AT&T Hates Forced Bundling -- Or Do They? > Forced Bundling Old Mind-Set

Forced Bundling Old Mind-Set

Although it is not a technical requirement when you have known new or good telco cable infrastructure, when the cable plant is unknown, the sealing current provided by having a POTS line on the same pair as the DSL service provides a much higher likelihood of consistent service. This is a technical reason for a customer wanting to have a POTS line on the same pair as their DSL service or the telco requiring it to reduce repair costs. Having a POTS line on the same DSL pair also is a way of avoiding having a telco tech accidentally re-use your DSL pair for something else. The default is to test for POTS signal on a pair before using it. With dry DSL service the tech will think the pair is available for use. That is never good.

In any case, the telcos should do the "right" thing and not require the POTS service as a default. In the cases where DSL service is intermittent due to poorer quality cable infrastructure, they can offer the customer the option of adding POTS service to the line to possibly resolve the issue or cancel the service until they decide they are going to upgrade the cabling. As DSL is an unregulated service, the telco is not required to do anything to make it work. Obviously it is in their best interest to do as much as they can within reason and financial common sense. But big companies notoriously are not known for cornering the market on common sense either.
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Ignorance is temporary...stupidity lasts forever!

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What I'm amazed at is that ATT is forcing us to get VOIP with our U-verse even though we'd prefer a regular land line. The argument is that our apartment building is only wired for digital. Isn't that illegal, especially with all the 911 issues associated with VOIP?