More importantly, when Verizon breaks things, you get to let Starpower deal with the problem instead of having to call Verizon yourself.
SBC is malicious, clueless and does a lot of stuff that borders on criminal, but SBC's Advanced Services group are wonderful. They're the guys who actually maintain the DSL lines -- the group was spun off to avoid regulatory hassles. Their Hi-Cap people and linemen are terrific too. I think that's pretty standard, regardless of which telco you deal with.
Hm. If you really think Verizon is the worst phone company in California bar none, maybe you should try SBC.
After my experiences with them in Ohio, I am pleased to be able to pay Verizon instead of SBC for dialtone out here. (Verizon in the Victor Valley was formerly GTE, which in turn was formerly Continental Telephone.)
It will be very hard for Verizon to piss me off the way SBC did.
Steve Sobol, Professional Geek ** Java/VB/VC/PHP/Perl ** Linux/*BSD/Windows Apple Valley, CA ** 888.480.4NET (4638) ** snipped-for-privacy@JustThe.net
Resident of Southern California - the home of beautiful people and butt-ugly traffic jams
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: This is exactly how I feel about SBC. I do not know which is worse; their inaccuracy in their billing and procedures, or their arrogance in claiming they are never wrong and always have it right. At one point, at least an appeal to the chairman's office got you someone who would attempt (and usually succeed) in making things right. Now they just do not seem to care at all; and I have heard they are outsourcing their customer service reps mostly to India and Hong Kong. Any truth in that if you know? PAT]