MOVING VERIZON DSL LINES...

           For starters, it's important to understand that the phone companies do NOT have an internal "move" order that they use. ALL moves are done with the following procedure - the customer service person hears from the customer that they are moving, and the customer service person writes TWO orders. One is a disconnect order, and the other is a new service order.

           In the case if DSL service is on line, there are a total of FOUR orders that need to be written. 2 disconnects, 1 for voice, 1 for DSL. And, 2 new service orders, 1 for voice, 1 for DSL.

           The Verizon customer service people CANNOT write the disconnect order for their DSL service (no matter what they tell you over the phone) because since that order was placed by Internet Partners, and is being billed to us, only we have the authority to issue a disconnect.

           The Verizon customer service people also cannot write a reconnect order for DSL pointing to Internet Partners. They CAN write one pointing to either verizon.net or to MSN.

           So the upshot is if a customer calls in and tells Verizon they are moving, Verizon will look on the line, see there is DSL on it, and offer to move the DSL - the customer says yes, then when the Verizon rep goes to place the disconnect/new service orders on the DSL (after the customer has hung up of course) they will get an error trying to issue a disconnect, and will then issue a new service order to verizon.net as the ISP, not to Internet Partners as the ISP.

           When we discover this it's usually when you try plugging in your DSL modem and things don't work - this causes then futher delays while we have to issue another disconnect then reconnect and so on.

What you need to do to avoid this is the following:

           Call Verizon and order the move for the VOICE ONLY. If the Verizon person sees DSL on the line, tell them NOT to touch it, not to place any orders on the DSL, that you will have your ISP do that. Make sure to save the order number (very important) for the voiceline move AND THE DUE DATE.

           When you get off the phone, send Internet Partners e-mail saying when the disconnect is going to happen for the existing building. We will place a disconnect on the DSL service and have it due that day. There may be some slew to where it disconencts a day later or a day earlier.

           The day of the move, plug a phone into the new location. As soon as you get dialtone, call a cell phone and make sure the telephone number has been moved by Verizon. Don't be surprised if you get no dialtone or the wrong number on the day it is due - make sure to have a cell phone and the various numbers for Verizon available so you can call and complain if needed. Don't forget also that the phone line wiring from the Median Point Of Entry (MPOE) on the building, to where you want your phones and DSL modem is YOUR responsibility, you will have to hire a wiring guy to do it, if your landlord won't do it or if you aren't going to be running the wiring yourself. Don't take it for granted that the previous tenant had a working phone - they may have had a cell phone, or if they are a business they may have ripped out all the phone wires when they moved out as part of a landlord-ordered tenant demolition. Copper is at $3 a pound on the used market and it's common for guys working demolition to take any cabling that isn't in conduit - a few hours work after hours on a demo site will yield $300-$400 in beer money for even a moderately large site. Just because you see a phone jack doesen't mean it's connected to anything.

           Once you have good dialtone and the correct number on it, call Internet Partners and we will be then able to place the new DSL order.

           Note we CANNOT order it in advance. The ordering system is dependent on the line records and those will not change until the physical location of the phone number itself changes.

           It will take a week for the DSL service to become active. In the meantime we can issue a temporary dialup number (and even a modem if you don't have one) so you can keep up with e-mail.