 
Matt
You can't fix stupid
Premium
join:2003-07-20
Jamestown, NC |  For an extra $9.99 a month ...
Seriously, depending on the wording and commitment level of the SLA, this could be a good thing. | |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs: | Re: For an extra $9.99 a month ... It says "6Mbps or higher", so I would read this to be a way to increase the price of the Elite package. | |
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en102
Canadian, eh?
join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA | Re: For an extra $9.99 a month ... AT&T doesn't offer higher than 6Mbps residential DSL.
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Canada = Hollywood North | |
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Camelot One
Premium,MVM
join:2001-11-21
Sarasota, FL
clubs:
 ·VoicePulse
| Re: For an extra $9.99 a month ... said by en102  :AT&T doesn't offer higher than 6Mbps residential DSL. But they do offer 6Mbps, and the release states "6Mbps and higher", not "Higher than 6Mbps"
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Intel Quad Core QX6700 @3500Mhz/Asus P5N32-E SLI/4x 1024Mb Corsair/Seagate 750.10/PNY 7800GTs SLI/Silverstone 850W/Custom water cooler | |
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| | dcnblues
join:2002-09-19
Irving, TX
| Actually, the way U-Verse is designed, the IPTV portion is on a separate network, and has priority. One service can fail without the other being impacted.
However, if there's an issue with the CONNECTION, then yes, both TV and Internet service will be affected. There's no way around that. | |
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| 8744675
join:2000-10-10
Decatur, GA
| said by Matt :... we'll guarantee you that we'll fix your problem in the time frame we would have anyway! And you want the problem fixed by a human, it's $5.00 extra. | |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD
 ·Comcast
| cost? can you say "ouch, my wallet hurts"?
every broadband service I've seen with an SLA is outrageously expensive. this could end up being simply a niche service used by very few residential customers.
the only market I see is:
- rich people that don't want their internet to go down
- people with home business
- maybe people that telecommute a lot, with the employer picking up some/all of the tab.
I'm guessing this will start at $200 (or more)/mo and get higher from there. | |
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| jc100
join:2002-04-10
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: cost? Can you say this is a waste of money. Seriously, if you live in an area that has this many outages or problems, go to another ISP in the first place. This is only viable if A) you are required to have internet for your home business at which you'd probably have a business line anyway with an SLA. B) Your line sucks and then I'd revert back to another choice. Seems more of a marketing scam than anything. For all the times Ive had internet I think Ive seen only a few major outages and while annoying, they aren't worth that kind of money to fix promptly. If its really a major problem for me on something, I turn to the state attorney general and the BBB. In most cases, I've solved my problems this way pretty efficiently. | |
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| | Ulmo
join:2005-09-22
San Jose, CA | Re: cost? What if your only choices are Comcast, AT&T, and getting your own links directly like radio/microwave or paying for your own pole-strung or underground cabling to your nearest ISP? | |
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| | | hottboiinnc
ME
join:2003-10-15
Toledo, OH | Re: cost? 2 ISPs per area are generally what is across the Country. Not many areas have 2 cable providers. and other DSL providers are just resellers who depend on AT&T for ATM access and other items. | |
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| backness
join:2005-07-08
K2P OW2 | Re: Good thing; but expect higher fees for SLA service any credits provided would easily be eaten up by the premium charged for such a service | |
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| jc100
join:2002-04-10
·RoadRunner Cable
| At which point mitigates the worth of the contract. If you are paying 10 dollars a month for an SLA and say you have 2 outages a year. A) you might see line fixed promptly and B) get half that month credited or something. Unless you REALLY need your internet for something important (Business, etc) then I can't see justifying an extra 120 dollars tacked onto your bill. | |
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NoSLA
@comcast.net
| SLA idea is nice, but this devalues their current offerings and what premium are they going to charge for a SLA that is obvious going to be favorable to them. I mean, where I work, the stake holders ( customers ) get a say in setting the SLAs. This looks to be a$$ backwards. | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL
 ·AT&T Southeast
·Mediacom
| said by TK Junk Mail :But I also expect that those getting an SLA would pay a higher price to have one. Is an "extra" fee discussed anywhere or are people jumping to conclusions? Maybe AT&T won't charge a premium and will use this as a marketing tactic against cablecos that have capacity issues and/or shape, cap, block, etc., ports and protocols. | |
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| Tigerpaw509
Premium
join:2006-07-15
Huntley, IL | Dsl is non regulated...no fines | |
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Seandhi
Seeing From a New Level
Premium
join:2003-04-19
Humble, TX
| Re: Good thing; but expect higher fees for SLA service said by Tigerpaw509 :Dsl is non regulated...no fines Uh, that's the point of an SLA. It adds penalties to AT&T if they don't maintain a certain, as determined by the contract, level of service, i.e. up-time, etc.
