Is the US a developing II country? after all the NII pr it is still much harder

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Sat, 3 Sep 94 14:24:49 +0100 (CET)
Organization: Interzone Switzerland
Reply-To: chip () interzone ch




In article <01050810.8o03hb () mbeckman mbeckman com> (comp.dcom.isdn),
mbeckman () mbeckman mbeckman com (Mel Beckman) writes:


[snip]
> I've been trying to get ISDN for three years now (as long as SDS-IS has
> been marketed by PacBell), and actually moved my entire household in May
> to get within ISDN distance of my local switch. PacBell started
> the serious order-taking process about two months ago, and after a
> lot of push and pull, false starts, trenching, and several onsite
> visits, we eventually arrived at today's successful installation.
> Here's what I learned along the way:


[long&interesting description about installation deleted]


Gosh, I can't believe this is what it takes
to get ISDN in the US in September 1994.




The following is what it took me to get ISDN from the
(still monopolist) Swiss Telecom around last x-mas:




I called them up and asked for infos regarding ISDN.
A nice glossy sales brochure was in my mail two days later,
including an ordering form wich I filled out and mailed in.
Also included are forms for the telephone and telefax directory
on wich I had to choose wich numbers (last digit) were to be
published in the respective directories.


They told me that they would have to backhaul my existing
phone line to another CO wich is ISDN capable. No big deal.


They also asked if I would like to get a new NT+2ab instead of
a normal NT. This allows me to connect two analog devices
directly to the NT and costs me a few bucks more per month
but I don't have to buy an expensive adapter.
Since I wanted one of these I had to wait
two weeks as they were in short supply.


On the installation date, they first phoned to confirm I was at home. Later
someone (1 person) came over to my house with the NT
and an ISDN telephone for testing. All he had to do was to call
someone at the CO, tell them to disconnect the old analog service and
hook up my wire pair to the ISDN line. He then pulled out the analog phone
and plugged in the NT. The same connector is used for analog service and the
U-Bus and the pin  assignment is compatible.


A few minutes later the line was up and he was able to call the CO,
this time with the digital phone, and tell them it was OK.


The only thing left was to program the analog adapter part of the
NT. I told him I would like to do this myself so he explained it
to me and we tested the ports with my modem.


Today I have an ISDN phone, a TA and two modems running on my
ISDN line with more gadgets to come ;-)
I have been assigned a block of 10 numbers wich I
can use as I wish for my devices.


To this day I have not had a single problem with the entire system.


I didn't have to mess with switch types, software versions, SPIDs (don't
even know what that is) etc.






Now, I like to bash our telco like everyone else and there's always
enough reasons to do so ;-)
But I think they've really got their act together on this one.
Then again, it might just have been pure luck for me.


To judge from the (many) horror stories I've read here (especially the thread
about getting ISDN in Manhattan), the US looks like a development country in
this regard, wich I find quite surprising.


Cheers...






>  -mel
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> | Mel beckman                  |   Internet: mbeckman () mbeckman com     |
> | Beckman Software Engineering | Compuserve: 75226,2257                |
> | Ventura, CA 93003            |  Voice/fax: 805/647-1641 805/647-3125 |
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Marc Liyanage                    chip () interzone ch
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