SBC/AT&T may have had something good in competition against the cable internet service providers (Charter Communications; Cox) until I figured out that they use the same bundle services selling method that charter uses to get their service into your home, thereby taking your hard earned money out of your trusting and unsuspecting pocket.
Althoughg I would much rather give my buisness to SBC/AT&T than charter, (as should anyone who wants to save money for the same services) they have betrayed my trust by not allowing you to get a DSL line, soley for the purpose of having only one service through them. For example, if you're going High Speed, and SBC/AT&T was your only choice, you will have to pay for a phone number that you don't need. Sure you may want it, and then you're happy.
But what of the people who aren't happy cause they never wanted to pay for a phone line they would never use? The problem is, every phone plan with any carrier that doesn't offer VoIP phone service, is well, ripping you off; but I'll get to that in a minute. And yes, I'm talking to you AT&T; you know damn well they are charging people for stuff they don't want or need.
My Point: You don't need another phone line from SBC/AT&T if you were smart enough to subscribe to VoIP services through your cable internet provider's broadband service. Of course, once you finally got a phone plan that WAS worth a damn, you realized that your cable internet provider WASN'T worth a damn so you fired them.
So now you say, " I wonder if is DSL a good alternative to cable?"
Some may argue, "you have to get a phone number with them because you 'need it' to have the DSL sercive, " NOT TRUE. SBC/AT&T has the capability of concluding, usually within minutes, the DSL speed they can offer to potetial customers. When a someone calls upon them for a request of DSL service, the customer service rep. Quickly tests the existing phone line after you tell them your residential address, (the test is probably able to be done so fast by means of a preconfigured voice port, specific to your street address, on their local voice switch) and provide you with a picture of what speeds will be availible to you.
You pick a plan, they tell you their phone service with DSL is not an option, blah blah blah. It's all just a money maker. The signal your phone uses is "analog" while your DSL or "Digital" Subscriber Line uses a digital signal for the data portion of the circuit.
Two different signals, using two differnt pieces of equipment, using two very different methods of communicaton DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT RELY ONE ANOTHER FOR THE PURPOSE OF GETTING SERVICE TO YOUR HOME.in fact there is only two things that a phone service and a DSL service have in common and those are, they traverse the same copper wire from your home out to each of their switches, and, they slapped together like peanut butter and jelly by SBC/AT&T, to make you think you can't have DSL without first getting a phone line. Well! Thanks alot for giving us a choice you stingy *s!
While it is reliable, DSL is a distance limited technology; the father away you are from the DSL switch, the slower the speeds get, equating to slower web browsing. You get the idea. Anyway, after you know what is availible in your area, they sell you on a DSL package (Pro or Express) right after they give you your new phone number. At this point, it is hard to say why having a phone line and DSL through SBC/AT&T is a bad thing.
Oh now I remember, cause if you were smart enough, you would've done the math on how much VoIP kicks AT&Ts ass when compared to everything else that is of equal price. But if you were'nt smart enough, well, you're just the type of customer they are looking for willing to blow hard earned cash and not ask too many questions.
In summary, I ask, why SBC? Why AT&T? Why must you conform to bulk selling methods? Can't you respect the customers ability to think, weigh, and decide what they need for themselves, instead of inconspiciously pushing them to buy more of an over priced product, and in some cases, a useless product?
Stephen
Scott AFB IL, Illinois
U.S.A.
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