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You're an enlightened cat, and I dig that. | |
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| patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| SLAs are useless, their only penalty is that you get free service for that month, if your line costs too much to repair immediately (rolling a handful of trucks at 1 AM on a Saturday morning) they would rather pay the monthly fee and roll the 9 to 5 guys. SLAs never pay for your loss of business/loss of income/loss of profit/loss of potential business. For that you can search the insurance world. | |
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Alpine
Premium
join:2000-01-11
Atlanta, GA
| Good for home office users... Home business users and telecommuters would benefit from this.
One thing I can say about my DSL with BellSouth/AT&T is that it really never goes out. I think I've had about 30 minutes of downtime in the 6 years I've had them.
Now, if they'd finally get Uverse to me so I could try it... | |
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djtim21
It's all good
Premium
join:2003-12-22
Buffalo Grove, IL
clubs:
| Re: Good for home office users... I agree this would be good. I can list at least 10 to 15 of our sites that could use this - BUT only if AT&T can meet the SLA.
I can list 3 sites that we've moved off of AT&T/SBC managed T1's because they could not meet their SLA's
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"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” - Edmund Burke | |
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axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Cox HSI
| I don't think it would cost so much They need to monitor their network and make fixes anyways. It doesn't sound like an extra charge, just an incentive to pay for the more expensive services.
They only need to offer something like 99% uptime, if there are 720 hours in a month then they can be down for 7 hours a month. Home service is already pretty reliable, and if it's down more than that, a credit back might keep customers from switching or getting a cheaper plan. | |
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| patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: I don't think it would cost so much said by axus :They need to monitor their network and make fixes anyways. It doesn't sound like an extra charge, just an incentive to pay for the more expensive services. I hope they proactivly monitor SNRs/dBs on modems and retraining counts and fix these issues on their own and then call the customer to say their line was improved. | |
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jwersan
R.I.P. Mom, Brian, Ziggy, and RichK1957
Premium
join:2004-12-20
Port Jefferson Station, NY
clubs: | Maybe... I would like an SLA if it gave me a minimum speed I can expect 24/7, otherwise it is useless to me...
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RIAA/MPAA... Bite me!!!!
In constant search for intelligent life on Earth! | |
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mikes60
A View From Paradise
Premium
join:2001-07-31
Boynton Beach, FL
·AT&T Southeast
| Re: Is it worth any increase at all?? I may have an unusual situation, but in the 4 or 5 years I've had FastAccess I've always had the fasted speed available- now I'm at 6.0.
I don't think I've had outages of more than a few hours over all those years- I even had my Residential FastAccess working during two major hurricane seasons (thanks to my generator).
Since MaxSync my speed has always been in excess of 6.0.
Why would I want to pay anything extra for an SLA.
I have an SLA as part of my AT&T T1/hosting package at my business, and have never fallen below the guarantee- so I have never received any credits there either.
I hope I'm not jinxing myself, but these are the facts.
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No good deed goes unpunished. | |
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Enlightener
join:2006-01-28
Cedar Park, TX
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| Customer Service SLA I'm happy with the reliability of my service and the price. I'm FTTP and I would like to pay more for faster, but that's another story.
