Trying to gain DSL access proves taxing
The Observer finds himself yet again in one of life's Bermuda Triangles. This time it's Internet hell. What did I do in a previous life to deserve this?
I'm shopping for a provider because my friends upstairs, the ones with the wireless access I've been sharing, are moving. The gall. They leave the Observer with an appalling pair of options: Comcast, the muscle - bound monolith that charges nosebleed fees, or dial-up service, which allows me to complete my shopping run at Roche Brothers before the screen changes. (Forget satellites.)
I always thought the digital highway was supposed to be teeming with players desperate to give me superior service for a relative song. So why do I feel like a stag at the prom?
I don't live in Roosterville, by the way, so we can dispense with the argument that I'm stuck because I exist like an anchorite in the tall grass. I live in Jamaica Plain, a densely populated urban neighborhood of Boston.
Blame first goes to Verizon, which with my swollen phone bills kept sending me endless come-ons for DSL service at $14.95 for the first year. High-speed for $30. Both are slower than what Comcast provides, but cheaper, too. Regular DSL is fine for me. I have no plans to download the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
A Comcast sales representative tells me I'll pay $45.95 a month for its high-speed service, with rented modem, on top of my existing Comcast cable TV. Were I to sign up for its Internet service alone without the TV, she adds, I'd pay $57 a month. Gracious.
The Comcast defense has always been grounded on the value option -- you get a lot for your hard-earned simoleons. ``We're creating choice," says Comcast spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman.
The service, she says, comes with 50 new bells and whistles, almost none of which I want but must pay for anyway. It's all or nothing, so remind me where the choice is here?
Exhibit A is Rhapsody Radio, which lets me download over a million songs free. I don't want to download a million songs. Hell, I don't want to download one. So Comcast: How about canning Rhapsody and cutting my bill? Now that is choice.
Back to Verizon. I try to sign up for its el cheapo DSL offer only to learn I can't get DSL at all. I later reach a Verizon PR guy named Clifford Lee about my predicament. Lee eventually e-mails me that because I live over 15,000 feet from the nearest Verizon switching center, the signal is too weak for service. In short, tough noogies.
I also ask him where the other DSL holes are in Boston. He won't identify them but writes that about 80 percent of the city can get DSL service. Then I ask him when I can expect DSL. He responds he can't give me that information due to the competition. ``We try not to provide our competitors with a road map of our future technology deployment." Read never.
Continued
I'm shopping for a provider because my friends upstairs, the ones with the wireless access I've been sharing, are moving. The gall. They leave the Observer with an appalling pair of options: Comcast, the muscle - bound monolith that charges nosebleed fees, or dial-up service, which allows me to complete my shopping run at Roche Brothers before the screen changes. (Forget satellites.)
I always thought the digital highway was supposed to be teeming with players desperate to give me superior service for a relative song. So why do I feel like a stag at the prom?
I don't live in Roosterville, by the way, so we can dispense with the argument that I'm stuck because I exist like an anchorite in the tall grass. I live in Jamaica Plain, a densely populated urban neighborhood of Boston.
Blame first goes to Verizon, which with my swollen phone bills kept sending me endless come-ons for DSL service at $14.95 for the first year. High-speed for $30. Both are slower than what Comcast provides, but cheaper, too. Regular DSL is fine for me. I have no plans to download the Lord of The Rings trilogy.
A Comcast sales representative tells me I'll pay $45.95 a month for its high-speed service, with rented modem, on top of my existing Comcast cable TV. Were I to sign up for its Internet service alone without the TV, she adds, I'd pay $57 a month. Gracious.
The Comcast defense has always been grounded on the value option -- you get a lot for your hard-earned simoleons. ``We're creating choice," says Comcast spokeswoman Shawn Feddeman.
The service, she says, comes with 50 new bells and whistles, almost none of which I want but must pay for anyway. It's all or nothing, so remind me where the choice is here?
Exhibit A is Rhapsody Radio, which lets me download over a million songs free. I don't want to download a million songs. Hell, I don't want to download one. So Comcast: How about canning Rhapsody and cutting my bill? Now that is choice.
Back to Verizon. I try to sign up for its el cheapo DSL offer only to learn I can't get DSL at all. I later reach a Verizon PR guy named Clifford Lee about my predicament. Lee eventually e-mails me that because I live over 15,000 feet from the nearest Verizon switching center, the signal is too weak for service. In short, tough noogies.
I also ask him where the other DSL holes are in Boston. He won't identify them but writes that about 80 percent of the city can get DSL service. Then I ask him when I can expect DSL. He responds he can't give me that information due to the competition. ``We try not to provide our competitors with a road map of our future technology deployment." Read never.
Continued
posted by AM at
9:18 PM
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