I’ve been complaining about this advertising gimmick, and a similar one that’s even worse, for up to 80 years or more.

Much of the problem with DSL provisioning is that the lines they’re running over are often in terrible shape. They were often strung poorly, inadequately maintained, or have been jacked around by generations of technicians that have come and gone. They can’t tell you for sure what speed you’ll get, because they don’t know the quality of the copper pair you’ll end up being assigned. If you get a good pair, you may get good speed. If not, it can suck.

There can also be quite substantial inaccuracies in their length-to-customer figures. I’m not entirely sure why this is, but they can be off by a large margin. The databases for this stuff are very poor, and since pretty much all competition was shut down in the telecom space, there’s absolutely no incentive to improve it at all.

I’m pretty amazed at the guy upthread who doesn’t want FIOS. Wow, is that ever weird.

I worked for a major DSL provider years ago… when it was still a decent system to be using. That company eventually bought competitors and operated 2 networks. That’s when the fun began.

DSL needs to have “boosters” on the copper cable network, roughly every 4-5 miles (it differs based on technology and costs) because of signal loss. Phone cables aren’t very good at preserving high-frequency data. But in big areas, they install more boosters, even if the 5 mile radius concept doesn’t apply, just so they can deliver faster speeds.

Now in theory, everyone gets their base speed (768k seems the norm now). But the closer you are to a booster or a booster farm, the faster speeds you get. That has nothing to do with geography but how their network was built around predictions of which residential area would require more and which wouldn’t. You can usually notice a degradation in quality after a couple of miles.

In practice, there’s no real way to calculate how fast a given location will be, because the costs of testing possible scenarios (which booster will the signal go through, how much will it be re-amplified, etc) is too much for them to consider.

So instead, they rely on distance tests. As long as you live in a big residential area, you should have decent speeds (assuming everything else is ok), but if you’re a little bit further, you might not get advertised speeds.

Said provider, however, used to make you sign an agreement that they might not be able to help you fix your speed issues if you’re over the 4 mile radius limit, but they still offered the service.

I’m not impressed at all that the Verizon rep told you different things about DSL availability when she was looking at another computer. I’d call that slightly more consistency than I would expect from AT&T on the matter.

A little background. At the time, (Dec. 2008 – Jan. 2009) I was an AT&T apologist. I was mainly focused on wireless service, but I was more than willing to try their DSL. So I jumped through several hoops at a wireless store one day, getting new DSL service attached to my wireless bill.

It was to be installed by a technician a week later, and I was told I would need merely to plug in my (free!) modem and complete a short self-install procedure on my end.

Awesome. I had already moved in to my new place, but there were several open wi-fi networks in the neighborhood, so I was not without a connection.

A week later, I plugged in my modem and initiated the process, only to find that it did not work. I spent almost two hours on the phone, before I learned what the problem was. The sales drone had mistakenly entered my service order twice, and three days later when someone in another department caught it, instead of (a) calling to confirm or (b) canceling one of the orders, they canceled both and did nothing to inform me. No one had come out to set up my service at all.

So I got one of the orders reinstated and I was told a technician would get everything lined out two days later.

Two days later, I initiated the self-install process and got the same result as before. I spent an hour and a half on the phone with customer service representatives who knew NOTHING before I finally got transferred to the nicest, most knowledgeable CS representative I’ve ever spoken to – she said she was in the Philippines – who told me the tech who came to set up my line reported back that the location needed an additional line added to add DSL and that he did not have the equipment to do so. I got another appointment scheduled for three days later. I was beginning to get irritated.

But I waited the three days. And I got a fantastic installer who told me he had no idea why he was summoned, because when he looked at our line, everything was already in order when he got there. There was nothing additional for him to do, except turn it on.

And turn it on he did. The service worked quickly and reliably for three weeks, when I got an automated phone call from AT&T telling me that “location is unsuitable for DSL service” and that my order will be cancelled. No number to call. Nowhere to follow up. Nothing. And this after I was obviously using the service! After several attempts, no one at AT&T could get my service turned back on.

So two days later, the cable company hooked up their service giving me twice the speed at the same price. I was so fed up with AT&T’s customer service that I not only canceled my wireless and landline services, but I went and GOT A JOB at Sprint.

For the next three months, I got an automated call every Wednesday from AT&T’s credit department that was vague and ominous. Every time I called the number it gave, the representatives said that they were familiar with the call, but that my account could not be found anywhere.

In short, AT&T is, to me, the worst company in America, and I’ve spent the last 3 years on a personal mission to take away their customers. From every division. And I tell this story to everyone who dares to tell me they like anything AT&T does.

The ‘upto’ trend is misleading. In the UK we have Ofcom that are supposed to be responsible for regulating the comms industry, but have summarily failed to do so, and have ignored approaching 700 people who have emailed them directly to ask them for assistance using
http://wispa.it/upto-charge-upto-service/
It isn’t that an upto service shouldn’t be allowed, it is that this should not be permitted to allow users to think that they could get something different to what they actually receive.
We are determined to put an end to this practice in the UK, or have Ofcom replaced with an effective regulator.
Richard Brown
COO