Jeff Billimek’s Journal

Work was pretty uneventful today other than a noon meeting (lunch was provided) to discuss the 0 ticket-number problem. We came out of that meeting without a clear idea of when the solution would be implemented to address the problem - at least that’s how I felt.

A while back I sent a complaint to the Georgia Public Service Commission. I was complaining that DSL subscribers are forced to pay for a full-fledged voice line even if they don’t need or want it.

I got a response back a few days later from a PSC rep stating that DSL isn’t in their jurisdiction - but they will forward my complaint over to Bellsouth for me.

When I got back from lunch today I saw that I had two voices mails from ‘Deborah’ over at Bellsouth Internet Services. Her voice mail stated that “you must have a voice line due to an FCC regulation and there isn’t anything they (Bellsouth) can do about that”

Wow that’s weird. I’ve been reading about ‘naked’ DSL (DSL offered without a voice-line requirement) offered in other markets since last year. I guess FCC regulations don’t apply everywhere? Or just maybe Bellsouth wasn’t being 100% truthful?

Later this afternoon I got another call from a guy over at Bellsouth Customer Relations. I guess they take PSC complaints seriously. I inquired to him about the FCC regulation BS I was fed, but he said he didn’t know about that. Instead he said that he doesn’t know why Bellsouth got the complaint because I’m using a third-party DSL provider and they shouldn’t have a requirement to use Bellsouth landline access.

That’s fine, so I asked him if Bellsotuh had a requirement for a voice line for their own FastAccess(tm) DSL service. He said indeed they do that that requirement. I asked him why, and he said ‘due to technical reasons’. I asked him if it made any sense that a person who has no need for a voice line (i.e. someone who uses a cell phone) to have to pay $25 in fees and taxes just so they can turn around and spend another $50 for a DSL line. He said that he understood my frustration, but that’s just how things are.

On that same thread I voiced my complaint that Bellsouth no longer offers metered/measured voice line service. By that I mean a much cheaper line that only allows for 25 outgoing calls a month. Any additional calls are charged per call. This seems like a wonderful solution to DSL subscribers who have no need for a voice line. Strangely enough Bellsouth stopped offering that around the time DSL started to take off. So now instead DSL subscribers are being forced to pay $25/month for a voice line that many don’t even need or want.

Hopefully soon things will change.

At 4pm I left work for a 4:10pm dentist appointment. I switched dentists after my horrible experience at my previous dentist last month.

I didn’t wait long until they finally called me up. The first thing they did was take a panoramic xray of my teeth. They used a pretty modern-looking machine to do this.

Next I had my teeth examined by the dentist. She indicated that I had some inflammation of the gums, indicative of gingivitis. After probing around my mouth for a bit she completed her work. She told me that I had some tarter build-up and a moderate case of gingivitis. I should be able to correct all of this after a full mouth debridment and a cleaning every four months for a while until it gets better.

Strange that she wasn’t saying things like a complete scaling & planning and other such stuff like I heard before. In fact, the cost of the full-mouth debridment was only $35. $35. Last month the other dentist told me that I needed to spend over $1,000 to get my teeth fixed. Something doesn’t quite add up.