http://www.kyle-brady.com coherent thoughts on diverse topics Mon, 15 Mar 2010 02:37:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/07/us-broadband-a-call-to-arms/ http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/07/us-broadband-a-call-to-arms/#comments Thu, 07 May 2009 22:08:29 +0000 Kyle Brady http://www.kyle-brady.com/?p=2119 an important issue is arising in New York:  companies are finding they have to compete with each other for customers, which really just means they can't sell "we're going to screw you over" packages anymore, and they actually are being forced to deliver on their promises.

Despite the many hopefuls out there, I'm skeptical.  I've had problems with AT&T and them lying before, and the situation isn't getting any better.

I'd love to have a blindingly-fast internet connection that's not filtered, shaped, or anything else... just a raw pipeline.  Some people seem to think this is coming.  I would willingly pay $99/mth for consistent 50Mbps download speeds, and I would jump on Verizon's FiOS bandwagon the minute it's available in my area (if ever).  But keep in mind that lots of small and random countries, like Estonia or Japan, have much better connectivity than we (the U.S.) do - and they continue to stay one step ahead of the game.

There is really only one hurdle to achieving high connectivity: corporate reluctance and profit margins.

Until a few years ago, American ISPs were relatively normal companies- they provided a service that customers paid for, end of story.  But wave after wave of corporate lies and greed [1] [2], copyright abuse [1] [2], and traffic filtering/shaping [1] [2] are quickly proving that these companies don't have the best interest of the customers in mind - they're interested in obtaining maximum profit for minimal work, usually via overloading their networks or blocking/filtering/slowing certain kinds of traffic.

Where are the regulators in all of this?  Where is the heavy-hand of the government that is supposed to defend our freedoms and liberties?  They spend huge amounts of time, money, and effort defending our physical freedoms, but what about our intellectual and digital freedoms?

The RIAA is breathing down the neck of copyright law, trying to use it in ever more creative ways for destruction, all while looking to have the terms of copyright (and punishment for violation) extended to new heights.  Lobbyists in Washington, in tandem with their corporate sponsors, are in a frenzy to prevent any sort of telco regulation related to their activities - even if the point is to protect their customers.  Large portions of Congress are even in the telco companies' pockets, and are defending them voraciously - which includes the takedown of competition via government friends.

If the Internet is going to survive in any freedom-having format, then a few key events need to occur:  Net Neutrality needs to be established in the U.S., setting a standard for other countries to follow; the FCC needs to heavily regulate what telcos can and cannot do regarding their broadband services/customers; and inquiries into the delivery of said services (connectivity, downstream, upstream, persistence, filtering, etc.) need to begin within the highest levels of government possible.

We already have countries clearly violating their citizens' rights (like Sweden), but the problems in America stem from corporations, not the government - do you really imagine Time Warner or Comcast would refuse to collect data on their users for the government?  They already participate in shady activities, what's one more?

America could be turned into a highly-dense checkerboard of fiber, creating massive pipes to every home, and it wouldn't matter.  What good is a fast connection when you can't use it?  Or when you do, it gets downgraded, blocked, filtered, or otherwise interfered with?

American citizens need to stop sitting quietly in the background, and make it widely known such practices are not only despicable, but need to be flat-out illegal.  For far too long these companies have operated on a policy of "screw the customer, they have no control" and the situation continues to quickly degrade in the absence of action from a slow-to-care government.

When the Internet becomes only a small conglomeration of sites you're allowed to visit, then will you (both the American people and the Federal government) care?  That day is fast approaching - but don't depend on the Internet to find out about it.

It's probably blocked.

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Update (5/9/2009 11:55pm PST): It appears the EU has beaten us to the punch.  While I applaud this and wholeheartedly endorse the movement, it's embarrassing that we didn't approach the issue with legislation first.]]> http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/07/us-broadband-a-call-to-arms/feed/ 1 http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/04/att-and-their-adsl-package-continuing-to-screw-me/ http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/04/att-and-their-adsl-package-continuing-to-screw-me/#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 19:51:42 +0000 Kyle Brady http://www.kyle-brady.com/?p=2120 For a quick history, see my post regarding AT&T and .torrent files. It's from a year ago, but not a whole lot has changed since then...  Also, you can skip to the takeaway points of this, rather than reading the entire, rather lengthy, piece.


I changed apartments a few months ago, and in doing so I had to transfer my AT&T ADSL service from the old location to the new one... I haven't written about it until now, because I didn't have good enough reason to, but they screwed it up.  Big time.  And as of writing this, months later, the issues aren't fully resolved.

Oh, and they still filter my traffic too.

The Great Escape

To make a long story short, I requested them to transfer my service from Location A (old and then-current apartment) to Location B (new apartment) by Date C (about a week and a half from when I called).  Within 24 hours, my modem mysteriously broke (killswitch?), and after calling in again to receive a new modem (free only by agreeing to a verbal contract of a year of service), I discovered that my transfer request has "disappeared" from their system.  We created a new account request for Location B, active once again on Date C, with the modem to be received within 48 hours at Location B.