What I'm unhappy about is that while when everything works, all is great in the world.... the part of the experience I really hate is anytime I have to call in to ask a question or inquire about a change of some sorts. It's like pulling teeth to get to a human in the correct department who can actually answer the question. Even here in the Direct Forum I ask a question, someone replies to say they are looking into it and then I never get an answer and no one else bothers looking at the thread because it's been bumped.
So I would pay a surchage to get a properly functioning customer service organization funded. $10/mo should do it. That's $120 a year and I shouldn't need more then a few hours total of someones time in a given year. But for that, I expect a human to answer the phone, get my question, route/research/resolve ( they call it fix,delegate or escalate at my job ) and get back to me with a resolution without taking up my time. | |
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justbits
More fiber than ATT can handle
Premium
join:2003-01-08
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest
·AT&T Yahoo
| Single static IP?! SLA for an extra nominal or premium fee? For people needing mission critical network access from home, it would be more worth it to get an alternate ISP, like cable in addition to DSL and get a dual-WAN router. Personally, I'd rather have a single static IP address for a low per-month fee.
I could see a good SLA as being a great insurance policy for people who regularly telecommute though. But then again, it could turn out to be just be as worthless as "Line Backer" is. | |
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pokesph
It Is Almost Fast
join:2001-06-25
Sacramento, CA
clubs:
·Comcast
| lets see.. when at&t was sbc which was pac bell before that, they offered sla's on their dsl service.. guarantees of both up-time and connection speeds.. then pac bell moved into yahoo based service and those sla's all but went away (no new ones except on business class services) and now, fast forward through sbc and at&t, we're back to the possibility of adding sla's again. (tho this time I doubt that any speed promises will be made..)
I guess what's old is REALLY what's new - for sure.
been there, done that.. no thanks.
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Webmaster - Steve
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»www.1-gb.net
»www.ppnstudio.com | |
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viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL
·Bright House
| Anti consumer Is AT&T saying you can't get a credit unless you have a SLA? A company should be providing customers with prompt, courteous service whether the customer has a 2mb tier or a 10mb tier. No matter what service you have, you are still paying AT&T to have good quality service. I don't believe having a SLA will make AT&T fix a problem any faster. I believe what AT&T is doing is anti consumer.
Just think if you went to a car dealership and they said you can only get quality service if you bought a car that was $30,000 and up. | |
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MisterMarcus
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Anti consumer said by viperpa33s :Just think if you went to a car dealership and they said you can only get quality service if you bought a car that was $30,000 and up. Uh, that already happens. It's why car dealers keep their jobs. The level of service you get when buying any Lexus car is far and away better than the level of service you get buying a Toyota (the irony is that they're virtually the same car, but one's at a premium due to the brand name and extra features) | |
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viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL
·Bright House
| Re: Anti consumer said by MisterMarcus :said by viperpa33s :Just think if you went to a car dealership and they said you can only get quality service if you bought a car that was $30,000 and up. Uh, that already happens. It's why car dealers keep their jobs. The level of service you get when buying any Lexus car is far and away better than the level of service you get buying a Toyota (the irony is that they're virtually the same car, but one's at a premium due to the brand name and extra features) Lexus is considered a luxury brand and has there own dealerships. If AT&T considered what they have a luxury brand and sold it by itself then I would say that you have a point.
Here is a good example:
If you were to go into a Toyota dealership for repair service and you purchased a $17,000 Corolla and you were put in the back of the line cause couple of people came in after you and had purchased a $30,000 truck, I don't think you would be to happy.
said by openbox9 :
So it's anti-consumer for providers to sell business class tiers alongside their residential class tiers? There is nothing anti-consumer about an SLA.
Are we talking about business accounts? Business accounts will always get a higher level of service because of the money they pay out and the loss of business due to downtime.
