This is ticking me off.... <DSL Woes>

[cautery]

Been waiting forever for DSL availability in my area... Finally, they get it all together....

26 January 2001 - Order DSL service through Telocity.
5 February 2001 - Telocity ships DSL Gateway (meaning supposedly that PacBell has finally configured, tested, and verified that my line is DSL enabled/capable).
7 February 2001 - Gateway arrives....
7 February 2001 - Hook-up test.... NADA!!! No-sync....
7 February 2001 - Open trouble ticket with Telocity (after holding for friggin ever). Say I have to wait for PacBell to trouble-shoot the line.
8 February 2001 - Check up on trouble ticket.... No change....
9 February 2001 - Check on trouble ticket.... No change... Press CS rep to work with me. Discove that trouble ticket IMPROPERLY coded as a &quot;no config download&quot; rather than a &quot;no sync&quot;. Trouble ticket recoded, and he asks me about 50 troubleshooting questions that SHOULD have been asked by the first tech.

10 February 2001 - SURPRISE! A PacBell rep shows up to test my line (actually works for ASI which I assume is eiher a contractor, affiliate, or wholly-owned sub of PacBell). He opens his side of the box. There is some kind of &quot;scotch-lock&quot; looking connector on the DSL pair that he says is left over from when there was some kind of &quot;chip&quot; on the pair. Don't ask me.... But what I want to know is why add unnecessary connections into the system... That connection should have been replaced with a new section of wire.

Testing line... He can't get a sync either.... According to his instruments, I am 28,000+ feet from the CO electrical distance!!! What!?!?!?! 17,500 is the absolute max and 28,000 is over twice what I was told the wire distance was to the CO is!

Now, why in hell wasn't this discovered when the line was initially configured? (I conceal my intense anger at this point, and am actually very pleasant with the tech... offer him soda, etc).

He finally tells me that there is a &quot;bridge tap&quot; 300 feet (electrically) out on my pair that needs to be removed. (unknown how many additional bridge taps are upstream of this first one). Says that it &quot;normally&quot; takes 3-8 WEEKS to get a bridge tap removal accomplished due to the need to route the request through engineering and evrywhere else in the company apparantly. I'm livid at this point, but still being way nice to this guy (not his fault the first tech didn't do his job after all).

To this guy's credit, he subsequently spent several hours afetr the initial test trying to track down the first, supstream bridge-tap on my pair.... even recruited a friend to help him.... They checked the whole neighborhood.... Apparantly the BT is more than 300 feet upstream.... They were doing this for me to TRY and get around the request to engineering to ID the location of the tap.... Unfortunately, they couldn't spend any more time than they did.... (I thanked them though, cause they could have just tok off after the initial test).

So I guess I'm in for ANOTHER 4-6 week wait..... ASSUMING that it is JUST this one tap that is causing the no-sync problem.... It's possible that there are MANY taps, et al on the line that are causing the incredible line distance inflation.

At 4-6 weeks per device removal, it could be 4-6 MONTHS before I actually see working DSL service.

This is INSANE! Why can't they just fix the damn lines right on the first call?

I really hate incompetent and sloppy work!

 

[Big Lar]

I hate to be the Beare of bad tidings, but unless your telco authorises the bridge taps to be removed, it will never get done, not to mention they probably won't do it upon your request either, as you are &quot;Out of distance&quot; as it is.... good luck.

 

[cautery]

The TELCO HAS to authorize the removal of the bridge taps, as they would do exactly the same thing if it were a PacBell DSL order. Under the equal access laws, they have to provide the same level of diligence to provide access to the service to me through Telocity as for a customer ordering from them.

PacBell DSL customers are having the EXACT same problems....

One of the MAIN problems is the fact that at LEAST three 4 companies are involved:

SBC - parent Company
PacBell - Owner of the phone line
ASI - Company that provides DSL maintenance services for PacBell on their lines (also a phone services providor)
Telocity - third party DSL ISP

I am NOT out of distance according to PacBell. In fact, I am more likely closer to about 12K feet from the CO. The incredible 28K figure likely results due to multiple bridge taps, patching and re-patching in of telco cable to accomodate 10+ years of lazy line connects, disconnects, re-connects, moves, et, etc, etc.

If all the superfluous crap is taken out of the system (what SHOULD be done to begin with), I should be able to get great signal fidelity/reliability/consistency.

The problem is to get all three/four companies to cooperate to do this rather than finger point.

The fact that the deregulation LAWS actually PROHIBIT certain combinations of communication between the companies makes this an almost insane process. It's like trying to do brain surgery via smake signals in a strong wind! <grrrrr>

All the problems HAVE to be between my house and Grangeville Ave. (3.5 blocks) as from Grangeville to the CO, ALL of the infrastructure is brand new and 100% fiber (less than 12 mos old). I simply have to motivate them to clean up the rats nest of copper over that last 3.5 blocks.

Perhaps they think I will just go away when I wear myself out, but I spent 8.5 years battling the best/worst bureacratic machine on the planet.... These guys are nothing by comparison!

Just ticks me off that I can't get an advertised product AS ADVERTISED!!!

I plan to keep this thread updated.... Right now, the ball is in PacBell's court...