ContentNow this isn’t a particularly profound thought or anything, but I wish there was more competition in the broadband industry. I’m a huge fan of Speakeasy, but getting a DSL line installed with them, or anyone else, is just needlessly time consuming.
A week ago I opened an order for Speakeasy’s Classic OneLink ADSL Basic 1.5/768 Pro-Install plan. It’s not cheap, but they really do provide excellent service, few outages, and let you host servers at home. The interesting thing about the OneLink service is that you can get it without having a telephone line. For someone like me who uses their cell phone exclusively, this makes a lot of sense.
Unfortunately it requires a $99 installation because “an official Covad technician needs to run the connection from your phone box into your home for them to consider the installation complete.” Hmm. How much do you want bet that the official Covad technician does not physically need to do a thing, and will make the trip out to the building feeling foolish, but dressed in a nice blue uniform. Maybe with a clipboard. Definitely with one of those phone line checker things. And a toolbelt.
And more unfortunately, the entire installation (i.e., five minutes worth of actual effort) is already being delayed. While I am not getting service from SBC directly, they still need to be involved so that Covad can set up the line. But my apartment is new, so SBC doesn’t have my address on file.
This all happened last week, so I contacted Speakeasy to explain the situation (and, as always, they were prompt and helpful). But the status report now says “We have submitted your order to SBC for processing. We are expecting a response from SBC by 5pm (PST) 08/02/2004.If we do not receive a response by that time, we will contact SBC and update the log.”
Yes, of course you will need to submit an order to SBC to verify my address. Of course this would take five days. And why wouldn’t it? They have to reserve a timeslot on the IBM 1620 and make their punchcards after all.
It’s not that bad. It could be a whole lot worse (as it is for a friend of mine). But still, a little bit of competition (or better consumer education, or a worldwide downturn in the malaise markets) would do wonders for the persistent problem of five minute installation jobs turning into month-long productions.