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DSL





(Blah blah corporate disclaimers blah blah this is me not the company
blah blah)

Hi.

I'm being silent on opinions of USWEST, but let's make some basic
distinctions about availability of DSL.
Most of you who have tried and failed to get DSL service probably are
aware why, but for those who haven't,
or for future reference:

I want DSL.  I call up the U S WEST office, and they say no.  Here are
the reasons why:

1.  Your Central Office is out of capacity.

More hardware needs to be purchased to increase this capacity.  I'm not
privvy to the way decisions are made as
far as which CO's are upgraded in which order, but I imagine that the
number of back orders figures into it.
We're trying to meet all capacity issues very soon--which means to me
the next few weeks.

2.  Your Central Office hasn't been upgraded or installed with the DSL
equipment.

If you're in a generally populated zone, this is being done relatively
quickly.  If you live in the Metro Area, I would
expect all CO's, with a possible few expections being ones that are
physically limited in space, to be installed within 
the next few months.  

3.  Your line is too far from the CO, and doesn't test capable.

If you're more than 12K feet, and less than 18K, it's completely
situational.  A line test is run,
and if it doesn't cut it, then currently U S WEST won't let you order
service.  However, at some point we
may start offering a reduced throughput option for this situation, or
some technology improvements might
extend that range and/or handle a worse signal.

4.  Your line goes through a DLC (Digital Loop Carrier).

This is the toughy.  The DLC can carry ISDN traffic, but cannot do DSL. 
Technologies exist to route DSL
through the DLC, but we're not ready to deploy them.  If this is the
case, I would expect the wait to be
six months to a year at minimum.  Another potential possibility is
IDSL.  

5.  You live in an apartment complex that has its own PBX or somesuch
that simply won't work.

Nothing that can be done about this.  

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope that helps.  Those time estimates are mine and are my best guess
based on fairly
first hand information, although I honestly don't have anything directly
to do with the process (it's
under the same director as myself, however).  I'm not trying to convince
anyone of anything particular--
that's not my job.  I just want to get the information out there.

Jer Smith