Many of our readers know that about five years ago, when Southwestern Bell (d/b/a SBC) was the telco of record for southeastern Kansas, a new 'upstart' company called Prairie Stream Communications came along as a 'competitor' and their angle was to lease _all_ the equipment, etc. from SBC and co-locate in SBC's central office here in town. Lots of people here in Independence chose to jump ship from SBC and go with Prairie Stream, keeping their same phone number, but getting decent, reasonable service from Prairie Stream. In effect, we were still SBC/AT&T customers, but handled through Prairie Stream.
Now today, a letter came in the mail from Prairie Stream which said,
"For those who do not know, we have been in a contract dispute with AT&T since October 25, 2006. The dispute has ended, and we regret to inform you we will no longer be providing telephone service after this month. We are just not able to continue providing telephone service at a competitive rate. For those customers that have Internet service billed through Prairie Stream, you will need to call 1-620-332-1616 if you plan to keep the Internet service. You will be receiving a letter from AT&T stating that you will have 30 days to switch your service to a new provider or the line will be disconnected. We at Prairie Stream Communications would like to thank you for the loyal business you have given us for the last five years."
The letter did NOT include any suggestions or referrals as to whom local telephone service would be provided by ... just the note mentioned above saying that "AT&T will give you thirty days to switch your service to a 'new provider' or get disconnected." Well, gee, I wonder what 'new provider' AT&T would have in mind?
So to try and stay ahead of this mess, I did a search on Google for 'local phone service for 620-331' and came up with several suggestions, including Sage, which I am sure is not exactly what AT&T has in mind. But when I called Sage to inquire about switching my service away from Prairie Stream I was advised that they were/are unable to do transfers away from Prairie Stream. They said they can do transfers out of companies such as AT&T, Verizon, and others like that, but not out of Prairie Stream. She suggested that I default myself back to (now) AT&T and then after a month or so give the account to Sage.
Then I looked at a company called 'Trinsic' 877-237-6278. They claimed they _were_ able to switch accounts away from Prairie Stream, and while I waited on hold, she pulled up my existing account and told me all about it. This is getting more and more confusing ... however she had no record on file of my existing 'distinctive ring' (ring-ring) number and could not get it transferred over, but I was to 'give her a couple hours' and call back about 5 PM today. She did say they could mirror my account exactly otherwise, so I gave her the order to do so, and she said it would take place by November 14. I guess we will see how this all works out during the next week.
I had _thought_ one of the terms of AT&T buying out BellSouth was that they were required to continue showing mercy on the little guys still out there; I guess that I was mistaken on that. If someone comes along who tells me I must take SBC/AT&T for phone service or do without, then I will switch back to them, but not until.
PAT