Geoff White wrote:
Well my understanding here in PacBell/SBC land is that the way it will work, (this comes from someone who made a naieve inquiry to another equally naieve saleperson at PacBell/SBC), is that you need to connect to PacBell's ATM backbone in order to order xDSL (the person just wanted to connect from their home to the office), when I heard this I though it was totally absurd but the truth, as they say is far stranger :)
Why is this absurd? You think coolocating routers at COs is less absurd? Aggregating DSL traffic in a DSLAM and pumping it out via ATM is the right way to do things. (If I totally misunderstood and you are saying that using *ATM* is absurd, then don't bother to reply. I'm an atheist.)
What the salesguy was saying but (he really didn't know it) and what I found out from a little digging is that PacBell's intent is to only sell xDSl to CLECs ! So then it all makes sense, you need a router that connects to their ATM cloud, then they just route the traffic from their copper on over to your routers and presto! You are an xDSL enabled ISP!
This is crap. Covad, Brainstorm, DNAI, etc. are CLECs?! I don't think so. Yet they seem to be able to offer xDSL using P*B.