wiredfool

Today, a connection through Speakeasy.net, a Seattle DSL provider, still takes up to twice as long as through Qwest, even though Qwest supplies the lines in both cases, according to Speakeasy. “We assume they fill their own orders first, though we don’t have any data on that,” says spokeswoman Kat Oak.

Qwest says it doesn’t track hookup times of competitors. “It’s probably faster getting it through us, but we don’t know for sure,” says Qwest spokesman Dunne.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/134390810_noconnection14.html

Well, that’s not actually my experience at all. Quest impeding a competitor? Never!

If an ISP is using Quest for DSL (instead of Covad), they will actually tell you “You are going to get installed faster with us because you’re actually a Quest customer.” Quest doesn’t track this probably for the same reason that you don’t detail all your evil plans in email that can then be subpoenead.

(fwiw, I had the … pleasure of ordering DSL through both Speakeasy and Quest w/ 3rd party ISP in November. Quest was faster but Speakeasy had much better service. And the Speakeasy connection is twice as fast.)