By Christian Mignot

Photo by Chad Pilster, special to the Town Crier

With few alternatives, fast Internet access depends on Pacific Bell

For many people, Internet access at home has become an important portal to the world. With the endless possibilities that it brings, people are shopping, working, meeting and learning online, all from a comfortable chair. The proliferation of household Internet usage over the last few years has spurred increased demand for high-speed residential Internet access.

This form of Internet connection has become widely favored at a time when Internet multimedia content requires fast bit-transfer rates for effective enjoyment. The Web is so heavily loaded with graphics, sounds, video clips and interactive media that often people are willing to spend extra money on a high-speed connection to be able to download these more rapidly.

In Los Altos, Pacific Bell, owned by SBC Communications Inc., is the largest provider of the relatively young, fast-paced Digital-Subscriber-Line (DSL) Internet technology, the Internet access solution most in demand at the moment.

Pacific Bell’s DSL service, installed and maintained by fellow SBC subsidiary Advanced Solutions Incorporated (ASI), has received high praise from customers who like the speedy Internet access. But there are other customers who are dissatisfied with the service. They have several concerns, most of which relate to the quality of customer support provided by both Pacific Bell and ASI.

Take John Ciacchella, a resident of south Los Altos. Ciacchella has remained with Pacific Bell despite several problems and, for the most part, enjoys the fast download speeds of the technology at his home.

After having DSL installed at his residence, Ciacchella ran into connection problems. He called ASI to have them fixed. A technician sent to his residence to assess the situation told him to call Pacific Bell, claiming that the problem lay with the telephone lines. When a Pacific Bell technician visited his house, Ciacchella was informed that the lines were fine and that the problem lay with the DSL hardware, thus making it an ASI case. A series of visits from several technicians ensued, each only partially solving the problem, leading to the ordeal being stretched out over several days.

“There was this whole dancing around between Pac Bell and ASI,” Ciacchella said. “The technicians from both companies needed either to show up at the same time to solve the problem or to communicate efficiently. What should be a one-stop fix with Pac Bell takes several visits and five hours on the phone.”

Former south Los Altos resident Joel Solomon also had customer support problems with Pac Bell, so much so that he filed a complaint with the California Public Utilities Commission. Solomon ordered the DSL Internet access service, but he didn’t receive it at first due to bad line condition at his Springer Road residence. Pacific Bell needed to condition his telephone line before installation, but poor communication and long delays ensued. Despite endless phone calls and numerous visits by technicians, Solomon was still unable to get any results.

“Each time they came the technicians solved only one part of the problem,” Solomon said. “We had to restate our problem time and time again because their internal communication is abominable. The technicians are racking up quota numbers instead of getting the job done.

“I work in quality assurance for a large electronics company, and if my company worked the way Pac Bell does, we would be out of business in three months,” he added.

When technicians finally repaired the line and installed the service, Solomon had trouble with the quality of the connection. He said access was not consistent, on some occasions giving him very fast download speeds and at other times slowing down to the rate of a normal dial-up modem. After several months of phone calls and service visits, Solomon gave up on Pacific Bell’s DSL and turned to wireless Internet service instead.

Despite these stories, Pacific Bell officials maintain that they provide good customer support. Spokesman Fletcher Cook pointed out that cases such as the above are isolated. He said almost all customers are happy with the connection service provided, and those who have had problems are attended to swiftly and effectively.

Cook said that when the service was first offered, it may have taken longer to install the lines because of high demand. He said vast improvements have been made to customer support and installation time has been cut down to seven days.

While DSL may be a faster and better solution for Internet access, Cook said it is also harder to maintain and more fragile than other technologies such as dial-up. Taken aback by news of unhappy customers, Cook said he would personally investigate their issues.

“We are proud of our customer service,” he said. “We continue to improve it with Web-based support and quicker response times over the phone.”

The availability of Pacific Bell’s DSL service is determined by the distance between a residence and the company’s central office. If the distance between the two is 14,000 feet or less, the company is able to guarantee service at the connection speed advertised. The cost for DSL from Pacific Bell is between $39.95 and $49.95 per month, with installation costing around $200.

