Alice DSL won't provide Internet service

Hello -
I just experienced something frustrating..

After doing my homework, I had decided to sign up for Alice.
Basically, I was getting an amazing package for my purposes. The fastest residential internet around, flat rate phone and unlimited calling to Canada and USA.
65 Euro a month. Which I was completely fine with.

But I received a message after several weeks saying that they cannot provide me with internet service because they don't have access to the wiring in the building, that it belongs to Telekom.
What the heck does that even mean?

Anyway,
assuming my only option is to go through telekom.. it doesn't seem like they have anything comparible. The closest is similar speed internet with flatrate calling but no calls to north america, and it ends up being the same price!

Does anyone have any suggestions?
Most important thing of all is FAST, reliable internet connection... nothing lower than the 16000 kb service will work for me.
And I was really excited about that unlimited calling to north america.

Have you tried checking this topic: Experiences with Alice DSL for customer service issues with Alice?

Great title, though. Thought he'd tried his favourite lines and she said 'no'...

Calls to the USA and Canada are pretty cheap or even free these days if you call via the internet or use prefix numbers. Signing up for an unlimited calls package could mean you are paying a lot more than what you need to pay.

it costs me only 1.56 cents a minute to phone canada, 2.5 cents the USA. