DSL Saga -
A Story of Mass Confusion
Since the beginning of the digital
subscriber line (DSL) trials in 1996 by C&P Telco (C&P) > Bell Atlantic >
Verizon (or what ever nonsense they are calling themselves this week), I have badgered
C&P to get DSL. Their response has always been NO! It should be noted that
I wanted the service in Arlington, Virginia, at a location less that two miles from
Washington, DC. In the summer of 1999, I became aware that others, besides C&P,
were offering DSL using C&P's copper.
03 September 1999
I placed an order with CapuNet in Rockville, Md for 384K/128K
aDSL.
22 September 1999
CapuNet emailed me that the order was rejected by C&P
because "the length of Bell Atlantic's line from the Central Office to your address
exceeds 18,000 feet". It appears that a tariff loophole allows C&P to
refuse to supply a line if the service will not meet the minimum standards for which they
would provide service themselves.
I knew that was BS. The Covad distance calculator said
the distance was 11177 feet. Aerial cable made it easy to drive the obvious cable
route to the telco central office (co) to confirm the distance. So I sent an email
to Covad challenging distance as the real reason for rejection of the order.
05 October 1999
An email from Covad informed me that they "discovered
that Bell Atlantic has rejected this order because there is no copper available, not
because the line is too long". "This means that the only DSL speed available to
you is the 144 Kbps/144 Kbps IDSL."
08 October 1999
Faced with higher price for less bandwidth plus equipment
that can't be upgraded, I shopped around and placed an iDSL order with Digital Select (dig
sel) in Sterling, Va (hq in dc). They quoted 45 days delivery.
12 October 1999
I received an invoice for the 1st month's fee; net 15 days.
19 October 1999
I called to check on the status of my order. I was assured
that everything was on schedule and that I would be contacted shortly to confirm
installation dates.
26 October 1999
Paid $100, first month's fee.
28 October 1999
Having still not heard anything, I called the salesman and
asked what was going on. He said he would check and emailed me the following:
"I have not received a loop date yet today and since it
is late I doubt I will hear anything. I will follow up again tomorrow and keep you posted,
my bet is that we will receive a date next week."
02 November 1999
I was getting impatient and sent a pointed email to the
salesman demanding to know what was going on. I received a phone call assuring me
that the iDSL would be installed but providing no real information. I asked what
would happen if there was no installation by the due date of 22 November 1999. He
told me that "then the ball would be in your court".
15 November 1999
I received a phone call from Covad asking to
"verify" my address. They seemed confused and told me that my installation had
been "mapped" to Arlington, TEXAS instead of Arlington, Virginia.
Now what? :-(
22 November 1999
Quoted installation due date. No DSL in sight!
Between 15 November and 06 December, I
called dig sel every few days. I felt that they had "dropped the ball" by
not following up with Covad and learning that my order had been "mapped" to
Texas. During this time they continued to assure me that the order was on track but
could not provide any specific information. I considered canceling the order but
knew that would reset the installation clock.
06 December 1999
I received an email from Covad informing me that C&P
would come on 08 December 1999 to install the line and that Covad would come on 14
December 1999 between 3:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. to setup the DSL service.
Hurray!!!
08 December 1999
I received an email from Covad informing me that C&P
would come on 15 December 1999 to install the line and that Covad would come on 20
December 1999 between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to setup the DSL service.
What the??! Was today's line installation canceled?
I called dig sel who confirmed that the installation was on
for 08/14 December 1999. I suggested that due to the Texas error maybe two orders were
open for my installation. She assured me that was not the case but called back later and
confirmed that there were two orders and that the second one had been canceled.
The C&P tech arrived mid-afternoon and appeared
competent. He installed a new nid (network interface device) and wired a spare pair from
the existing full dual nid to the new nid. He connected the new inside cable which I had
there waiting for him. His tests showed that the line was not connected from co frame to
Covad's equipment and thus he could not finish testing. He left with the promise that he
would return the next day to finish.
When the tech left, I measured the line and found no DC or
signal voltages present and that it was open. It had a capacitance 0.24uF.
09 December 1999
The tech came back the next morning and finished testing. He
said the line tested okay. When he left the pair still had no voltages on it but now
had 1096 ohm loop resistance.
Between 09 and 14 December, I received two
emails and three phones calls from Covad and dig sel to confirm that I would be there when
the Covad tech came on 14 December.
14 December 1999
The Covad tech had not arrived by 19:00, the latest quoted
time. At 19:05, I received a call from the tech asking if he could still come. I
said yes. He arrived about 19:20 and was obviously not a happy camper. It had
been a long day and none of his calls had been successful in providing service.
He unpacked a FlowPoint FP144 IDSL Router (model 134) and
plugged in the DSL RJ45 and the power which I had sitting and waiting. He then went
outside to the nid and place a tag on the DSL to show "that I have been here".
He connected a laptop computer and configured the router for my ip's.
When he did not get what he expected from the router he asked
to use my phone to call long distance to Covad in California, since his cell phone would
not work here in Arlington, Va (inside a major metro area, 2 miles from the dc line).
Wanting to get this finished, I consented and for the next half hour he waited on hold.
While on hold we talked and he decided to call dig sel tech service on my other line. He
left a message on an answering machine and afterwards claimed that he could not get
through to a human.
Finally California Covad answered and nothing transpired. The
tech left at about 20:00 telling me that I would have to contact dig sel the next day and
have them fix the problem.
After the Covad tech left, I called the dig sel's main number
and entered option 3 for tech support. A dig sel tech answered immediately and seemed
quite willing to help. Unfortunately, I did not have the information he needed, so it was
left until the next day.
15 December 1999
At 09:45, I received a call from Covad informing me that he
could ping my router and therefore the service was operational. I had got ip's from
the Covad tech the night before.
I configured my machines and had them all working by 10:15.
Just after noon, I saw a C&P truck in front of my house
and found a tech outside studying the nids. I asked what he was doing and he said he was
installing a line. I told him that it was a mistake, and that the line had been installed
the week before. He waved his "order" in my face and said he was there to
install a line. I told him that I was the owner of the house and that he was not going to
be installing any lines. He mumbled; I told him to leave; he did.
Considering his attitude, I should have let him go ahead and
install the line. It would have required a new drop. At least the previous
C&P tech had the courtesy to knock and talk before going to the nid.
17 December 1999
I received a call from Covad to confirm that their tech would
arrive on 20 December. I told her that if they wanted to give me two iDSLs for the price
of one that I would not complain, but that a iDSL had already been installed.
They canceled the second order.
Since installation, the iDSL has generally
been pretty solid - both in up time and providing full 144Kbps bandwidth. At first,
Dig Sel used to send advanced notices of most outages but not in the last few years since
Primus took over.
Service:
- iDSL 144 kbps up/down
- 16 static IPs (13 usable)
- FlowPoint FP144 IDSL Router (model 134)
- $100 per month at beginning. Federal internet taxes have
increased several times and now (Jan 2003) it's $112.25.
- Digital Select is now called Primus - or whatever?
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