One customer service representative requesting anonymity said the closer a residence is to the central office, the faster the line speed is. She attributed any customer complaints about line speed to a previous rule that allowed people up to a distance of 17,000 feet from central office to receive DSL service. She said Pacific Bell had shortened the distance, which resolved many situations.

“We used to get many (complaints) when we first brought in the service,” she said. “But the company has done much to clean out the bugs and now we hardly get any at all.”

The complaints, however, persist in other forms. Some people are frustrated with the amount of time it takes for Pacific Bell to install the service.

Pavan Vohra, another Pac Bell DSL customer from Los Altos, said it took four weeks past the scheduled date for the DSL line to be installed and working in his home. While the process was lengthy, he found the customer representatives easy to work with and helpful.

“We filed trouble ticket after trouble ticket,” Vohra said. “We called the help desk numerous times, but finally we were able to get the access line working and we are happy with the quality.”

While it seems that most customers are satisfied with the quality of the line, the process of getting it often leaves a bitter taste. This factor could dissuade potential consumers, such as Taylor Scanlon.

“I’m thinking about getting DSL, but I hear that it is very difficult to get it up and running,” he said. “That knowledge certainly won’t make me rush to get it.”

Meanwhile, Pacific Bell does have its share of satisfied customers.

“Pac Bell’s DSL service is very good, even though it took a long time to be set up,” said Julie Rose, executive director of the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce. “We are so close to the central office and it is very quick.”

“I always advise my customers to use DSL,” said Rene Pursell of Jake Computer Services, located on El Monte Avenue. “Even though it takes time to get set up, the Internet access is the best and cheapest for residential use. Pacific Bell is a monster, and as long as you stay on top of them they will provide good, unfailing customer service.”

Pacific Bell does have its competitors when it comes to DSL. Several other companies, such as Earthlink and Megapath Networks, offer the same Internet access technology. Each of these companies, however, must ultimately use Pacific Bell telephone lines and infrastructure to bring its service to customers. Usually, the consumer ends up paying more for competing services because these companies must invariably lease out space from the Pacific Bell central office and pay fees for using the lines.

“The real problem is that Pac Bell is a quasi-monopoly,” Solomon said. “Even if you get DSL service from a different company, only (Pac Bell) can take care of line conditioning. Inevitably, you are faced with going through their customer service routine again.

“The only thing the community can really do is get the problem out there and cause enough static so that Pac Bell will address the problems,” he added.

Los Altos Mayor King Lear said no complaints about Pacific Bell’s service had been brought to the city council’s attention. He said that if there were more concerns, the council would address Pacific Bell and ask questions.

“The only thing we would really be able to do is put a little public pressure on them and find out what the status is,” Lear said. “The other solution is to use dial-up modems or other alternatives to DSL.”

There are two main alternatives to DSL for high-speed residential Internet access. The first is cable Internet access provided by Excite@Home and AT&T, currently unavailable in Los Altos. The Los Altos City Council is trying to negotiate a deal with AT&T for this access, but Lear said the deal is progressing slowly. The second solution is wireless Internet access offered by companies such as Sprint PCS (personal commuications system). The third is satellite Internet from DirecPC.

Wireless Internet service is available in Los Altos and seems to be the clear high-speed solution for people who live in areas where DSL is unavailable due to distance from the central office. But wireless access companies have not been free of problems either.

Local resident Stanley Quan encountered customer service problems when he wanted to have Sprint wireless installed at his home in south Los Altos. A technician performed a site survey at his residence and declared that it was fit for installation. When the installation technician arrived at a later date, he said the site could not receive wireless connection unless an antenna was installed on the roof and an existing television antenna removed. In the end, Quan decided to cancel his order.

“If the site technician had done his job, I could have decided not to get the service earlier,” he said. “It would not have been necessary to waste six hours of my time.”

With the introduction of AT&T cable service in the area a distant possibility and the proliferation of wireless service unlikely due to higher cost, Pacific Bell will remain the main provider of high-speed Internet access services in Los Altos. Whether or not public pressure causes the company to address any existing problems remains to be seen.