AT&T: Support and Naked DSL
Lots of people like to complain about support from various large companies, particularly if the support is comcastic. I certainly have enjoyed complaining about them from time to time. However, today I had one of my first good experiences with AT&T’s support (formerly SBC in our area).
- The line quality was good. No static making it hard to hear the support people.
- Relatively short wait on hold.
- The people I talked to spoke English in such a way that I could easily understand them. One even had a charming southern accent.
- I received useful information the first time I asked for it.
I also discovered that AT&T now offers naked DSL or as they call it “dry-loop DSL”. In other words, they allow you to purchase DSL without requiring you to have phone service through them. I had heard mention of this happening in the future, but didn’t realize it was already available.
Unfortunately if you remove your phone service, your DSL no longer qualifies for whatever special offers they have, which means you’ll be paying more for your DSL. So, despite removing phone service, your bill may not decrease by all that much. The support folk informed me that if I were to switch to dry-loop DSL, they have to shut of my phone AND DSL prior to turning on the dry-loop DSL. I was told that I might be DSL-less for up to 5 business days. Surprisingly, the support person was apologetic about this issue.
Dry Loop DSL Options from AT&T
- Express: 1.5 Mbps / 384 Kbps — $44.99
- Pro: 3.0 Mbps / 512 Kbps — $49.99
To talk directly to the dry-loop folk at AT&T, call 1-888-800-4095 (7am - 9pm M-F; 8am - 5pm Saturday).
Phil Boonstra said,
May 30, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
You were the 8th site when I googled “dry loop dsl att” but the most helpful. Thanks!
Jon said,
August 16, 2007 @ 2:54 pm
If you tell them that Cable is at higher speeds for the same price they will change the package prices to $5 over standard DSL.
Liz K. said,
January 4, 2008 @ 1:46 am
If you want to be an early adopter of this, be ready for some pains b/c AT&T is making it miserable for me to transfer. But we need enough early adopters to tell AT&T to screw off and unbundle their services…
I live in San Francisco and had AT&T High Speed, placed the order on 12/24/07 for $23.99 dry loop service. What a joke. They screwed up my order and so didn’t place it (after telling me it’d take two business days to get done). The originally scheduled downtime happened (on 12/31) but the uptime sure hasn’t yet. It was planned for 1/2 but on 1/3 I checked and found out that the “order hadn’t been placed”. WTF?
Currently no department wants to take responsibility to get this done, even though someone there screwed up the order.
They first told me it’d take 2 business days, now they’re saying 5 biz days from the date of the “fixed” order and that “Dry Loop cases don’t have escalations because they are not a priority.” (I’m appalled that they can say this with a regretful tone - it’s condescending)
Customer service reps are sweet but ineffective - if AT&T wants to keep its techier clients they need to get with the times. This is 2008 and Silicon Valley - play nice before the Google gets in on your turf.
Shawn said,
February 7, 2008 @ 11:51 am
This phone number is for the midwest. Texas residents should call 888-387-6270. Same hours apply.