yazdzikPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-26
Honesdale, PA
kudos:1 | Dear Doc,
While you are more expert at everything, than I am at anything, there is a scenario, such as mine, where that would not be true.
I have Covad/Bignet, functioning very well on a dedicated line, and no home phone service. (My wife still has a phone on a land line -mistrusting creature!)
Were my line to go down, and Covad decide it were not worth the cost to repair it, there is absolutely no guarantee that I could get line-sharing DSL. Legally, the telco must repair my DSL line, but, Covad, who gallantly fought the telco for months on my behalf is no longer in a position so to do. Should they say they would no longer do what they did before, and, in my opinion, this is a very high probability, I have a line that currently supports DSL, and very well, but which, if the street heave, or a careless construction worker(what, in New York?) mis-hack, and somewhere a break occur, what would I do? If a pots line were suitable for DSL, and the pair were available, and I could wait for the provisioning, I might, with a good deal of luck, have DSL again.
This situation is not unique. Covad did very many dedicated installs, indeed, and, if even a small portion of them go down, will Covad have the cash to keep fighting the recalcitrant telcos? Or is my next ISP Time Warner Cable?
Or admit what the very first ISP I called said, that, $69 per month SDSL is the cheapest way to go, since, in his opinion, ADSL was a "crap shoot." Like many, I thought that the twenty dollar saving, for twice the download speed was a good trade-off. I was wrong. Yes, my service is great now, but, there is no realistic hope of repair, were there to be line problems.
This is absolutely no criticism of Bignet, or Covad, both of whom moved mountains to make my service as good as it is. Rather, a comment that, if one have to move mountains to provide clean 608/128 at $49 per mensam, eventually the mountains will stay put. I doubt that the biblical injunction concerning faith moving mountains was intended to apply to telcos. Make no mistake, the monolithic mountains of Ma Bell will not yield to prayers for fairness, nor fall from meek laws that stir the tiny pebbles on the surface. They are here to stay, and the consumer be damned.
All good wishes,
Yazdzik
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