We are not talking about business tiers be sold along side residential tiers. We are talking about residential tiers being sold by residential tiers. | |
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MisterMarcus
join:2001-11-10
San Diego, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
| Re: Anti consumer said by viperpa33s :said by MisterMarcus :said by viperpa33s :Just think if you went to a car dealership and they said you can only get quality service if you bought a car that was $30,000 and up. Uh, that already happens. It's why car dealers keep their jobs. The level of service you get when buying any Lexus car is far and away better than the level of service you get buying a Toyota (the irony is that they're virtually the same car, but one's at a premium due to the brand name and extra features) Lexus is considered a luxury brand and has there own dealerships. If AT&T considered what they have a luxury brand and sold it by itself then I would say that you have a point. Here is a good example: If you were to go into a Toyota dealership for repair service and you purchased a $17,000 Corolla and you were put in the back of the line cause couple of people came in after you and had purchased a $30,000 truck, I don't think you would be to happy. said by openbox9 :
So it's anti-consumer for providers to sell business class tiers alongside their residential class tiers? There is nothing anti-consumer about an SLA.
Are we talking about business accounts? Business accounts will always get a higher level of service because of the money they pay out and the loss of business due to downtime. We are not talking about business tiers be sold along side residential tiers. We are talking about residential tiers being sold by residential tiers. "luxury brand" - it's essentially the SAME CAR. The telcos just refer to it as "premium" service rather than "standard" service. Same difference. | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL | So it's anti-consumer for providers to sell business class tiers alongside their residential class tiers? There is nothing anti-consumer about an SLA. | |
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| | notwrth10
join:2007-03-03
1001EB
| Re: Anti consumer said by openbox9 :So it's anti-consumer for providers to sell business class tiers alongside their residential class tiers? There is nothing anti-consumer about an SLA. I agree it puts the end user's money where their mouth is. Now when they say they are losing "millions of dollars a minute" you can ask "What SLA do you have again? Oh, no SLA? Well hmmm, this does present a problem then doesn't it."
It means the people who want a lexus class service need to start paying for it. I keep hoping they will start having billable bandwidth caps!
Have the people that abuse the system continually pay for upgrades. THey want unlimited bandwidth, lower pings, and faster speeds, well then break out the bank book cause you are buying! | |
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Old_Grouch
Don't just sit there silly DO something
Premium
join:2004-05-26
Greenwood, IN
clubs:
·AT&T Midwest
| Slow down and read closely Before getting all warm 'n having bladder control problems, read the current language for business customers' SLA.
What is included and the exclusions will really make you feel good.
If it is not in their absolute control, it is excluded. If the problem happens as a result of scheduled change, it is not their problem.
If the problem is with outside plant (yeppers, their own wires 'n such) it is not their problem.
Only thing at&t is toying with is the public's habit of not paying attention and the willingness to pay more for less just 'cause it seems better.
Buyer beware.
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At Team Discovery we know how to get more outta that danged 'puter of yours!
If you paid taxes it's a rebate. If you didn't, it's welfare. | |
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| patcat88
join:2002-04-05
Jamaica, NY
| Re: Slow down and read closely Agree, if your have a cheap $400 a month T1, no point in doing repair work at 1 AM for them, they will just refund your monthly fee. If your line wont train/keeps retraining all the time, and its a trunk line failure/water in ducts/loss of pressurization, they wont fix it. | |
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neil0311
join:2005-07-24
Marietta, GA | Where did it say it they would charge more? Maybe I missed it, but where does it say they would charge extra? I have 6Mb DSL service, so if they want to give me an SLA where I have none now, bring it on. | |
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| openbox9
join:2004-01-26
Navarre, FL | Re: Where did it say it they would charge more? The limited currently available info doesn't say anything about charging extra. The statement merely references "premium" and people assume this means more money. | |
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dslwanter
Broadband blackhole no more
Premium
join:2002-12-16
Lowellville, OH | Hell My DSL would be free or my service would get terminated, one of the two. | |
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McLovin
I mean, you're not staff
Premium
join:2005-06-12
Fairbanks, AK
·GCI.net
·PTIAlaska.NET
| Huh... Is this solely for their DSL lines, and not for U-Verse? Seems like they would offer something like that for an even higher end service like that. No links in the article either, not typical for Karl.
