Bad advice for porting?

[budmaster]

Just to follow up my recent call, AT&T put all the blame on VOIPO. They claim VOIPO took the DSL rights with the re-porting of my number. After all my pleading, they still refuse to restore my DSL and said it would be a couple of weeks befoore they can have U-Verse installed.

I would hope VOIPO learns from these posts and caution their future customers of our expierences.


I do plan to file a complaint with the Public Service Commission about AT&T. But that rarely does any good.

[statustray]

*Yikes* I am sorry that this happened to you

I do now know who gave you the information about keeping your AT&T with DSL and porting that number over. I am assuming you told whomever you spoke with (the folks who gave you the advice), that you told them you had DSL on the line. And if they told you to port that number over, it in any situation is bad advice- and was sadly mistaken. But for now that's water under the bridge though, but I still feel your pain.

It does not matter which company you have DSL with, if that DSL line and the phone number you are porting over, are one in the same, the answer is always the same. Do not request a port on that number unless you want to likewise lose your DSL service. That's precisely what would have happened no matter if it were AT&T or some other DSL providing company.

Now, having said that, one can obtain what's called dryloop DSL. In simplest terms, this is DSL service without a corresponding voice number to go along with it. It is slightly more costly than a regular DSL line with voice as there is no bundling.

To bring this closer to home for me, my dad purchased Verizon Home Connect with porting the home phone number, which also included the DSL. I tried to tell my dad to not do it. He was like the phone service is only $19.95 a month and that's cheaper than what we pay now. Needless to say, the home number was ported, and the DSL was turned off so my parents lost Internet. My mom was like "GRRRRRRRRRRRRR", and my dad was like "Oops, my bad."

So I told them about "dryloop DSL" and my mom ordered that up. The downside was it took about 2 weeks to get the DSL back on again.

[budmaster]

AT&T tech confirmed dry DSL is available. But AT&T refuses to restore DSL. To make me dislike AT&T more, I find out U-Verse is DSL. But a fifferent modem is required. And they insist on their own modem/router combo.

As I digress. Hopefully VOIPO provides additional caution to their DSL customers who want to port their number.