Verizon hangs on...for dear life!

Being a T-Mobile customer, I happened to catch their commercial about the new "t-mobile@ home" product. Unlimited local and long distance for 10 bucks! What great deal! The catch: YOU NEED HIGH SPEED INTERNET.

For all of us experienced/computer savvy folks, that's a given. But for those of you who are typical PC users and coincidentally t-mobile customers, this new product might seem a bit strange.

Here's the real deal on the process...

1. If you have DSL, and your provider also supplies your standard/typical phone service, contact your provider and check for the possibility of keeping your service without a "phone line". This is known as a "dry-loop". Feel free to throw that term at 'em...it will help you sound informed...

2. Contact T-mobile. If you have a qualifying account (they can help you figure that out), they send you a Linksys wireless G router. This is a special router though - it has their logo and 2 telephone jacks on the back - only one of which will be active. Need more info? Click here.

3. Receive equipment from T-mobile, and set it up, confirm it is working.

4. (This is where it gets tricky) Call your phone provider to port your home number. BUT BEWARE! If you are a DSL subscriber, you could lose your internet access in the process!

Step 4 is where I lost it. The ever so compitent folks at Verizon blundered the whole "porting" process. The number moved to T-mobile fine on a Friday with minimal service interruption. Do you think they could leave well enough alone? No. They had to "finish" the process the following Monday (in other words, cut our DSL service for no apparent reason then to make us second guess our decision) to have another telephone number on the line (that's how they do their billing) and complete the "dry-loop".

A few calls to Verizon and many, many (did I mention many?) hours on the phone qualifies me for a service call. Initially their tech support attempted to point the finger at me (mind you I mande NO changes to my inside or outside wiring, setup, etc.). Alas, after some coaxing, the appointment was scheduled for the next day , and the waiting began...

Following day...technician arrives! Only 1.5 hours into the scheduled window! What a relief. I Explain to the technician what really happened. He checks the connection at the pole, and comes down. Says that the central office made it nice and difficult by changing something that caused my service to be interrupted. The technical details escape me, but long story short I learn that this could have been avoided but appears to be a way to keep business. (Something about they only needed to remove the dial tone, and we would have only lost 10 minutes.) Short while later, we are up and running. (Whew...I was going through the DTs!)

Let it not go unsaid - the phone tech was fantastic. He knew exactly what happened, and not only did he fix it, he also replaced my entire phone drop! It seems that my throughput was taking a hit due to old wires. I guess that's the silver lining....

Conclusion? It's worth the switch. The quality seems better then my old service in my opinion. I tend to rely on my actual cell phone for most communication, so the price makes it easier to hang on to my home number. The home phone is really for the kids anyway, and other "instituions" (banks, etc) that require a home phone. Just remember, like most plans these days, there is always a contract...so be prepared to live with it for a couple of years...