Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!hayes.fai.alaska.edu!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: "Data Quality" Local Dial Lines (was: Hostile Service Person!) Message-ID: <12226@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 16 Sep 90 22:33:00 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Organization: Telecommunications Network Architects, Safety Harbor, FL 34695 Lines: 99 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 652, Message 1 of 5 Fischer writes : > ... he was incredibly hostile! He said every time he called, >"some fax machine or something" answered the line. Now he's >really hostile! "You are using a standard dial tone line, what you >get is what you get ... If you want a data line, pay for it. You >people abuse the system, but it's gonna change..." Sounds like you met one of the remaining "telco gents of the Olde School," Bill. One of those types who really cares FAR less for making the customer happy than pushing his weight around. (Of course, he's probably a pretty responsible guy with a family who has been made that way by HIS bosses, but that's beside the point. I just wanted to make the point that he is a type, and not all that unusual.) His _modus_operandi_ runs along a classic line. The problem is that line contains a lie that he uses to avoid doing his job, and if he can get you to swallow it, not only will he get rid of the problem of having to do some work, he'll even get you to pay extra to get the work done. (WHEN are Americans EVER going to learn about these petty flim-flams they get subjected to daily?) Fortunately, you clung to some reason he could not deny, so you were able to make him do his job. Lo and behold: A plain old POTS line good enough to talk on is good enough for your modem. Amazing fact! (You rotten abuser of the "telephone network, you!) >What is this data line he referred to, how much does it cost and is >it really necessary to get one for modem use? Is there any way Bell >can determine if a line is used exclusively for data? The flim-flam here is one that local Telcos have even gotten the imprimateur of regulatory approval for; more's the pity. I don't know which one started it, but in their classic style of ripping the people state by state, keeping the general public in the dark that it's going nationwide, they file tariffs to "add" some "special conditioning" or "special treatment" to your old POTS line for a price that ranges from about $2.50 to $8.00 a month, depending on which Telco is your local rip-off agent. Oh, you'd pay the usual $50 or so worth of service order and "installation" charges, too. The real rip-off behind it is that what you get is a guarantee that the noise level, frequency response and envelope delay of the piece of cable from your premises to the Telco exchange meets the very same limits it is supposed to meet before they EVER use that cable for POTS service! That's right: Pay them extra to get them to meet their own limits for every dial-up phone line they ever put in! How's that, Telecomm sports fans? (For those into jargon, the numeric limits are the SAME as those for "acceptance testing" new subscriber cable; the tests they were supposed to do when they put the cable into service.) You proved to yourself you don't need that extra cost to make a modem work, and the tariff they sell it under has NOTHING to do with the volume of traffic or the nature of your messages. It merely guarantees they will do the job they are supposed to do. Why does your modem work OK? Simply because those self-same numeric limits they are supposed to meet for a POTS line are what the Telco industry tells modem makers their lines ALWAYS meet ... whether you paid extra or not. So, no you don't need it, unless you cave into letting them snow you into buying something they should have done in the base price; something they tell the modem makers (and indeed the PUC) they do for EVERY line. There are a number of ways they MIGHT find you use it exclusively for data, but all involve making the effort to "snoop" about what you are doing ... guessing from the length of your calls or investigating to find the number you dial is a computer; actual eavesdropping at length to hear nothing but tones every call you make, or calling the number themselves as did the cretin Illinois Bell sent to you. But, the BIG point is, they can't REQUIRE you to buy it. You can, as you did, stand on some rights to get them to do what they are always supposed to do and assume for yourself the responsibility that your modem will then work ... which it was in fact designed at their advice to do. >The whole deal kinda smells bad to me. You're absolutely right. It stinks to high heaven, and I hope you have the time and gumption to sit down and write a complaint letter in detail to the Illinois PUC, detailing not only the actions of the employee, but also the fact that you have an FCC-registered device that has been certified to operate properly on an ORDINARY line (RTFM and quote its applicable passages, which it is certain to have), and tell the PUC that they should be investigating WHY Illinois Bell charges extra for something they should be maintaining for ALL lines. Big Brother is really too slothful to mark your record card, but you can bet such a letter will get you about a hundred phone calls from all sorts of insects in the woodwork who will want to be your friend from now on, giving you their secret phone number and telling you to please call them directly for ANY future trouble you have. Your investment at this point to let them know you are a tough cookie will lead to a long period of excellent telephone service. You'll be a "special person" to all of them!