Re: Verizon DSL. Any experiences with them?

> He said that Verizon said their DSL was available in his home so he bought
> the package. After it arrived in the mail he said that they told him that
> he could not use it because the phone wiring in his house was too old and
> they would not allow him to use it.

I doubt that the age of the wiring was the real reason. Among the factors that govern whether or not you can get DSL from a particular company are these:

- your distance from the central office that serves your house. Anything over 17,500 feet (about 3miles) and the signal would be degraded to the point of uselessness. In addition, over that distance, there may be a repeater or loading coils in the path. These would interfere, as well. (repeaters regenerate a voice signal, and I forget what loading coils do. Been a while since I was involved.)

- the equipment serving your voice line. In many instances, when the cable laid to serve a particular area is saturated, that is, new people can not get individual copper wire pairs, what the phone company does/did was to install "pair gain" devices. This is equipment that allows one pair of wires to serve many individual homes. These devices can also interfere with and prevent a successful DSL installation.

- the local central office may not be equipped to provide DSL service. Many have been upgraded, but as in everything, it's whether or not there's a large enough market to warrant the upgrade sooner.

- some measures taken to insure against a monopoly may be the factor. You can change service providers, but in many instances, your new provider is renting space and equipment from the local company. In that case, it's back to the first problem.

- bridge taps. Again, I don't remember exactly what these are, but it popped into my head as a potential problem. As I said, it's been a very long time since I was involved with telephony. (I did spend 17 years with one of the former "Bells.")

In the non-regulated environment, the former "Bells" still play a major role, regardless of who is sending you the bill. The infrastructure is probably a part of the total environment of any competitor.

Having said all that, there have been advances in telephony that may well
preclude the problems I've mentioned. Fiber optics comes to mind. And the entire spectrum of wireless transmissions. Also, some of the larger carriers have built their own central offices - points of presence (POPS).

I would talk with the local provider of voice service. They've got the records and can tell you exactly how your home is served, and what's possible with their equipment. Then I'd ask about the possibility of being served by an alternate provider.

Talk with the prospective alternate. Tell them what you now know about your home's wiring capabilities, and ask what they can do.

HTH