Copyright ©1997-2011 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Copyright ©1997-2011 Glenn Fleishman except as noted otherwise. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint, contact Glenn Fleishman at glenn at glennf.com. Photo © 2008 Laurence Chen; used with permission.
Turning technology from mumbo-jumbo into rich tasty gumbo
< Cat's Cradle | Main | Classic Bezos >I'm not sure if this is news or not, or just underreported, but Qwest.net appears to be fading away as Qwest moves its DSL customers to a co-branded MSN service. Read their FAQ which is full of weasel words. It makes me crazy. Try these:
Under the agreement, MSN will become the preferred Internet Service Provider (ISP) for some Qwest.net Consumer Internet Access customers. Qwest and Microsoft® are working together to provide consumers with best-of-breed MSN content and services via Qwest's Internet infrastructure. This means bloody nothing to the average consumer reading this. In plain language, Qwest decided to get out of the ISP business because MSN could do it better and offer more. Simple, clear, direct.
One of the benfits: * MSN easy-to-use software and tools designed to deliver an exciting online experience to consumers. Yeah, email is really exciting.
Also: * MSN POP3 or MSN Web-based e-mail services including Messenger, Hotmail® Web-based e-mail, and Search that are already among the most popular in the world. I like to make my decisions based on popularity rather than how well something serves my needs.
Email can only be forwarded to new MSN accounts: E-mail Forwarding - forwards e-mail directed to your Qwest.net e-mail address to your new MSN e-mail address.
* E-mail Auto Reply - automatically sends your new MSN e-mail address back to anyone who sends an e-mail message to your old Qwest.net e-mail address.
Now here's where I have to be fair: the services that MSN is offering are, in fact, substantially more robust, well-tested, and extensive than Qwest. Users will be getting a lot more than they had: more storage for Web sites, authenticated outbound email (which means you can use it on the road and it's a positive anti-spam initiative at MSN), etc. Laundry list of stuff. For most consumers, this is actually a good move.
So why can't they just say that?
This change may open up the DSL market again: customers of Qwest may have initially signed up because Qwest made it this easy, all-in-one, all US West-later-Qwest-branded experience. With more logos in the process and more partners involved, regional and national ISPs may be able to pick up service by offering it over Qwest's DSL local loop.
Posted by Glennf at December 6, 2001 2:18 PM TrackBack URL for this entry: QWest is keeping its business DSL customers. They are also offering a low-end "business" package called StarterPack for $4 more than they currently charge residential customers. Word on the qwest.dsl newsgroup is that they will convert you to the StarterPack account if you use some part of your DSL connection for business purposes (wink, wink). It appears that QWest is dumping its high maintenance customers on to MSN, while keeping the cream (tech savvy, low maintenance customers). MSN has some problems of its own. They block port 25 so you cannot connect to a 3rd party server to send email. Interesting, tonight I had a problem with our DSL (the modem was in perpetual retraining mode) and called QWest tech support, they break out the phone calls by Windows (9x), Win2000 and Mac. The support person answered immediately, didn't ask me stupid questions like having me read the numbers out of my TCP control panel. After resetting a machine on their end, she had me up and running in about 10-15 minutes. At the end of the call she apologized for the downtime (all of an hour and a half) and thanked me for using QWest. Almost as pleasant as being able to directly dial into the Phoenix NOC three years ago when QWest was just rolling out DSL. Posted by: Don Arbow at December 7, 2001 12:18 AM
Trackback Pings
Comments
MegaGlennFeed
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ||||||
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
| 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 |
| 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 |
| 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 |
| 30 | 31 |
Recent Entries
Archives
October 2011 | August 2011 | June 2011 | May 2011 | February 2011 | December 2010 | November 2010 | October 2010 | September 2010 | August 2010 | July 2010 | June 2010 | May 2010 | April 2010 | January 2010 | December 2009 | November 2009 | October 2009 | September 2009 | August 2009 | July 2009 | May 2009 | April 2009 | March 2009 | February 2009 | January 2009 | December 2008 | November 2008 | October 2008 | September 2008 | August 2008 | July 2008 | June 2008 | May 2008 | April 2008 | March 2008 | February 2008 | January 2008 | December 2007 | November 2007 | October 2007 | September 2007 | August 2007 | July 2007 | June 2007 | May 2007 | April 2007 | March 2007 | February 2007 | January 2007 | December 2006 | November 2006 | October 2006 | September 2006 | August 2006 | July 2006 | June 2006 | May 2006 | April 2006 | March 2006 | February 2006 | January 2006 | December 2005 | November 2005 | October 2005 | September 2005 | August 2005 | July 2005 | June 2005 | May 2005 | April 2005 | March 2005 | February 2005 | January 2005 | December 2004 | November 2004 | October 2004 | September 2004 | August 2004 | July 2004 | June 2004 | May 2004 | April 2004 | March 2004 | February 2004 | January 2004 | December 2003 | November 2003 | October 2003 | September 2003 | August 2003 | July 2003 | June 2003 | May 2003 | April 2003 | March 2003 | February 2003 | January 2003 | December 2002 | November 2002 | October 2002 | September 2002 | August 2002 | July 2002 | June 2002 | May 2002 | April 2002 | March 2002 | February 2002 | January 2002 | December 2001 | November 2001 | October 2001 |