Advice on switching to dry loop DSL

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

I presently have DSL and basic voice service with ATT in the Huntsville AL area. I am coming up on my one year install date in early July so I presume I will lose the promotional rate for DSL service. With that being said I want to switch to dry loop DSL so I can keep my bill affordable as well as address this issue early to work out the bugs. I have read many of the horror stories and am trying to avoid problems. Certainly this is not a new install and I am not looking to cancel or play any funny games (like drop and new subscription) to try and get a new promo rate. I am just looking for a smooth transition from one to the other. What suggestions do you have for me? Thanks for any advice!

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

Nobody replied and I already have my answer. Today when my number ported my phone service was cut off (which I'd expect of course) my DSL service stopped working. I called customer support and they asked if I notified anyone of my intentions to drop my phone line ( I had not- because of the aforementioned horror stroies) So by default (becasue DSL rides on your phone number) my DSL was cut off. The CSR seemed to be very knowledgeable and escalated my ticket to have DSL restored at my location within 24-48 hrs. I am left wondering - would it have been so hard to give me a heads up and say "oh- if you do this you will loose DSL, is that your intention?" I was surprised at how quickly the porting process took. I put my order in on Monday and today is Thursday and the port is complete. Now let's see how long it will take for DSL to be retored. (Fingers crossed...) I consider myself to be very reasonable and can live with the irritation for a little while. The lack of communication is troublesome though. The assumption is that if you have voice services and drop it, you don't want DSL either. That is not the case. I would have liked a heads up.

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

Well the hope has turned to horror! It has now taken a week for my DSL to be "restored". It still is not done. The service tech came to my house on Monday to make sure the line was hooked up at my home. He completed his part of the process and the ticket went to facilities. Finally on Thursday at 4:30 a DSL CSR calls me to say sorry we are closing your ticket there are no more ports available. At this point I am locked in internet purgatory. I am being told by CSRs all they can do is escalate the issue and a different rep needs to work with facilities and escalate the issue. I have NO guarantee that any DSL service will become available. So right now I have no phone or internet at my house because my phone number was ported to a voip provider.

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

I sent a PM to Alex and someone returned my message with a phone call within two hours. Later that day I did get a call from Eric {personal content removed for safety} who is looking into the issue (This all happened on Friday) I am waiting to hear a status update at this point. It is now Monday afternoon. I am trying to understand why I am being told there are no more ports available in my area. I called the same day my DSL became disconnected to inform AT&T of the issue. Can someone tell me why the process takes over a week to complete? Has my port been given away to someone else? I would really like to see a sticky thread started on how to properly port a phone number. During my questioning of CSRs during the past week I have been told multiple times how I did the process wrong. Come one AT&T, these are your INTERNAL processes! We as the customer should not be expected to know them unless you have them in writing somewhere and they are communicated to us (your customer). I have to make a decision soon on internet service for my home. I cannot wait much longer or I will have to choose another provider.

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

Well, it took some time but the Executive team made it happen. I did finally get my internet service restored to my home on 7/2. This is my advice to anyone looking to convert to a dry loop-

1. Call AT&T early in advance to inform them you already have DSL and want to be switched to dry loop service.

2. If any CSR doesn't seem knowledgeable in how to handle the process don't waste your time calling more CSRs and racking up more phone time and headaches.

3. There are people here in the forums who actually can help (or put you in touch with the right people who can help)

4. Don't expect immediate results (Unfortunately even when working with the Executive team the process just takes time) I found out early that there is a lot of "process" in place and you have to let it work. Once I did get the ear of an Executive team member the process took about 1 to 1.5 weeks from start to finish.

5. If you are porting a phone number make sure your new carrier gives explicit instructions to AT&T that your internet service must stay in place (the account must not be cancelled) In my case because I cancelled the the home phone the automatic assumption (by AT&T) is that the account should be cancelled. (in other words, ALL services associated wtih the account) You should arrange to have a second internet service brought up in parallel with your old service. This *may* vary depending on which services you have with AT&T. In my case I originally had basic POTS and DSL.

Good luck!

Carol2 · ‎11-04-2011

Thank you for all of the information. Appreciate your taking the time to post it. So what is the new monthly price for your stand-alone/dry loop/naked DSL service?

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

Well, because of all the mixup and my service cut off I am getting one more year of promotional pricing. After this year I'll be back to full price. Please don't take this statement to be rude, that is not my intent at all. The pricing structure is listed on AT&T's site. The price I am paying is according to download speed. I have the 6 MB service. There is a $5 additional charge for having dry loop. If you already have a standard phone line with AT&T there is no $5 addtional charge. If you really don't understand what I have said or want more info please PM me. Thanks.

valley_nomad · ‎11-18-2012

I am planing to do the same about my account. But the interruption more than a couple of days will be unbearable. I am not sure if smoothly switching from traditional DSL to Dry Loop DSL is even possible. AT&T website doesn't give any info on the switch. The alternative will be to just entirely leave AT&T by switching to Comcast's Internet service....

noisy_cricket · ‎12-19-2012

When I switched back in the day to dry loop DSL the switch was uneventful. BUT...my service speed was cut in half. from 6mb I think it was down to 3mb. So long ago I don't recall if it was faster. All I know though is the speed went in half.

I contacted support and they said. oh, well with dry loop DSL you are no longer being connected to the same Central Office so the max speed you get is 3mb....geeze, thanks for the heads up. I still don't buy their explenation but oh well. I dropped them shortly after that and ended up with Time Warner Cable at 12mb for half the price.

bobbert69 · ‎01-23-2013

I just did this same thing last week, going from Elite 6.0 speed DSL with home phone to Dry-Loop DSL. The transition was very smooth and everything was fine until I looked at my order status on activiation day ---- I had High Speed Pro 3.0. This is not what I ordered, nor was it what the rep told me was available on the phone prior to me placing the order. Also, if I go to the web site and pretend to start buying dry-loop dsl, it shows Elite 6.0 available at my address. I've had Elite 6.0 with phone for many years with no issues and all they can tell me now is wait and see if they are able to increase my speed. First they can't make any changes to an open order and I don't know how long it takes before this order closes. Second, they can't be sure I can get 6.0 speed on dry-loop, even if it says I can and even if I already had it before the changeover. Third, they may not have any more high speed ports??? What? I never cancelled my 6.0 port and never lost my DSL service, so if they gave my port away I will be livid. It's already been a week and I haven't been called. Level 2 support said I would get a call when they found out something. I can't deal with 3.0 speed anymore -- too many people in the house streaming and other stuff. I may have to go back to having a phone line just to get my speed back because cable tv doesn't reach my area. If the most I can get on dry-loop is 3.0 and the rep and web site said 6.0 was available at my address then AT&T is guilty of false advertising, which is nothing new.

Any ideas? What should I do next?

jtpiano · ‎06-06-2012

>>>First they can't make any changes to an open order and I don't know how long it takes before this order closes. Second, they can't be sure I can get 6.0 speed on dry-loop, even if it says I can and even if I already had it before the changeover. Third, they may not have any more high speed ports??? What? I never cancelled my 6.0 port and never lost my DSL service, so if they gave my port away I will be livid. It's already been a week and I haven't been called.

Yes, you encountered many of the same things I was told (and wrongly at that). See my post from ‎07-10-201211:01:26 AM Especially pay attention to #2 and #3!!! Reach out to a forum moderator. They should put you in touch with an exec team member who can actually make things happen. Don't waste time talking with CSRs They are very limited in what they are allowed to do for you and the system won't let them do anything even if they want to. Good luck