DSL From Hell

Further Phone Follies

The next day all phone service was lost.

At this point, high-speed Net access seemed ludicrously lavish. I just wanted my phone service back.

When Bell Atlantic offered to lend me a cell phone until it could figure out how to restore phone service, I gave up and revealed my secret identity as a lowly reporter for PC World.com.

Bell Atlantic delivered a heartfelt apology, and I climbed a little higher on the tech-help totem pole.

The next day phone service was miraculously restored--and even DSL service was good to go.

Well, no. After affixing the swapper, the DSL signal was strong. But it took another half-day and four hours on the phone to actually open a Bell Atlantic.net account. Bell Atlantic says this is because its installation software had a few bugs and that its registration servers kept crashing.

Finally, exactly two months from the day I bought the modem, I have DSL service. The speed is great, and everything's running fine (perhaps while I work for PC World.com, anyway).

Attack of the Killer Squirrels

According to Colson Hillier, Bell Atlantic marketing specialist, my problems were an "isolated incident." However, judging from the broadband horror stories I've heard recently (please see, "Broadband Blues," linked at right) the experience was not that uncommon.

Bell Atlantic can't even say for sure why phone service was lost; technicians speculate that it could have been hungry squirrels chewing through the phone line just as easily as complications activating DSL service.

To add insult to injury, I ended up paying way more to go this route. In a special promotion right now, Bell Atlantic charges $99 total for the 3Com DSL modem, installation, and the activation fee. (In comparison, buying the modem at CompUSA costs $250, with no rebate.)

The company says it now offers a simpler version of its HomeConnect kit and is getting better at meeting consumer needs.

Let's hope so. If Bell Atlantic really wants to slug it out with cable firms for the golden last mile connecting our homes to the Net, it will have to get rid of all these bumps on that broadband road.