manhattan area i.e SOHO, NOHO, LES
I will probably stick with Sprint when my contract ends in March since Cingular's Rollover offer is only good for the 1 st year of your 2 year contract. That is what they don't tell you in the ads, but read the .00006 pt font at the bottom of their site and it tells the real deal.
It is also against Federal Law to put in fine print details that supercede the normal type. That is part of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Enough with the legal stuff, just my informative take on things.
--
What's black & white and cool all over? Optimized  |
|
JohnA
Premium
join:2003-09-16
Pittsburgh, PA | It's not about your cell phone in NY.
It's about BellSouth's copper. |
|
macyh
Ex-Isp
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-24
Medina, OH
·Armstrong Zoom In..
| reply to Maggs
Same game the telco's always play, do just enough to gain plausible denialability with the regulars, but do it s-l-o-w-l-y. Whine to the commission about it, meanwhile try to buy a backdoor solution with PR and lobbying.
The game here is attrition thru strict telco-interpreted compliance with any rule they don't like. Telco's are masters of regulatory foot dragging, everything will have to be in writing and take at least two weeks to get a response. Of course, paperwork will be lost. Of course, the DSL co. will bear the brunt of new customers' frustration and is the company that can least afford the loss of the new business as their customers give up and move back to Bell.
In the meantime, the telco lawyers will repeatedly appear in front of the commission with studies and reports, saying "we're doing all we can to implement these terribly expensive and difficult rules that have been imposed upon us". And the telco lobbyists will be buying lunch for the state legislators pitching a new "deregulation" bill that will outlaw line sharing, thus trumping competition and the state commission.
Geez, you'd think the FCC and the PUC's would be wise to this, but they always, always let it happen in the end. After all, telco's make huge campaign contributions to both parties, while DSL competitor don't. And you know who hires the commission members... |
|
mrljcsi
join:2002-10-19
Saint Charles, MO | reply to IronChefMoto
Re: All well and good...but...
At least a judge had the stones to tell them it aint a monopoly and that they gotta share and give consumers a choice. But, you KNOW they'll throw some sh** in the game so they don't really have to do it. |
|
Freezone
join:2000-09-29
Southfield, MI | reply to macyh
Re: They make it all but impossible
Hey I remember when the bells were all one. Look what the piunishment was. if they get too big they could face it again, well unless they hire Microsoft lawyers. |
|
roamer1
sticking it out at you
join:2001-03-24
Atlanta, GA
clubs: |  PSC on the ball...
Glad to see the PSC has some sense when it comes to issues like this. 
-SC |
|
zcd
Condom Sense
join:2001-10-03
Grand Prairie, TX
clubs:
| well crap
I don't see why BellSouth has to share their own lines when they paid for them. It's almost like if my neighbors bitched and moaned about me not letting them use my car because they don't have one.
- sometime's I'm right, other times it's just an opinion... |
|
IgorKane
@uu.net
| If you had the only car in town AND owned the road it can drive on, you would see things more clearly.
Your neighbors would buy their own cars, but make you let them use the road, paying you a small but reasonable fee. Wait, isn't that how our road system works today, due to taxes and tolls? Nationalize the phone system! yay! |
|
hottboiinnnc
join:2003-08-27
Fremont, OH
| this will never happen in Ohio
This will never happen in Ohio. In Ohio if you wish to serve your customers DSL you have to file as a CTS with that at the PUC you can sell your DSL to anyone that has a landline phone. Other than that you don't get shit from the telcos. Even CLECs have to do that or be like SBC, MCI and the some of the others and buy the services from Covad and New Edge Networks . And by the way I know this because I called the PUC in Ohio. |
|
hottboiinnnc
join:2003-08-27
Fremont, OH | reply to mrljcsi
Re: All well and good...but...
De-Reg was and still is only to allow a choice in phone service. not Internet Services. |
|
hottboiinnnc
join:2003-08-27
Fremont, OH
| reply to Maggs
Re: They make it all but impossible
"Bellsouth and SBC teamed up to form "Cingular Wireless LLC". This is a joint venture between the two companies to provide nationwide cell phone service"
If you read the SBC web Site and the Cingular Web Site Cingular is OWNED by SBC. SBC bought them out when they were in bankruptcy a long time ago. That's when everyone started learning about them. Even on their commericals it says "PART OF THE SBC FAMILY OF COMPANIES!" NOTHING ABOUT BELL SOUTH! |
|
dvd536
as Mr. Pink as they come
Premium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
| reply to Maggs
said by Maggs  :
It is also against Federal Law to put in fine print details that supercede the normal type. That is part of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
Tell that to cox cable. in their ads even if you get right up to the TV, you cant read their fine print.
--
You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth |
|
hottboiinnnc
join:2003-08-27
Fremont, OH
| reply to zcd
Re: well crap
Thats true. IF the CLEC wanted to offer their customers the DSL service they would find a way to provide it instead of crying to the PUCs. Any way Bellsouth will go to the FCC and get want they want. Federal law ALWAYS over rules State laws and acts no matter what. and Bellsouth will keep doing what they want and just pay the fines to the state to stay the way they are. Its just that easy. Not to get off the subject but thats what Microsoft does and so does the other major companies that get into trouble and shit. They just pay the fines and they stay the way they are. |
|
hottboiinnnc
join:2003-08-27
Fremont, OH
| reply to dvd536
Re: They make it all but impossible
well go to the SBC Corp. Web Site and you will see it they own them. And those ads are aired nation wide. Every ad is the same. Look at the Cingular website. it says they are part of SBC. SBC office will tell you that too. Bell South only has a partnership with them. The same as SBC has a partner ship with Yahoo to use them for the DSL and Dial-up Connections when they closed down Prodigy. |
|
Hate_Bells
@Dial1.Dall | reply to zcd
Re: well crap
But, they didn't pay for them. Read the history of the Bell system. Get educated about this monopolistic bunch of crooks. |
|
Raybro
VIP
join:2000-11-04
Back home | reply to hottboiinnnc
Re: They make it all but impossible
Cingular is owned by both SBC & Bell South.
They bought out Cell One. |
|
TheGhost
Premium
join:2003-01-03
Lake Forest, IL
clubs:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
·Comcast
| reply to hottboiinnnc
Minor difference....
To make it fair for the CLEC what you would have to do is regulate that if a CLEC laid down new copper in the area, anyone who wanted phone service in that area would have to use the CLEC - pretty much the same way the ILECs had their infrastructure paid for. |
|
lvas
join:2001-05-17
Glen Carbon, IL
| reply to IgorKane
Re: well crap
only car in Town or road in town - where is the comparsion? you want broadband you have wi-fi, cable, SAT or DSL. that is 4 different choices for most folks.
lets nationalize the cable & SAT systems along with that phone company while your at it. Oh wait - that has been done before - its called Communisms |
|
clecrupt9
join:2002-01-22
GA
| reply to roamer1
Re: PSC on the ball...
Yep me too.
Now Bellsouth will go to the Federal courts and argue this ruling, as well they have something in the works calling for deregulation in another court. Bellsouth has "favorable regulatory climate" as one of its 2004 agendas.
I saw SBC's president on a TV show the other day and when asked how he felt about VoIP and its regulations he said he hoped for regulatory clarity(no competition) and pointed out he hoped the FCC did the right thing, because elections were coming up pretty soon. SBC and Bellsouth are probably aligned on these issues and we should hope that the newer, faster, more innovative telco's such as a packet 8 or Level 3, get any favorable regulatory climate(access charges) than the RBOC's. |
|
