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Anon

U-verse & DSL combined???

I do IT support a small manufacturer in San Antonio. AT&T called and said the “promotional” pricing on their landlines expired and that we had to sign up for U-verse to keep the price on the landlines from “skyrocketing”. We have had Business Elite DSL service for years and have been paying $59.95 per month. Despite occasional outages we are fine with the service we have.

AT&T is offering to lower the price of the DSL line to $30 per month if we add the U-verse service for another $30. I was told they could combine the two services to give us a greater bandwidth. Has anybody heard of AT&T doing this? Is it even possible?

The rep that called was a fast talking jerk who sounded more like a used car salesman than a phone company representative. He said that we would have to split our network and put some workstations on one line and the rest on the other. I gave up talking to him and called the regular business number and spoke to a pleasant sounding young woman who made things a little simpler and clearer but still said we would have to add the U-verse service and told me the two lines could be combined. We would have to pay $100 for the modem but they would give a $75 rebate. By the way, the landlines would still go up but only a few dollars.

After reading some of the postings here I am getting very concerned about what will happen if we let them put in U-verse.
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC
Westell 6100
Cisco PIX 501

cramer

Premium Member

I don't know what the f*** they're trying to sell you... Uverse is DSL, and cannot be provisioned on a line with legacy DSL on it. Uverse voice is VoIP over a Uverse DSL line. The only way to "add" Uverse, is move everything to Uverse -- a process that is not reversable -- Business DSL to Business Uverse. From everything I've seen, Business Uverse has no promotional pricing. Depending on your current pricing, a single Uverse DSL line with 2 phones (the RG has 2 ports) might be cheaper. (but it isn't for me.)

I'd tell them take a hike. Business voice (POTS and even VoIP) can be provided by a great many companies. There's no reason to put up with this bullying from AT&T.
UverseTech2
join:2012-08-04

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i had several san antonio customers tell me that they were forced to get uverse internet and voice and that dsl was being phased out.

to answer your question no it is impossible to combine the two
Learux
join:2001-10-23
Valencia, CA

Learux

Member

There is no technical limitation. It can be done just fine. one pair DSL, other pair uverse no problem, except for uverse billing. They don't allow DSL and uverse on the same address.

Loose Cable to Loose Cable

Anon

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They told me that Uverse and the DSL would be two separate lines, Uverse coming in on fiber optic lines and the DSL on copper and that I would have two modems. They could not tell me how the lines would be combined. I know that high-end routers are capable of load balancing multiple data lines into a single network but I don’t think AT&T is going to provide an enterprise-level Cisco router. Short of that, what the heck do I do with two broadband lines?

To top all of this off, they offered several alternatives to Uverse. We could get a mobile hotspot or a data plan for an iPad. Either one would be $30 per month and would keep our landline prices under control. And, of course, they would be happy to sell us an iPad. We may be better of choosing one of these. At least they would leave my DSL alone – for now…

Of course, I realize this is all garbage. If I did go for the Uverse they would probably just disconnect the DSL and charge me $60 month. But if that’s what they want to do why don’t they just say so? If they were honest about it I might not object to having a (supposedly) superior service for the same price. But that‘s speculation. How do I know what they are actually going to do if I agreed to Uverse?

I already got a quote from Time Warner and I will look for other companies that can provide POTS service. However; the owner/operator of the business is concerned about leaving AT&T. He is afraid it will cause problems with the Yellow Pages listing. It is a big source of new business.

brg
Premium Member
join:2001-01-03
Chicago, IL

brg

Premium Member

said by Loose Cable :

They told me that Uverse and the DSL would be two separate lines, Uverse coming in on fiber optic lines ...

Well, that right there is a big fib on their part. Uverse IP-DSLAM ADSL2+ service "comes in" to the premise on a copper pair in exactly the same way as the older non-Uverse DSL service.
etaadmin
join:2002-01-17
united state

etaadmin to Loose Cable

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said by Loose Cable :

They told me that Uverse and the DSL would be two separate lines, Uverse coming in on fiber optic lines and the DSL on copper and that I would have two modems. They could not tell me how the lines would be combined. I know that high-end routers are capable of load balancing multiple data lines into a single network but I don’t think AT&T is going to provide an enterprise-level Cisco router. Short of that, what the heck do I do with two broadband lines?

The above statement alone should raise a BIG red flag. The vast majority of uverse installations are plain old copper. I'm surprised that at&t is still using this lie to sell uverse and that people actually believe it.
said by Loose Cable :

Of course, I realize this is all garbage. If I did go for the Uverse they would probably just disconnect the DSL and charge me $60 month. But if that’s what they want to do why don’t they just say so? If they were honest about it I might not object to having a (supposedly) superior service for the same price. But that‘s speculation. How do I know what they are actually going to do if I agreed to Uverse?

It is all garbage, a friends's dsl was recently 'upgraded' to uverse and the only difference is a new invoice with the uverse logo, a new price and 3 Mbps more (6 Mbps)
said by Loose Cable :

I already got a quote from Time Warner and I will look for other companies that can provide POTS service. However; the owner/operator of the business is concerned about leaving AT&T. He is afraid it will cause problems with the Yellow Pages listing. It is a big source of new business.

