[ale] OT - Non AT&T landline

Tue Jun 26 12:57:44 EDT 2007

I tried Supra Telecom a few years back. At the time they were the only
company in my area to offer unlimited local and long distance flat
rated. I had 2 problems - 1. The customer service was even worse than
BS/ATT. 2. There seemed to be a disconnect between BS and Supra at that
time. Things like line provisioning, or troubleshooting line problems
took twice as long.

As far as emergency situations go - I've been in several emergency
situations where phone service went first. Also if there is an emergency
and there are a large number of people without electricity etc., then
you'll probably end up getting "All circuits busy" even if you do have
phone service. I say this based on experience, but I spent most of my
life in south FL. Things may be different here in GA.

On Tue, 2007-06-26 at 10:04 -0400, Jeff Lightner wrote:
> My reason for wanting landline is purely for emergency situations.  It
> seems to me that in emergencies cell systems get overloaded and you
> might not have power to run your computer/broadband equipment (or
> recharge your cell phone).   Although I?ve seen loss of landline phone
> service on very rare occasions in my life I?ve never seen it happen
> when all the other utilities were out which I?ve also experienced.
> 
>  
> 
> So again my question isn?t about the advisability of using landline
> but rather if anyone is using a provider other than Bellsouth/AT&T on
> the landline in a Bellsouth/AT&T area.
> 
>  
> 
> P.S.  Just to forestall it ? I am aware that the calls would still go
> over Bellsouth/AT&T lines.   My question is generated both by a desire
> to save money and a desire to reduce AT&T?s income by however little I
> can.   I didn?t like AT&T back when it was a monopoly and their
> response to the NSA information collection stuff let me know that
> despite being a reconstituted corporation their ?we?re the phone
> company? hubris has NOT changed.
> 
>  
> 
> 
>                                    
> ______________________________________________________________________
> 
> From:ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Tim
> Youngblood
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 6:58 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] OT - Non AT&T landline
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> I haven't had a home phone line for 2 years. I have 'naked' DSL coming
> into my residence and I use Vonage and another VOIP solution for a
> business line.
> 
> I use Speakeasy DSL and they have excellent customer service and very
> rare outages. It is more expensive due to their customer service but
> it is for business, so it is worth it to have 99.9% uptime and a real
> live person who gives a damn when you call their support number.
> 
> A couple of years ago what the first time that POTS line installation
> actually went down in the US since Mr. AG Bell invented it. There is a
> reason. 
> 
> 
> On 6/25/07, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> OK that's nice to hear but I don't see how it addresses the question I
> asked.  I'm not looking for DSL ? just local phone service.
> 
>  
> 
> However, since you bring it up ? ILEC companies such as Verizon,
> Bellsouth, SBC (BS/SBC = AT&T now) were very often accused of a severe
> lack of cooperation if not outright sabotage by most CLECs back when I
> worked in the Telecom industry.   Even the FCC complained bitterly
> about their non-compliance with the intent and letter of the
> Telecommunications Act ? up until you know who appointed cronies after
> the 2000 election.   Many CLECs gave up on the idea because it wasn't
> worth fighting the battle except for business lines.  These huge ILECs
> were supposed to open up local markets to competition to be allowed to
> sell long distance but never really did in a meaningful way.
> 
>  
> 
> 
>                                    
> ______________________________________________________________________
> 
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Jim Philips
> Sent: Monday, June 25, 2007 12:40 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts
> Subject: Re: [ale] OT - Non AT&T landline
> 
> 
>  
> 
> I signed up with Eartlink's DSL/phone bundle back in February. Major
> mistake. First, it became nearly impossible to make international
> calls. Parties on the other end couldn't hear us. After a few hopeless
> attempts to resolve that issue, we just signed up for international
> service with a provider who could service our cell phone lines.
> Second, the phone service would just drop out periodically. When this
> happened, I was forced to call their nightmare technical support on my
> cell phone. They were always majorly resistant to bringing in a real
> tech to troubleshoot the issue. Third, my download speed for DSL was
> about half what I was used to. Nobody could ever explain that
> completely. One guy said that my earlier connection had probably been
> through a remote and that BellSouth had forced them connect all the
> way back to the switch when I cut over. Maybe. Fourth, I had billing
> problems one month and it took about 90 minutes of explaining and
> threatening to get them to correct it. At this point, Earthlink has
> got to be one of the most poorly run companies in the ISP business.
> Makes me sad when I remember what Mindspring used to be. I ended up
> ditching them before my contract was done. 
> 
> 
> On 6/25/07, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:
> 
> 
> All the talk about broadband/DSL for AT&T/Bellsouth made me wonder if
> anyone on the list is using someone else i s using one of the 3rd
> party regular telephone providers and if so whether they would
> recommend others to use them.  
> 
> I' m not talking about Broadband telephone but rather the regular
> phone lines (POTS?).   Also not talking about providers like
> Windstream that own lines outside of Bellsouth areas ? I 'm in a
> Bellsouth area so wouldn 't be able to get them unless they also
> provided the kind of service I 'm talking about.   Basically I' m
> looking for a CLEC if you know what that is.
> 
> 
> 
> 
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> 
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> 
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