Re: Verizon, Voicewing and Portability

Please tell me if this makes sense:
> I live in Manhattan and currently have Verizon local and DSL. I would > like to switch my local service to VoiceWing 500 (same as regular > VoiceWing with 500 minutes of outgoing calls/month, for $19.95). I > just got off the phone with multiple Verizon customer service people; > they all told me varying things, but the basic upshot is that because > I'm a DSL customer, I can't get VoiceWing on the same line, since DSL > requires a regular land line. That seems to me to be completely > backwards -- after all, wouldn't the most obvious customers for > VoiceWing be current DSL customers? Yet they're telling me those are > the exact people who are ineligible for the service (unless I'm > willing to sign up for an entirely new phone line, which would be > completely pointless and cost me an additional $20/month). What's > more, while at least one person had told me this situation could > change in the near future, the last guy I spoke to said it was a > structural problem that could never be rectified. > Now, as I said, I got different answers from different people, and in > general, people seemed to be a little confused about how VoiceWing > works, most likely because it's still relatively new. Can anyone out > there shed any light on this riddle? Does anyone currently have both > VoiceWing and Verizon DSL, with no additional phone lines?

The current regulatory environment *requires* that the ILEC (Verizon, in your case) transfer the _exclusive) use of that wire-pair to the CLEC, when you go with a CLEC as the dial-tone provider.

IF the _CLEC_ does not offer line-shared DSL -- either their own offering, or access for third-party providers -- you are SOL as far as getting DSL on _that_ wire-pair.

In those situations where the CLEC does not offer line-shared DSL, you simply have to get another wire-pair for your DSL service. Covad and MCI, at least, in your area, can do this. It costs a little more ($5-10/mo) than line-sharing.

_AT_THIS_TIME_, Verizon does not have any 'non-line-shared' DSL offering, They did, last year, announce their intention to offer 'naked' DSL -- DSL on it's own wire-pair, without voice service on it;

*BUT* the projected roll-out of the service (originally scheduled for 'early 2005') has been pushed back, and no firm availability date has been set.

In theory, *IF* the CLEC offered the functionality, Verizon could piggy- back their service on the CLEC-controlled wire-pair. Verizon _would_, in that situation, however, have to *pay* the CLEC for the privilege of using the CLEC-controlled wire-pair to provide your DSL. Methinks Verizon would be loathe to do so, _if_ it were technically viable.

_Very__Few_ CLECs have the installed equipment to support shared-line DSL. Those that do, do not make it available for 3rd-party use -- rather they use it for _their_own_ shared-line offering.

Verizon apparently restricts their DSL offerings to situations where _they_ "own" the wire-pair. And, at this time, do =not= offer "non-shared" line service.

Thus, _IF_ you change dial-tone providers, you *will* have to change Internet access providers as well. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Check out panix.com, and world.std.com, a couple of _good_ providers in your area.

*IF* you have a _reliable_ cable TV provider, they may offer Internet access, and could be worth checking out. If, like many places, the cable TV service is subject to frequent short-duration outages, you should take into consideration what effect similar outages will have on your Internet use. [TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: In the nearly two years since I decided to ditch Southwestern Bell (for everything) and go with CableOne for my high speed internet, I do not think there has been five minutes of downtime. Well, there was one time I decided to move a television set into my computer room so I could watch television while working on the Digest, and in the process of hooking up a splitter to the cable line and attaching a television/radio combination to the cable which (at that point in my system) had just been the internet, I got a splitter installed incorrectly. I had that same day installed a Cisco router for the computers, and between the ill-advised television/radio on the cable line in my computer room and the Cisco router, the Motorola SB-4220 Surfboard Cable Modem (supplied by CableOne) somehow lost track of what it was doing. But the tech guy at CableOne very graciously got me back on line in about 10 minutes once I decided to call them and ask for help. Cable only rarely goes off line, I have found. PAT]