DSL related confusion

[Retail Associate]

I currently have Verizon for my home phone service and would like to get Verizon DSL but it isn't available at my location. They say I'm too far from the exchange. I'm not really sure what that means.

What's confusing is, if I enter my phone number into the 'Service Availability' search at the AT & T Yahoo DSL website, it tells me that their DSL service is available at my home. AT & T isn't even in my location. As far as I know, the closest AT & T service is about 40 miles away.

Is their website messed up or am I?

I don't get it!

[trunks2k]

I currently have Verizon for my home phone service and would like to get Verizon DSL but it isn't available at my location. They say I'm too far from the exchange. I'm not really sure what that means.

Roughly:

DSL signals works over a standard copper wire phone line, just at a different frequency. However, the signal cannot travel as far as the signal that is used for your standard phone. The exchange is where the signals from your regular phone line is recieved and fed into the rest of the system (whether it be the phone system, or depending on how the network is set up, the internet) over fiber optic. If you are too far away from the exchange, the DSL signal cannot make it, so no connection for you.

What's confusing is, if I enter my phone number into the 'Service Availability' search at the AT & T Yahoo DSL website, it tells me that their DSL service is available at my home. AT & T isn't even in my location. As far as I know, the closest AT & T service is about 40 miles away.

This is all just about who owns the lines Vs. who provides the service. One company owns the exchange (who may or may not be AT &T) and another company may or may not provide the services that exchange provides. So theoretically, Local Phone company may own the exchange, other companies such as AT&T can still provide certain services through that exchange as they essentially rent the DSL stuff from Local Phone Company. It's all due to really wierd regulations, and I wouldn't be surprised if AT&T actually owns your exchange but Local Phone Company rents it from them.

Just because the website says that DSL is available at your house, doesn't mean this is so. It is likely that AT&T just has knows that Exchange A can provide DSL services, and that your line connects to Exchange A. But they don't know whether or not your house is actually close enough to the exchange.

[Retail Associate]

Thanks for the explanation trunks2k. I talked with Verizon today and they said DSL isn't available here at all. No plans to change that situation either. I guess I'm stuck with dial-up

[symposes]

I had dsl for all of 1 week.
Ferking contract costed me 250 bucks to get out of.(And i had no idea i was in a contract.)
I found out that i had the slowest dsl, and i could feel it when i treid to download stuff. But i was going to be paying 40 a month for this slow dsl. So when i asked about upgrading to the fastest dsl, they told me, that i couldnt do it, and they had no plans to change it. So i switched to cable, and now have a connection that is 6 times faster, and its only 44 a month.

[trunks2k]

No plans to change that situation either. I guess I'm stuck with dial-up

No cable internet? Cable doesn't suffer from the distance problems that DSL does, so if you get cable at your house, you should be able to get internet, provided the local cable company has made the appropriate upgrades.

[trunks2k]

So i switched to cable, and now have a connection that is 6 times faster, and its only 44 a month.

Damn. Comcast is raping my ass.

[Retail Associate]

No cable internet?

Comcast cable internet is available here but I'm afraid it's too costly for this minimum wage retail slave. I no longer use their service for TV either. Their prices kept going up and up til I finally cancelled it. I have a dish now. Which also offers high speed internet but at an even higher price than cable. Maybe the cost will go down some day as more people get a dish. I dunno.

Verizon's basic DSL service is cheaper than what I pay for dial-up. Sure wish it was available.