Internet phones peachy in Georgia?

The Georgia Public Service Commission has ordered local phone provider BellSouth to let customers buy broadband services alone, which some claim is a win for the growing number of people using Internet telephone providers.

Before the Georgia regulator's ruling, anyone buying digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband service from BellSouth was required to pay for a telephone line, whether they wanted it or not. Internet phone providers claimed that the added cost was a deterrent for anyone wishing to subscribe to a voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) plan, a cheaper form of dialing that uses the Internet rather than a privately owned telephone network.

"The ruling gives people more options," said a spokeswoman for Vonage, one of several VoIP providers that have been doing business in Georgia.

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BellSouth's chief financial officer, Ron Dykes, on Wednesday dismissed the ruling as nothing but "one more brick on the regulatory confusion file." During a conference call with analysts to discuss the company's latest financial results, he said that "in the worst case, it's probably not an economic penalty." The company is now investigating its legal options, he added.

The ruling, coming by way of a 3-2 vote by the Georgia commission, will likely have a ripple effect in the 12 other states in which BellSouth operates and also enforces its "bundling" requirement on broadband users, the Vonage spokeswoman said. BellSouth is also fighting a similar effort by the public utilities commissions in Florida and Louisiana.

The Georgia ruling is part of a regulatory winning streak that VoIP providers have been on this year. Their most recent victory before this was in Minnesota, where a federal judge said the state cannot force VoIP providers to follow the same rules and regulations as regular telephone providers.

[trikkyone]

First Complaint Filed ?

I filed the following complaint with the GA PSC after I was refused DSL for not having a land line:

COMPLAINT:
I was denied the ability to order DSL service from Bell South. They refused to offer their service to me because I did not have a bell south phone number. I was not able to speak with a sales representative at all until I entered the Bell South service number I was calling as the number I was requesting information about. I was told by an online representative that I needed to contact their billing department to get service, but was unable to contact their billing department without a working phone number. I requested the service after reading the ruling by the GA PSC that says Bell South must offer the DSL service without bundling a POTS land line service. Included below is the chat log (11/8/05) from the Bell South represenataive that directed me to their billing department to receive this service. Additionally I spoke with "Miss XXXXXX" at Bell South and she told me it was not possible to receive DSL without the phone line. When I asked her if they were refusing to comply with the GA PSC ruling on this issue she transferred me to a "DSL Specialist". XXXXXX the DSL specialist told me that I had to have some type of phone line from some carrier to get DSL due to "security concerns" of allowing people on their network. I explained to XXXXXX that the network authentication for DSL has nothing to do with telco service, it uses a protocol called ATM to provision network bandwith, and the DSL modem uses PPOE to authenticate on their network. There is no technical reason that a POTS service needs to be established at the residence before DSL can be configured.

XXXXX.
XXXXX: How may I help you?
You: hi
You: I want to order some DSL, but I dont have a land line
You: but there is a wired jack at the residence
XXXXX: It may be possible, however,
For this issue, you will have to speak with one of our Billing Representatives.
They can be reached at 1-800-436-8638, option 3. Their business hours are 8am
to 7pm, EST., Monday through Friday, and Saturday, 8am to 5:30pm, EST.
You: and it looks like the previous tenants had DSL
You: thanks!
XXXX:
You're Welcome. Thank you for using BellSouth Click2Chat.

[2meli]

so when will this be effective

here it is 4 years later and Hellsouth/ATT is still requiring a telephone line to have DSL and many places still do not have the ability to have any DSL?????? Please comment on this...I would really like to know why the Georgia government haven't pursued this any further??????