On January 29, 2004 I called Verizon to move my service from my old apartment to my new one. My new phone was hooked up and working by the end of the next day. I also wanted to move my DSL service. Where I live, in Santa Barbara, California, all DSL goes through Verizon, even if they are not the Internet Service Provider. Knowing this I asked them to also move my DSL connection. I thought they could move my connection to my ISP. Instead they connected me to their own ISP services. That was Feb 9. Several calls to their tech support did not rectify the situation. I called my local ISP (silcom.com) to see if they could do anything about it. Verizon would not let them get a DSL connection to me because Verizon insisted that I had signed up for Verizon DSL, which I had not. I consider this whole mis-connection issue to be similar to the often legislated against situation where a long-distance phone company uses dirty tricks to get themselves connected as someone's service provider. I wound up having to call Verizon's billing department to cancel the DSL service I didn't order. Several days later Verizon was still not allowing my ISP to get my DSL connection. Giving my ISP the confirmation number that Verizon gave me for my DSL non-service cancellation seemed to do the trick. Today is March 4. It was reported to me that yesterday, March 3, would be my new DSL activation date. I am still not connected. Verizon 'lost' my ISP's connection order. Their new estimate for DSL activation is March 9. I am a very computer savvy person. I have a Bachelors in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. I have worked in software engineering for several years now. While I am not intimately familiar with the specifics of DSL, I have worked with many kinds of networks. I believe there to be no technical reason why I could not be connected within one day, as I was for basic phone service. I am believing more and more the old adage I heard on Saturday Night Live, "We're the Phone Company. We don't care. We don't have to." I care. And I hope you at the FCC care. -Brian Olson Santa Barbara, California March 4, 2004 p.s. I heard that there was a recent court decision that would negate the requirement for local phone monopolies such as Verizon to share their lines with other companies such as my ISP. This would be terrible. Verizon simply does not offer (in a reasonable way) the service I can (usually, when Verizon isn't sucking) get from my local ISP. Please ensure that our monopolies are held to higher standards, and that alternatives also exist.