I'd take a very close look at TWC's offerings and especially their business digital phone. I have several clients that switched from AT&T to TWC business services and they are saving tons of money, one client went from paying close to $900 (at&t) to $270 (TWCBC) a month for 15/2 internet and 3 phone lines.

I don't use yellow pages but I understand you can add/keep a listing regardless of whom is your phone provider.

ArgMeMatey
join:2001-08-09
Milwaukee, WI

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said by Loose Cable :

How do I know what they are actually going to do if I agreed to Uverse?

You get it in writing. When you're talking to phone sales folks, ask them to e-mail you a link to the terms of the deal they're referring to, highlighting the part about keeping your old service in parallel to the new service.

Otherwise as you probably know, the terms will clearly state that they constitute the entire agreement and no employee is authorized to alter that agreement except an officer of the company, which typically means you need a VP signature or better.

It is technically possible to have both UVerse and DSL at one address but examples are sparse. As in non-existent in the AT&T world.

Maybe this will be helpful:
UVerse uses:
VDSL
ADSL2/2+ (aka IP-DSLAM)

"DSL" uses:
ADSL

And also as previously stated, no, VDSL, ADSL2/2+, and ADSL cannot be provisioned on the same pair.

The "fiber optic" keywords were used by door-to-door salespeople when they rolled out VDSL here. As in, "Have you heard about the new FIBER OPTIC Service from AT&T that brings TV, phone and internet to your home?" They wouldn't bother mentioning that the bandwidth-limiting portion of the loop from the VRAD to the NID was still ancient copper.

Probably not relevant but here's a dual WAN router ...
»www.amazon.com/Cisco-RV0 ··· g+router

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Anon

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I did ask for quotes in writing several times and was told they were unable to do it. At one point they took my email address and said they would send some product info but I never got it.

Thanks for the link on the Cisco router. Interesting to know that a router that cheap can load balance data lines. But you are right. If I need that feature in a router I am already in trouble...
cramer
Premium Member
join:2007-04-10
Raleigh, NC

cramer

Premium Member

Don't be confused by the Cisco Logo... It's a LINKSYS. It's one of several consumer class dual-wan routers on the market.

shortyd999
join:2008-10-21
Birmingham, AL

shortyd999 to Loose Cable

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Well the problem is the people in the sales office are not really trained on how Uverse technically works. They know it's "new" and "better" than "old" dsl. There are customers who have POTS service and Uverse at the same location but most of time it's so much of a hassle trying to get it put in the system that people just don't worry with it

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Anon

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Update:

Well, I spun the AT&T wheel again and got lucky this time. I called the small business line again and got a different rep. This one actually seemed to know what she was talking about. She knew that Uverse and DSL could not go to the same address. She did not try to sell me any new services, she raised the rates on my land lines a few dollars, then LOWERED the price on my DSL from $60 to $45. Our bill will actually drop by about $6. We had to make a one-year commitment which we gladly did.

Is this any way to run a business? One of the world's largest by the way. What to they think they are accomplishing by putting their customers through this kind of grief? Are their reps so poorly trained that they dont know what they are selling or are they intentionally trying to railroad the customers? Or is it both?

The second rep I spoke to had promised to send me some product info by email. I just received the message -- A WEEK LATER!!! It turned out to be a blessing. It allowed me to get to this last rep that treated me as they should -- LIKE A CUSTOMER!!!

Thanks for all the replies.

Forosnai
join:2011-09-30

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Aye, it's a very large business, and as such has customers, investors, partners and employees to keep happy. Just so happens that margins on wire line services are waning and your just one of millions inconvenienced as ATT and Verizon adjust to industry changes.
Here's to hoping Google as a wire line ISP can shake things up with their grand experiment in KS.

ArgMeMatey
join:2001-08-09
Milwaukee, WI

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said by Loose Cable :

Is this any way to run a business? One of the world's largest by the way. What to they think they are accomplishing by putting their customers through this kind of grief? Are their reps so poorly trained that they don't know what they are selling or are they intentionally trying to railroad the customers? Or is it both?

The management/shareholder tribunal would no doubt find that rep guilty of not steering you toward a more profitable product.

AT&T's long-term strategy is to replace copper wires with air. In the early 80s, the court gave them an incentive to divest themselves of all the copper they had installed in customer structures during the 20th century. Now, the twist is that AT&T appears to want to divest themselves of most of their hard-to-maintain copper outside plant, although regulators probably will not permit it for the time being.

On the other hand, the hard work in the wireless business is mostly up front. Once they've got tower leases in good locations, they can push technology out in bite-sized chunks as needed, using far less labor and probably less capital than it would take to replace all their copper NIDs with fiber ONTs. It makes a lot more financial sense to them to run fiber to ever-smaller cells and serve all their customers wirelessly, rather than maintain copper or fiber to every customer's premises.

I've gathered through posts here and discussions with OSP techs that the capital list for copper re-cabling is pretty much closed and whatever was already on the list is getting done on par with putting humans on Mars. They're selling what they've got, but they're not re-stocking the shelves. So if you're using an unregulated product that runs over copper, beware. It could go away at any time.

Maybe once they get out of the way, some kind of model for co-op, non-profit or equal access fiber will emerge. Don't hold your breath, though.