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Remember, passwords are like underwear... the longer the better... don't leave them lying around... keep them hidden... don't share them with your friends... and change yours often! | |
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PT Barnum
@rr.com
| If You Lie Down With Dogs... You wake up with fleas.
Imagine the unmitigated gall of AT&T to charge you extra to fix what shouldn't break in the first place if they had any competency.
But hey, I guess, if customers are ignorant enough to subscribe AT&T as an ISP to begin with, then maybe they deserve to pay extra for another layer of "protection". | |
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gdm
Premium,MVM
join:2001-06-15
Mchenry, IL
clubs: | Re: If You Lie Down With Dogs... Do you have any idea what an SLA stands for???? | |
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| | firewire9999
join:2004-07-11
Livonia, MI | Re: If You Lie Down With Dogs... Hmm SLA = Symbionese Liberation Army
Remember Patty Hurst????????? | |
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| | neil0311
join:2005-07-24
Marietta, GA
| said by gdm :Do you have any idea what an SLA stands for???? SLA = Service Level Agreement | |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
·Charter Pipeline
| One should not need to pay extra! This is a scam. This is just as bad as the "in home" wiring coverage. Granted, there are rare instances when a storm fries your wiring and it would be nice to have someone replace it all for free but how often does that happen? And if it happens once, you should put ground wires on your roof since the greater risk is your house burning down!
In my opinion, they should guarantee their product without additional fees. The cable company will usually credit your bill if you call to complain and the outage is substantial.
If people bite on this how long is it before the electric, gas, water, sewer and the rest start asking for an additional fee to quickly restore your service. This should be part of the package from the get go. The only reason it isn't is because they have high-priced competitive business products and they have to differentiate. The honest truth is that networking should be networking and whether it's up or down should not be an issue. I might bite on the "guaranteed bandwidth" charge but even that's no good if everyone gets the guarantee. Then there's no guarantee since everyone is at the same priority.
I think this idea is hog wash. | |
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benc
Premium
join:2007-06-17
Glen Carbon, IL
·Charter Pipeline
·Future Nine Corpor..
·Callcentric
·AT&T Midwest
| What Would This SLA Cover, Exactly? It used to be that for Small Business, there was a mention that they tried to maintain a 99.9% uptime on their network, between POPs. I don't think it covered anything outside of the POPs.
So, the connection between the POP and the DSLAM at the CO? The connection between the DSLAM and your home? Not covered.
Granted, POTS has to meet certain minimum requirements for availability. That's why we have telco regulation for local service.
But, that still doesn't cover the DSLAM, since the DSLAM isn't needed for voice.
Would this new SLA cover the DSLAM too? What if you wanted dual DSL lines? Could you have "DSL 2" connected to a different DSLAM at the CO? I assume that COs have multiple DSLAMs. Or would you lose both DSL lines in tandem?
Of course, if you wanted better reliability, you'd want DSL + Cable. | |
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Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | POTS has SLA right now and DSL runs on top of that so this.. POTS has SLA right now and DSL runs on top of that so this my end up being for the network being down. | |
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| Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL | Re: POTS has SLA right now and DSL runs on top of that so this.. What will AT&T do for people who can't get 6 meg but want a SLA?
In some areas you can only get 1.5 and 3 meg max speed. | |
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| notwrth10
join:2007-03-03
1001EB | yes but the POTS service is a regulated service (ya know the fees you don't like to pay). DSL is not regulated and can be an SLA.
The two shouldn't cross. | |
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esc0
@rr.com
| Don't Want it ATT Why should I pay extra for them to tell me my service is down? You guys are very funny, I wonder who sits and comes up with these ideas?
Now if you told me you're gonna upgrade your internet speeds beyond the 6Mbps plans then I might consider paying more to upgrade. Then again since it's just ATT and TWC in my area you guys see no need for upgrading. You gotta love politics. | |
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AT&T Considering SLAs For Residential DSL
Good thing; but expect higher fees for SLA service
. I meant if PT did from his statement I don't think he does.
SLA's? Should be automatic not an option!
