No Speakeasy For Me
I checked in today on the status of my Speakeasy order. I found that they have
already shipped out my installation kit which is nice, however, I also saw that
there was a note from Covad that if I didn't switch to Verizon for my phone
service from RCN that they couldn't provide me service.
For anyone who doesn't know Verizon sells phone lines to other services like
Covad and RCN. Now Covad provides DSL links for the ISP Speakeasy. Other than
the system being stupidly complex this entire thing normally didn't effect me
other than to delay service setup due to the extra steps. That is until now.
For some stupid reason Covad can't provide DSL to my residence simply because
my phone service is with RCN an not Verizon. Never mind that RCN is selling
Verizon lines already. I'd have to change to get DSL with is utterly
ludicrous. Now, if I was close enough and was essentially guaranteed a solid
connection I may go for it. But as it stands now I am at 14070 feet and the
max is 15000 feet. Meaning that if I go through all the stupid hoops and
change my phone company I still may not get a serviceable DSL line.
Now, to be fair, Speakeasy has nothing to do with this. They are an awesome
ISP with an incredible reputation. And they are known the be very geek
friendly. They are simply at the mercy of Verizon and Covad. Due to the
circumstances they waved the order cancellation fee when I asked them to as
there was no way I could have known this would happen. So they get bonuses for
customer service and keeping a potential future customer happy. I have every
desire to use them and I told them that. It just makes no sense to go through
the pain. If things change and they can provide guaranteed solid service here
then I'll change to them in a heartbeat.
Until then though, it's time for Plan B. I'll be calling RCN to get service
setup with them. There should be no problems there as I already have RCN
Phone. I'm thinking the 10M/800k service sounds nice. I guess I better put
the sales rep through the ringer though to make sure they aren't brain dead
too. Or at least not as brain dead as SECTV/Prolog.