In article <telecom24.136.5@telecom-digest.org>, <zftcg@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Please tell me if this makes sense:
> I live in Manhattan and currently have Verizon local and DSL. I would
> like to switch my local service to VoiceWing 500 (same as regular
> VoiceWing with 500 minutes of outgoing calls/month, for $19.95). I
> just got off the phone with multiple Verizon customer service people;
> they all told me varying things, but the basic upshot is that because
> I'm a DSL customer, I can't get VoiceWing on the same line, since DSL
> requires a regular land line. That seems to me to be completely
> backwards -- after all, wouldn't the most obvious customers for
> VoiceWing be current DSL customers? Yet they're telling me those are
> the exact people who are ineligible for the service (unless I'm
> willing to sign up for an entirely new phone line, which would be
> completely pointless and cost me an additional $20/month). What's
> more, while at least one person had told me this situation could
> change in the near future, the last guy I spoke to said it was a
> structural problem that could never be rectified.
> Now, as I said, I got different answers from different people, and in
> general, people seemed to be a little confused about how VoiceWing
> works, most likely because it's still relatively new. Can anyone out
> there shed any light on this riddle? Does anyone currently have both
> VoiceWing and Verizon DSL, with no additional phone lines?
The current regulatory environment *requires* that the ILEC (Verizon,
in your case) transfer the _exclusive) use of that wire-pair to the
CLEC, when you go with a CLEC as the dial-tone provider.
IF the _CLEC_ does not offer line-shared DSL -- either their own
offering, or access for third-party providers -- you are SOL as far as
getting DSL on _that_ wire-pair.
In those situations where the CLEC does not offer line-shared DSL, you
simply have to get another wire-pair for your DSL service. Covad and
MCI, at least, in your area, can do this. It costs a little more
($5-10/mo) than line-sharing.
_AT_THIS_TIME_, Verizon does not have any 'non-line-shared' DSL
offering, They did, last year, announce their intention to offer
'naked' DSL -- DSL on it's own wire-pair, without voice service on it;
*BUT* the projected roll-out of the service (originally scheduled for
'early 2005') has been pushed back, and no firm availability date has
been set.
In theory, *IF* the CLEC offered the functionality, Verizon could
piggy- back their service on the CLEC-controlled wire-pair. Verizon
_would_, in that situation, however, have to *pay* the CLEC for the
privilege of using the CLEC-controlled wire-pair to provide your DSL.
Methinks Verizon would be loathe to do so, _if_ it were technically
viable.
_Very__Few_ CLECs have the installed equipment to support shared-line
DSL. Those that do, do not make it available for 3rd-party use --
rather they use it for _their_own_ shared-line offering.
Verizon apparently restricts their DSL offerings to situations where
_they_ "own" the wire-pair. And, at this time, do =not= offer
"non-shared" line service.
Thus, _IF_ you change dial-tone providers, you *will* have to change
Internet access providers as well. This is not necessarily a bad
thing. Check out panix.com, and world.std.com, a couple of _good_
providers in your area.
*IF* you have a _reliable_ cable TV provider, they may offer Internet
access, and could be worth checking out. If, like many places, the cable
TV service is subject to frequent short-duration outages, you should take
into consideration what effect similar outages will have on your Internet
use.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the nearly two years since I decided
to ditch Southwestern Bell (for everything) and go with CableOne for
my high speed internet, I do not think there has been five minutes of
downtime. Well, there was one time I decided to move a television set
into my computer room so I could watch television while working on the
Digest, and in the process of hooking up a splitter to the cable line
and attaching a television/radio combination to the cable which (at
that point in my system) had just been the internet, I got a splitter
installed incorrectly. I had that same day installed a Cisco router
for the computers, and between the ill-advised television/radio on the
cable line in my computer room and the Cisco router, the Motorola SB-4220
Surfboard Cable Modem (supplied by CableOne) somehow lost track of what
it was doing. But the tech guy at CableOne very graciously got me back
on line in about 10 minutes once I decided to call them and ask for help.
Cable only rarely goes off line, I have found. PAT]
Robert Bonomi (bonomi@host122.r-bonomi.com)