Most of us have been taught that by cutting out the middle man we can save money, but is that all you save? When it comes to internet access and phone service working with the Incumbents or Baby Bells is a mixed bag. Certainly there are competitive companies that can give you the same or better phone service than the Baby Bells which suffer from years of a monopolistic market but is it the same for internet service?
DSL service is actually quite different than phone service. Besides the obvious difference of one being data and one being voice, competitive carriers generally use their own equipment which is kept at the phone company's facilities. In this case, asking your phone company to make changes to your service is dependant on your phone company and depending on how smoothly they run their operations you could have a very pleasant experience. Internet service, however is different. Many baby bells resell their service which is then sold under a different name. You may be buying internet access and not realize that you're really buying Verizon DSL under another name.
In cases where companies purchase Verizon DSL and resell it under their own name, many of the advantages of changing carriers disappear. If the carrier does not own their equipment they will need to contact the provider to make any changes and as they are not the provider you have added another layer of complexity to any request you may have. Is it really worth the $5 or $10 you're saving by going with a competitor? Often times it's not. Think about cutting out the middle man when looking for internet service. If you know the company is simply reselling Verizon DSL, why not just go with the source?
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