The modem didn't show at the new apartment, and it still wasn't there a week later.  Having been without service for at least a week (in either location), I called after I received a bill.   As it turns out, they misspelled my address and didn't include an apartment number, so it had been sitting in the closest UPS facility for the last 7 days.  UPS had told AT&T to contact me to pick it up, so they sent a note to my address (not calling me once) - which I never received, because they didn't address it properly.  The people at UPS said this is a regular event from AT&T.

The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly

Now having a modem, and managing to avoid any other idiotic issues when connecting to my service at the new apartment, I was content.  However, a month and a half later (two weeks ago) I received two bills:  each for a different account, totaling $130.

I spent two hours on the phone with the Billing Department, listening in as they spoke to different departments for my benefit.  Apparently what had happened was that I had two accounts for the same service, in the same location, one of which was the "missing" account from the original transfer request.

While on the phone, they asked for one account to be closed, but not physically disconnected, via the Disconnect Dept., since I still had an active and valid account at the same address.  They credited a payment from the false account to the true account, and placed a "billing changes pending" marker on the account - supposedly filing a bunch of notes for future reference along the way.  I spoke to a supervisor, non-outsourced, who promised to call back within 48hrs. with an update on how much was being deducted from my account balance based on false accounts, lack of service, etc.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Less than 24hrs. later, I had no service, and had instead a blinking red status light on my month-old DSL modem - at 10am.  Someone had come out from the Disconnect Dept., and disconnected me, despite being told not to.

Before doing any normal-life things like eating breakfast, making coffee, or showering, I called AT&T and spoke to the Line Dept., bypassing Tech Support completely, briefly explaining the situation.  After asking the agent to look at the notes on my account, he enlightened me to the fact that no notes existed whatsoever.

Despite AT&T causing my problems, by being absolutely retarded, the earliest they could come out was the following Monday... I was calling on a Thursday morning.  My request for escalation was processed, and I received a robot-call telling me it was denied 5 minutes later, no explanation.

Fight Club

My internet was reconnected by a very helpful field contractor, who gave me his cellphone so I "don't have to wait for AT&T to schedule a call whenever they feel like it", and I was again content.  But further consultation with the Billing Dept. has shown that they also have no notes on my account, nor any reference to a supervisor callback that I never received - and they won't discuss my billing issues with me since I have an account change pending.

The very change that was placed on my account to prevent late fees being assessed while things were straightened out.

Romeo and Juliet

In the last 3 months, I've been without service a minimum of 2.5 weeks, none of which has been credited to me, and they claim that I actually had service during these periods.  My connection is highly spotty, sometimes reconnecting multiple times within the span of a minute, but my hardware is all brand new, so it's not a local issue.

I pay $45/mth for "ADSL Pro Elite", purporting to have 6.0Mbps downstream - which I demonstrably don't have anything close to.  They still filter my traffic in terms of torrent files and other file downloads, taking over an hour to download a single standard-definition TV episode (of, say, South Park) or needing to wait a few minutes to build a buffer when watching Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles on Hulu.  I still get penalized if they feel I used enough bandwidth for an arbitrary time period, such as slowing my connection to a crawl if I even dare to watch a streaming Netflix movie, resulting in picture quality that I could produce in my bathtub with a handful of crayons - with similar audio.

Count Dracula

At this point, I don't have many options:  AT&T refuses to acknowledge that most of these events that have even occurred, they "lose" account notes that may have not existed in the first place, and generally screw me over in the use of their service.  Comcast, being the only local cable provider, is not an acceptable replacement, for obvious reasons.  Verizon doesn't provide service in my area, let alone FiOS, and none of the other major telcos don't either.  I can't even use a Verizon satellite-card connection, because it wouldn't support having a home network like I do.

I'm painted into a corner.  Paying too much for a service that doesn't deliver, to a company that lies, without options to go elsewhere.

What I really need is someone like Covad to provide solid, dependable, and quality service, downgraded in both specifications and price to a consumer level.  If there ever was a reason for the Federal government to be involved in net neutrality and the internal network operations of the telcos, and not just "let the free market sort it out" (because total free reign has worked so well elsewhere!), this is one.

Maybe the real question is: who wants to form a telco startup?

p.s. Yes, it was worth the time it took to write this epic saga of lies, deceit, and backstabbing by AT&T.  I feel slightly better now.

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Update (5/11/2009 9:30pm PST): I received a notice/bill/warning from a bill collecting agency today for part of the payment that is disputed and AT&T was supposed to be looking into... even though I've kept my account current monthly, while the other fees are "investigated" (or not... who knows, maybe they lost those records too).  The saga continues.]]> http://www.kyle-brady.com/2009/05/04/att-and-their-adsl-package-continuing-to-screw-me/feed/ 2