To: bovik@cs.cmu.edu
Subject: BellAtlantic ADSL - Beware!
Date: Mon, 23 Aug 1999 15:22:57 -0400
From: Spyridon Papadimitriou <Spyridon_Papadimitriou@gs91.sp.cs.cmu.edu>


About 8-10 weeks ago, I installed ADSL with Bell Atlantic as my ISP,
since their offer at the time was better (connections charges were
much lower), alas with the restriction that I remain a customer for
one year.

For more than a month, the connection speeds to CMU are unacceptably
slow and ping from and to my office PC always gives a 15-20% packet
loss.  Bell Atlantic is either unable or unwilling to help me with
this problem.  I've repeatedly called and was put on hold for ridiculus
amounts of time (the longest I ever waited was about 45-50 mins).  After
two weeks of trying I was lucky enough to speak to someone, who gave me
an issue number and redirected my call to a technician, with whom I never
spoke (I was on hold for about 25 mins and had to leave my office)...
I've also sent emails to techsupport, but received no response yet.
Right now I can't even complete the phone call to the toll-free techsupport
number!!  However, in all this time I've learnt by heart the automated
message about the connection speed problems that Washington, DC customers
have and how much BA regrets it... ;-)

So, unless you get a kick out of being constantly ignored, I'd say:
STAY AWAY FROM BELL ATLANTIC.  Better choose CMU DSL!  Plus, Bell Atlantic
allows one host per ADSL modem and will soon change to a dynamic addressing
scheme (DHCP???) and will charge more if you want a static IP address...

Good luck!
Spiros