Broadband Users Still Sing the Blues

For Leslie and Bruce Forrest, broadband Internet access promised relief from painfully slow modem speeds. So when Verizon Communications began a DSL marketing blitz in the Forrests' Washington, D.C., neighborhood, signing up for it was a no-brainer. "We really wanted this," Bruce says.

But what was supposed to be broadband heaven turned into a protracted nightmare for the couple, both of whom are attorneys. After laying down $1200 for a new PC that met Verizon's minimum system requirements for DSL, and enduring weeks of postinstallation troubleshooting, the Forrests learned that their efforts had been in vain.

A Verizon technician, Leslie Forrest says, told her that they lived too far from the phone company's central office to receive the service.

Irate, the Forrests contacted a lawyer, who in turn filed one of a growing number of class-action lawsuits against Verizon by disgruntled DSL customers who contend that the provider has fallen far short of its advertised promises.

The Forrests aren't the only disillusioned broadband consumers, and Verizon certainly isn't the only broadband company with angry customers.

Installation hassles and long waits for service are a common complaint. Several small and medium-size providers have gone out of business, leaving their customers in the lurch. Surviving high-speed providers are starting to raise prices, and millions of people like the Forrests still can't obtain DSL or cable service at all.

Over a year ago, when PC World documented a litany of woes plaguing high-speed Internet customers (see "Broadband Blues," February 2000), vendors promised improvements. So what gives? Wasn't DSL supposed to be as easy to get by now as ordinary telephone service? Shouldn't the dial-up option be dead, or at least dying?

Financial Meltdowns

There is no doubt about the demand for high-speed Internet access. In the past year alone, the number of households with a broadband connection almost doubled, to 6 million, according to the research group Cahners In-Stat. But it's equally clear that the industry is suffering severe technical and financial problems that should concern anyone who is considering or already has broadband service. (For the few precautions available, see "Beating the Broadband Blues.")

For existing customers, the most alarming trend may be the wave of bankruptcies hitting small and medium-size DSL providers. The most publicized of these was NorthPoint Communications. In March, NorthPoint's network vendors began shutting down services that NorthPoint had bought from them, leaving roughly 100,000 DSL customers without service. NorthPoint had been operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since January, following a failed attempt to merge with Verizon.

More than a dozen other DSL providers have filed for bankruptcy, too, including Zyan and Flashcom. Seattle-based Bazillion shut down in mid-January, stranding customers like Greg Van Belle. When Van Belle checked his e-mail in January, he found a message explaining that market conditions had forced the provider out of business.

"Four days later, the red light went out on my DSL modem, and service just stopped," Belle says. He went without DSL for three months until EarthLink stepped in, picking up Bazillion's customers.

Industry observers say that DSL providers are hurting due to a combination of factors, including dried-up venture funding and cutthroat competition from telephone companies that forced them to price service lower than expected. "A lot of DSL providers ran out of cash before they could start making money," says Adam Needles, director of DVG Research, a Boston information technology research firm.

The Big Get Bigger--And Pricier

Meanwhile, the surviving broadband ISPs are getting bigger--and raising prices. In a closely watched move, SBC ended a yearlong promotion and in late February raised its monthly price from $40 to $50. EarthLink soon followed suit, also ending a $40 promotion for new subscribers and raising its fees by $10 per month. Consumers can expect more of the same as the field of competitive DSL and cable providers narrows, says David Butler of Consumers Union.

For prospective DSL customers, technical issues compound service problems. Copper phone lines must be upgraded and tweaked to carry a DSL signal, which has made service slow to arrive in some neighborhoods. Further, the cabling between the customer and the telephone company's central switching office must be no longer than 3 miles for the service to work. So if the DSL provider miscalculates, it may promise service that it physically can't deliver.

And one in four DSL connections ordered never get installed as a result of order-processing and network problems, according to a report issued last fall by DVG Research. Even when you qualify to receive service, the average time between ordering DSL and getting the service up and running is approximately four to six weeks, compared to just five days for cable.

In March, SBC said installing DSL service took only two weeks; Verizon claims to take about three. Despite such assertions of relative improvement, half a dozen class-action lawsuits alleging poor DSL service have been filed against these two telecommunications giants and their subsidiaries.

Cable Gains--But It's No Panacea

Overall, cable companies appear to be doing a better job of installation and service. That may be partly because cable technology is simpler, and because its coaxial cables are more robust than most phone lines and therefore are better suited for carrying large amounts of data, including video. One Consumer Reports study found that 73 percent of cable consumers had no problem with installation, compared with just 46 percent of DSL customers.

Cable isn't perfect, however: Sluggish networks and service issues persist. Plenty of cable Internet providers have earned low marks at sites like DSLReports.com, which acts as a sounding board and a consumer advocacy forum for broadband customers.

"Most of the cable complaints are not about installations," says Justin Breech, founder of DSLReports.com. "They're about speed and lack of customer service when there is a problem."

Cable performance often dips during peak use hours, and it can gradually diminish over time as more customers join the same network within a particular neighborhood.

Is the Worst Over?

Asked to comment on this daunting array of problems, providers once again promise to improve service and performance. SBC has added hundreds of DSL technicians and is spending $6 billion to eliminate distance and equipment issues. "The worst is behind us," says Kevin Belgrade, a spokesperson for SBC.

Verizon admits it has experienced problems, but it considers lawsuits such as the Forrests' groundless and is fighting them in court, spokesperson Larry Plumb says.

The bottom line for consumers? Keep expectations low. The rollout of services will continue to be gradual. Cable has an edge in reliability, but DSL will increasingly become more widely available.

To get an idea of what to expect, check out DSLReports.com. If you're lucky, your high-speed service will arrive and work without a hitch. But if you do get the broadband blues, you'll at least be familiar with the tune.