Long delays and lost orders has prompted Jump.net to suspend asynchronous digital
subscriber line orders Thursday with SBC
Communications Inc. subsidiary Advanced Solutions, Inc.
New orders placed to Texas-based Jump.net will be held for 30 days before
being sent to SBC .
Dewey Coffman, Jump.Net vice president of sales and marketing, said its
business as usual when dealing with ASI.
“For the past two months we’ve been documenting every customer complaint
we’ve had, at ASI’s request, and have met with everyone from the lowest
level to the chief financial officer, with no results,” Coffman said. “For
the past four months, we’ve had issues with customer orders being lost and
our customers have told us about ASI technicians telling them to switch DSL
service to SBC. We just had to say stop.”
“It’s really the ugliest I’ve seen in the DSL world,” Coffman said.
ASI was created in October, 1999, during the merger between SBC and Ameritech. Before federal regulators
would sign off on the merger, they required a separate subsidiary to
provide SBC customers with advanced data services.
David Robertson, Texas Internet Service
Providers Association president, said the company’s performance can
only be described as incompetent.
“The entire situation presents a depressing picture for Internet service
providers in Texas,” Robertson said. “If they could provide the service
they’re required to by the Federal
Communications Commission and Public Utilities Commission of
Texas, there wouldn’t be a problem.”
“What we’re talking about here is gross incompetence,” Robertson
said. “You can’t hire a mountain of people, throw an ASI T-shirt on them
and send them out into the field. It’s going to be a bloody, expensive
process before these technicians can be trained.
If something isn’t done within the next few days, even hours, the company
will and should be culpable and subject to the government’s wrath,
Robertson said. “I believe SBC is trying to rectify the situation and
deliver on their promises, but just because they’re big and clumsy doesn’t
mean we not hold them accountable. If they don’t get the network open,
they’re culpable and subject to the government’s wrath as well as civil
litigation.”
Last month, TISPA reached an accord with SBC to address the concerns of
ISPs in Texas. As a result of the agreement, TISPA dropped its complaint
filed to the Texas PUC and FCC.
In the June 10 news release, David Lopez, president of SBC’s Texas
operations, said ISPs were an integral part of his company’s DSL deployment.
“The channel is a key part of SBC’s overall DSL strategy and our ability to
meet our commitment to being the country’s broadband leader,” Lopez said. “Working
together
with TISPA and participants in our ISP marketing program, we have again
shown that SBC’s local markets are open to competition and that Texans have
a choice when selecting their DSL-based Internet service provider, as well
as their telecommunications provider.”
Jump.Net has begun selling high-bit DSL service to business customers
needing connectivity immediately, guaranteeing a 10-day installation or the
first month is free.
“Jump.Net has had a reputation for five years of providing quality service,
which also includes prompt installation,” Coffman said. “We will continue
to work diligently toward improvement in the installation services provided
by SBC’s ASI to Jump.Net’s customers.”
SBC has yet to comment on the complaint.
