SBC joins the VoIP party

TalkBack 1 of 4:

Next »

• Thread View
• Flat View

Too little too late

I started personally dabbling in VoIP technologies in 2000, got
serious about it in '02 and cut the cord in '03. It seems SBC is a
couple to a few years too late on the deal.

Have you tried their "broadband" service? I have. Both residential
and "business" class' of service. Due to absolutely horrible
abilities to keep the network up (them they were disconnected
after about two months of service for any/all of the business
accounts.

I was temporarily "locked" at home. I did have a "unbundled" DSL
line (with SBC unfortunately) before the tariffs (laws) changed
and you can no longer get that (IL) -- you _have_ to get a POTS
line to have DSL with anybody (no technical reason for this mind
you). You would think that with a ISDN line (SBC @home) that
you would be able to "bundle" to that, but NO.

I couldn't believe SBC wanted to charge my brother an additional
$150/mo for his ISDN (@home) because he _was_ in the middle
of no where. Even though SBC managed his local town, and the
town next door (where his ISDN line was coming from) they felt
the want to charge extra for their mismanaged outdated
equipment? I don't think so.

Fortunately for us there is now wireless broadband in this area
from various sources that typically is in the 5Ghz range which is
able to feed you a 10Mbit pipe. For the same price SBC was
charging me for a 768/168K DSL line (now 10,000/10,000 .
The final bump (to disconnect them at home) was the day my
DSL line went from 768K to 384K (my download uplink -- not
what I was perceiving as downloads from the Internet). This went
on for months (with no adjustments to billing -- I was paying for
a 768K line) with the final phone call to them having the rep ask
me if somebody else in the neighborhood got DSL ... that that
would make my connection slower. NO, my uplink connection
speed should show 768K, not 384K. Period.

Today SBC gets $0 while I still have the same phone numbers
I've had for decades now through VoIP. One SBC ISDN line cost
~$70 before I picked up the phone (which gave me two "phone
lines" into the house) -- with charges ranging in hundreds of
dollars with usage and long distance. They'll ding you for every
"extra" they can like Caller-ID, Call-waiting, Call-forwarding,
Call-Transfer (only available on their "Centrex" lines), Three-way
calling, Voice Mail, etc, etc.

With non-SBC VoIP it's been $30/mo per phone line. Period. All
the bells and whistles (extras have been included for free.
National calling unlimited and free.

Goodbye SBC.

Posted by: kray_z   Posted on: 11/17/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

• The Impact of Virtualization Software on Operating Environments VMware Today's use of virtualization technology allows IT professionals to ... Download Now
• The True Costs of Virtual Server Solutions VMware In an economic environment that is repeatedly heralding the message "do ... Download Now
• Building the Virtualized Enterprise with VMware Iinfrastructure VMware VMware virtualization software has been adopted by over 120,000 enterprise ... Download Now