On Sat, 07 Jun 2008 20:45:34 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

>>> Reality doesn't make sense to me...
>> 
>> It's called "bulk pricing".  Covad can buy telco service in bulk.  I
>> can't. :-)
> 
> Riiight... so why don't Qwest just match Covad's price [which obviously
> they can trivially do] and put Covad out of business?

That's called "anticompetitive behaviour" and ostensibly illegal in the 
US (doesn't stop people from trying, though).  Also because from an 
economic standpoint, they'd have to lower the rates for the individual 
buyers who use their service as well, so it makes sense to sell at a 
higher price to those willing to pay for it, and for those (like me) who 
are smarter than the average bear to go with the cheaper option than the 
default (which is to get my DSL service from my telco provider).

>>> Anyway, you get your DSL cheaper, but what if it breaks? If it's
>>> actually a Qwest DSL line, presumably only Qwest can actually fix it
>>> if it breaks. And that means that if it breaks, you have to spend 3
>>> hours on the phone to Covad to convince them that it's broken, and
>>> then they have to spend 3 hours on the phone to Qwest, and then
>>> *maybe* somebody will fix it?
>> 
>> That is a fair point.  Had a lightning strike here a few years ago (at
>> the Covad CO), and they couldn't track it down.  They blamed Qwest, and
>> Qwest blamed them.
> 
> Ah yes, the "it's nobody's fault" syndrome. ;-)

Yep.  They got it fixed on Monday.  Turned out the CO that was struck was 
Qwest's, and about 40,000 people were without telephone service over the 
weekend.  I'm guessing that they assumed there was no problem because the 
support phone lines weren't all lit up.  I wonder why *that* would be?

Jim

Post a reply to this message