How To Get ATT Naked DSL (Redux)
When reader Nick tried to sign up for ATT “naked DSL” or “dry loop” service (getting DSL without having paying for a landline), a curious thing happened.
AT&T said his address doesn’t exist. But when he went through the process to sign up for bundled service, more expensive, with landline phone service, magically, it could find his address.
This is odd when you consider a customer service rep later said both options draw from the same database. It’s not odd when you consider that AT&T only made naked DSL available because the FCC made them in exchange for letting them do some fancy business transactions, and then initially made it very confusing for people to try to sign up.
So here’s the secret process Mike figured out:
1. Head to www.att.com/gen/general?pid=11523
2. Check Availability. If it gives you trouble (as if you don’t know where you live),
3. Check DSL availability via their main website as if you’re looking to purchase a bundle package. It checks a separate database. If it says you’re eligible:
a. Call 1-800-288-2020. Ask about “High Speed Internet Direct”, “dry loop” or “stand alone” DSL at your address. If you have equipment, ask them to waive the option to get a modem/router.
b. If they resist, call back until you get a CSR that’ll work with you.
Part of the problem is that some of the call center reps don’t know what they’re talking about and try to insist you need a landline or cellphone service with AT&T to get DSL. This is not true. Keep calling back until you find one that does, making sure you use the magic words “High Speed Internet Direct”, “dry loop” or “stand alone DSL.”
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So the FCC required them to offer this special price but never said that they had to make it easy to get or actually give it to the consumer?
@Bourque77: loopholes remember?
why would ATT try to earn less money by only offering one(DSL) service when two(landline+DSL) costs more?
@Bourque77: That’s pretty much the sum of it.
@forgottenpassword: Nah, but then again, I’ve been in telecoms for a while…
I signed up for naked DSL with AT&T last January and couldn’t have had an easier process. The phone rep never suggested any bundling and waived the equipment fee without any hassle. I even have one of those mysterious 1/2 addresses that goofs up their system and he fixed it pretty quickly.
@Lonetree: We’ve got it too, and they didn’t try to make it hard to set up. But try checking your account online or making a payment with anything other than a check in the mail – are you having any success with that?
We’ve tried to set up an autopay three times, and each time one CS rep has said it was up and running and another has said their systems aren’t set up to offer it for dry loop. I think they’re trying to recoup through late fees what they don’t get in bundled services. You can’t get into their online systems because they won’t recognize an account number that isn’t a phone number (e.g., ours starts with 000 instead of an area code).
So far, our experiences with ATT and their dry loop has been abysmal. We’ve even tried complaining to the state PUC and the FCC, but gotten no responses from either.
No, what’s odd is that the FCC requires companies to offer these things and then never checks to make sure they’re being offered.
Ever.
How hard is it to have some staffers try to sign up for these services as a consumer would and report the results?
@twophrasebark:
What staffers? Government departments that don’t have to do with war or law enforcement have been cut to the bone, and are being cut more all the time.
In Canada Bell has a monopoly over the phone lines. They don’t have a problem giving you dry loop dsl, they are still making money hand over fist off you. If you go to another dsl wholesaler to get dryloop dsl you have to pay an extra band-rate (usually about 10 dollars) for Bells upkeep on the lines.
I’ve found that AT&T offers the dry loop option on their website. The problem is that when I looked into it the cost of the dry loop DSL was actually more than the cost of regular DSL + metered phone (this basic $5.25 a month service is hard to find on the site).
Combined with the various Modem discounts it worked out better for me to pass up dry loop. Since I got a couple months free and a free modem.
Post sign up they did raise some of those “random” fees that they tack on so I now pay a dollar or two more per month than straight dryloop. Since I use the landline every time I call an 800 number to avoid using cell minutes while on hold or navigating horrid phone trees I find this a useful tradeoff.
Now I feel taken; we signed up for DSL in December and were told that we absolutely had to get a landline. I see an angry phone call in my future…
I have dryloop. My main problem was that when signing up, either the account specialist or I transposed the numbers… all AT&T dryloop phone numbers start with 081. I kept giving them 018. It took about 2 hours on the phone before somebody figured this out.
The next day, a tech was out and my my jacks were wired up, and I didn’t even get charged. It’s been fine since. Interestingly, my bill is exactly 40 dollars, which is their price for the midrange dryloop service in my area. No taxes, fees, or other surcharges.
I used AT&T’s dry loop (naked) DSL for a few months at the beginning of the year. They made it essentially unbearable, from the install to the cancellation. I guess the tech support and billing is all separate from the rest of AT&T, but there’s no external number so you need to navigate through the normal phone tree, get someone who can connect you to the dry loop phone tree and then navigate through that. When I finally canceled, I sent them full payment for the last month, even though I canceled halfway through (they required this) and then they sent it to collections 3 weeks after cashing my check! I was able to get them to fix it after a few hours on the phone, but boy was it a hassle. I don’t think the dry loop really even saves any money over having a basic phone line + traditional DSL. FCC – you really need to enforce this!
Hmm… I have the Elite service (6Mbps down) at $35 per month without telephone service.
Here’s what I did:
-Go to att.com> Shop for internet > Choose plan > Select “If you don’t have a telephone, search availability by address > You input your address, confirm that you wrote the right address > Choose “Order High Speed Internet Only” > The choice of plans will show up (starting with “Basic service” for 19.95, up to the Elite plan for $45) In my case, it showed me that the plan I wanted required more information to process and to call “1-800-288-2020 Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm CT”.
When I called I got the Elite service for $35 instead that $45,l I got my modem two days later and my service is much faster than any other internet service I’d had before.
I have been considered downgrading our bundled service to get rid of the landline. Curious if anyone has been successful doing this? We have DSL, landline (that we NEVER use), and Dish. Want to just have DSL and Dish.
Although the FCC requires that former monopoly telcos offer local loop unbundling said telcos are not required to be your DSL head end via a dry loop.
In other words, if you want your DSL provider to be Krazy Karl’s Kut Rate DSL then the network owner would be required to allow a dry loop between you and Karl, but the network owner is not required to offer you DSL sans land line. The telco can offer you whatever they want. If you don’t like it then go hit up Krazy Karl.
Yep, address already has dsl and phone (cell won’t really work in the house) tried looking up my address (hasn’t changed since the house was built in 1969) and…. Amazing, address not