DSL Brings High-Speed Headaches.

WHEN digital subscriber line, or DSL, service was introduced to the public in 1997, many hoped it would mean the end of the agonizing download times that have caused the Internet to be nicknamed the "World Wide Wait."

But even though DSL has the potential for download speeds 25 times faster than a standard 56K modem, some local users of the service are finding that the wait is not yet over -- its nature has simply changed.

Today, they're waiting for installation of the service, for service technicians to show up, and for problems with download speed to be resolved.

Because DSL service is unregulated and the technology is still relatively new to the market, there is little consistency in the quality of service. While one person may have perfect DSL installation and the famed "always on" Internet access, his next-door neighbor may be thrown into a chaotic maze of service problems that some call "DSHell." Not helping matters is the volume of advertising that touts DSL as the answer to every Internet user's dreams.

In the long haul, some believe that DSL will outlive the popularity of its high-speed Internet access rival, the cable modem. Because DSL is a dedicated line into each user's home, it offers more consistent download speeds than cable modems, which tend to fluctuate in speed depending on how many people tap into the service.

Bob McConnell of Manhattan Beach said, "I looked at the various things available and I realized that DSL is just technically preferable to cable modems."

When it works. But there are hundreds of Web sites and discussion groups dedicated to the discrepancy in quality of DSL service.

"With some companies, you have straightforward installation and not that much drama," said Justin Beech, editor of dslreports.com, a sort of online Consumer Reports for DSL service. "For some companies it's the opposite and they do everything wrong. What could be easy for one person literally could be a nightmare with four months of waiting for the installation guy to show up."

Part of the problem is the complex relationships between the telephone companies that lay the wire and the service providers that actually provide the DSL service.

In order to receive DSL, a customer must have the appropriate fiber-optic wiring provided by the phone company, running from a central wire center that is within 3.5 miles of the location. If the home or business is more than 3.5 miles away, most kinds of affordable DSL service can't be provided.

Depending on where the customer is located in Los Angeles County, the two major phone companies that lay fiber optics are Pacific Bell and GTE.

Both companies own Internet service provider divisions, meaning they can both lay the wire and provide the service. But it's seldom that simple; there are two major DSL wholesalers, NorthPoint Communications Inc. and Covad Communications, that use wiring from Pac Bell and GTE and sell DSL service in bundles to consumer-level ISPs like Los Angeles-based Zyan Communications and American DSL.

When problems arise, it becomes a question of where the service interruption originates. Is it a phone company wiring problem? Has the wholesaler's wire center crashed? Is the ISP down? Is it a combination of those things?

Often, customers are sent from one tech support center to another while companies play hot potato with the service problem.

Manny Alonzo, an engineer in Long Beach, telecommutes at least one day a week and needs to access large files that are kept in his computer at work. He became frustrated with the slow download times of his dial-up modem and decided to become a DSL customer. Alonzo chose Huntington Beach-based Flashcom for his service.

"I guess it was because they were the first ones to advertise," he said. "If I had known then what I know now, I probably would've thought about it."

While Alonzo says he first ordered the service in July, it took two months before back-logged GTE technicians wired up his home. Under the plan he ordered, Alonzo was to get a speed of 768K download and 128K upload (downloading refers to getting data off the Internet, uploading refers to sending it out).

"The first few days it was nice, but then during the first week of October I noticed (downloading) was significantly slower -- like 200 to 230K," he said. "The first time I sent an e-mail to (Flashcom) and I got a note back from the (service) guy that said 'Thank you for the heads up.' I was like, 'I'm not giving you a heads up, I'm asking you to fix it.'"

When Alonzo was able to speak by phone with a tech-support person, he was told that the connection problem rested with GTE. After calling GTE, he was told there was no report from Flashcom about the problem. Alonzo called Flashcom back and relayed the information given to him by GTE, and a few weeks later he said his service was fixed.

Anita Messier, Flashcom's product marketing director, acknowledges that the company is being hit by negative reviews on chat rooms and message boards. "I think every company has taken some amount of bashing," she said. Nonetheless, she explained that customers are being frustrated because they don't understand the complexity of the service.

"People say, 'I got my dial-up line overnight, why can't I get my DSL line overnight?'" Messier said. "We explain that obviously the demand is very high and setting up a DSL line involves a few partners in the background."

Messier said Flashcom wants its users to come to it first when there is a service outage. "Our customers are primarily Flashcom customers, and they shouldn't even know who the background providers are," she said. "They need to call us and it becomes our problem to work with our providers."

About 2.5 million people are eligible for DSL access in Los Angeles, Orange and Ventura counties, according to Pac Bell spokesman Steve Getzug. Pac Bell's parent company, SBC Communications Inc., announced "Project Pronto" last month, an initiative that the company says will bring DSL service to 80 percent of its nationwide customer base by 2002.

"Once people see how incredible the speed is, they ain't never going back," Getzug said. "We get about 4,000 calls a day statewide from people interested in the product."

But 2002 is a long way off for those who want their DSL now.

Carol Levin, who lives in West Los Angeles, first tried to get DSL service a year ago because her children were tying up their phone lines by using dial-up modem service. When Levin first contacted Pac Bell about DSL, she was told that the service would be slow -- and expensive -- because her house was located almost exactly 3.5 miles from the nearest wire center.

"It really upset my 16-year-old son, who wanted us to move to a DSL or cable-modem neighborhood," she said.

The DSL that Levin originally wanted was an asynchronous digital subscriber line, a kind of service that offers faster download times than upload times. Levin wound up with InternetConnect, a Marina del Rey-based company that offers the more expensive synchronous digital subscriber lines, which have the same download and upload times.

Now, Levin's house is networked, with five computers on two floors that are connected to the Internet constantly. Their speed is 416K-per-second download and upload.

"My son decided we could stay in our house," she said.

There are dozens of Internet service providers, like InternetConnect and Flashcom, that link customers with DSL service in the Los Angeles area. With other providers seemingly popping up every week, customers are warned to do some research before they start handing over their money.

"People who have it, love it, and they basically tell all their friends they should get it too," said Beech of dslreports.com. "But people are going for the cheapest providers. If you pay $20 a month for AOL, they don't see why they should pay $60 a month for a premium DSL service."

But those extra few dollars are usually worth it, Beech warned. Providers that offer service in the $40- to $50-a-month range may not have sufficient technological support and can leave a customer in a lurch.

"Some of them are just sales organizations that are interested in getting your credit card number," he said.

However, as more people get DSL service, Beech anticipates that the number of customers having problems will dwindle. According to Internet research firm Dataquest, there are 350,000 digital subscriber lines in use today, a number that is expected to grow to 9.8 million by 2003.

"I think market forces will punish those that punish their consumers," Beech said. "It will take a while for it to happen, because people who want DSL now want it so badly that they are willing to put up with appalling service."