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Talking to Your Telco

Telephone companies maintain the copper lines that you use for Internet access, but they are not required to provide data-quality phone lines. Members of the ISP-Tech list discuss wrangling quality lines from the telcos.

[August 28, 2000]

On the ISP-Tech list in July, DC asked for some help in the gentle art of telco-wrangling:

"We are a small ISP in a rural area. We've got a number of customers who are having to dial in numerous times to get connected; and when they do, they often can't stay online for long. Is there a specific test that will tell us what the problem is?"

 

JL suggested that it might well be a problem with the quality of the line itself, providing a link to 3Com's LineTest utility [note in 2006: utility no longer exists]

"Random disconnects are almost always dependent upon the quality of your or your customer's telephone lines (not the quality of normal voice telephone calls, but the quality of data transmission via those voice circuits — often a radically different issue)."

VB noted that the telco isn't required to supply the speeds that DC might be seeking, adding a link to a page on troubleshooting 56k connections at http://808hi.com/56k/index.htm:

"Phone companies are only required to support fax speeds, which top out at 14.4. Complain that your modem isn't getting more speed than that, and the lack of sympathy will be deafening."

DL suggested a different form of "utility" to analyze the problem:

"What I do is have the customer order Caller ID on the phone line that they use for internet access. Once it's installed, we drop by with a Caller ID module and verify that it works — if it works, then a standard 33.6 modem will work. If the Caller ID doesn't work, we have the customer phone the Telco and get them to fix it. In the process of fixing the Caller ID, the phone line will be set up in a way that 33.6 modems operate well in. Then once everything is fine, the customer calls and cancels the Caller ID. Our telco doesn't charge if you cancel within the first month, so it works out well. We've done this trick over 200 times with no problems."

A number of respondents suggested some tactful ways of complaining about connection speed:

[VB warned] "I tell people the last thing to tell the phone company is that you're using a modem to connect to the internet."

[DVH noted] "We've found that once you mention 'modem', you're doomed. The best results came from complaining that 'sometimes it's pretty noisy, and hard to hear.'"

[JM added] "I have found it helpful to complain that your fax machine is not operating at its highest speed, and they seem to be more helpful."

Finally, JL noted that the problem is ultimately between the customer and their phone company:

"If you can find a friendly technical type at your local telco willing to assist you, make the most of him. But remember that, generally speaking, you cannot tell them how to do their job. If they don't already possess the technical experience necessary to isolate and correct a problem, they'll typically not follow your instructions. Also, if it's a telco quality-of-service issue, and it's in the subscriber's vicinity (as is true 99% of the time), the issue is really between the subscriber and the telco-and your primary responsibility is educating your subscriber to that fact."

—End