Verizon Struggled to Meet Demand For $15 DSL

Now if Qworst would follow...

No wonder my DSL connection has been suffering..

The comapny I work for is a wholesaler of Verizon DSL, we have over 1200 active circuits and being the lucky guy picked to do all DSL ordering, I can atest that Verizon is backed up.

Last time I looked in PA there are a lot of closed CO's, and we have a lot of angry customers who want DSL

No wonder it seems I can't get Dry DSL because of the 768 orders. The one time I was able to get through to a human at Verizon I was told the CO has no ports left in my area.

They are really going to be stretched thin if they follow suit with AT&T and offer 12.99 dsl...

this is not the first time Verizon offered a service and did not have the capacity to handle it

You'd think companies would understand $14.99 is a huge seller for a faster connection and then not realize "oops, we didnt think that many people would sign up"

Oh wait.....I'm too busy to take orders right now. I might have to actually install some equipment first.

Sounds like Bellsouth.....

I got mine about 3 months ago. Signed up within 3 weeks when they first offered it.

This was confirmed by a Verizon Engineer I recently met, seems the marketing department forgot to check with the Engineers if Verizon's backbone could handle all the new customers. This is also effecting DSL expansion due to Verizon playing catch up now instead of expanding DSL into areas that have none.

Hey funky, I used to live down on King Street in Lebanon, small world

My VOL DSL connect has been fine.

At least around here Verizon has a clue about running an ISP from what it seems.

Just wondering if any customers get charged when they order or if they just cancel the orders out.

I think Verizon has a 30 day money back guarantee policy so you'll probbly be charged but just cancel and ask for the refund and they'll give it. Its not your fault Verizon didnt up their CO to anticipate this (as big)

I got the first month free and then I got charged. I cannot say about cancellations. All I asked about when I signed up was that I could upgrade to FIOS when it got to my town and I was told that I could upgrade without any cancellation charge.

"Desperation behind even cheaper DSL?"

How about you guys make up your mind, eeesh. You can't tell me that Verizon is in that different a situation than Ameri-- errr.... SB-- no, wait... AT&T.

On one hand, we have cheaper, low tiers nobody wants. On the other hand, we have cheaper, low tiers teleco's can barely keep up with demand for.

That is the way goes in most places. I work for a public school district and the High School administration get all sorts of ideas but then forgets to talk to the I.T. department. Then we have to tell them we can't do it after they have been planning it for months

Remember when it was called Michigan Bell and before that I think it was call AT&T. Its funny how AT&T was put back together.

Eventually it will be AT&T again coast to coast. Not for quite a few years though. The only thing to really stop such a merger would be the wirless side of Verizon and AT&T . More than likely, ATT will take over bell south in the near future.

Nobody's DSL will suffer if they happen to be in a maxed out C.O. If your DSL is having problems, have your line checked or your computer ! Have no worries, Verizon is adding equipment into each and every C.O that is maxed to capacity. This is not a crap cable connection in which unlimited possible customers could share a node slowing it down to 56k

Honestly though, this is exactly what Verizon wants to some extent. They are running at optimum capacity. An empty port doesn't make them money. Now I'm sure that they would love to add more ports instead of turning away potential customers, but I'm sure Verizon isn't crying that there is very high demand for the service.

I would hope the powers that be would shoot that down. With all the merger mania we've had in the telco business, I sincerely doubt it.

How F'ed up would it be if, in the end, we ended up back where we started, with 1 phone company again???

Qwest has a $19.99 1.5/896 plan whats wrong with that?

Humpty Dumpty(At&t or Ma Bell) is being put back together again.

Actually, it wouldnt be all that F'd up at all. Aside from wireless, the phone companies dont venture into each others territories. Its different times these days, with wireless and cable, theres plenty of competition for telecom now.

cable is getting better havent had any problems im always aorund 7 meg down

yeah 50/50 sdsl line let met know when that happens cause fiber cant touvh that yet

i just signed up for verizons 3/768 and im getting less than 800down and around 300up....FINALLY got verizon to look into it and their coming out 2/7 ...im hoping its just a bad phone line here or something easy..

i remember when i 1st tried to sign up for verizon dsl for like a good week i tried during that week i called them and they said the reason i couldnt get it was because my local CO was at capacity for dsl...

which is surpising being that i live in the country

SOunds like, to me, anothe round of AOL-101. Launch ap roduct that they know they won't be able to handle and piss off a bunch of people in the process.

When AOL decided to move to an unlimited plan back in the late 90's, they did get alot of publicity, but they also took alot of heat and, IMO, they just chaled up a bad name that still today is branded on them.

So, is VZ trying to get attention? Simple answer, yes. They made it very clear that the $14.95 plan was to get it out there and gain/win over many customers to get the "captice auduence" and they have but at what cost?

Sure, some people with Cable Modem may be patient, but those with dial up wanting to switch are going to be soured and even more angry than they already might be.

Way to go VZ - once again you shine above the rest. Now, enters SBC/AT&T but people are resolut to be angry with them for many years now.

Not necessarily in this case. An empty port, in some cases, will SAVE them money rather than to sell it at $14.95 a month. It will take them many many months to come in order to make up the loss they are going to take on the sale at $14.95.

You can't simply look at the monthly price of the service as pure income especially when you look at the cost to install the service - which is still far more than the avg $80 to install it. Even when sold at the month to month retail price, it still takes 6 to 8 months to break even. At $14.95, they are counting on the subscriber to stay longer than the 12 month term at the higher price, OR, they are also hoping that their captive audience can be bumped into even more services and get a higher monthly break point.

AT&T wasn't "put back together" - rather, it's STILL SBC using the name they purchased. AT&T is in fact gone. AT&T didn't buy SBC, it WAS the other way around.

Reaaaaaaally... You need to go back to technology school then. DSL can be faced with overload issues as well. The difference between cable and DSL, as I hope you should know by now, is the pipe to the CO/Node. Once it his the internet cloud, well, it's anyones game. Phone doens't make claims that their service doesn't ever slow down, in fact the only speed they will "guarante" (if you can call it one) is the throughput between your premise and the CO. It all depends on how the CO or the Node (depending on technology) is managed if you will have the speed RANGE advertised.

In our area, where nodes pass about 200 homes, I'd say your chances of getting the speeds you are supposed to get are right on. Some systems, which are smaller, have less a budget, or don't run their systems at optimal levels, are going to have problems. But, just because you may live in an area where they aren't managed well doesn't mean it's like that everywhere else in the world.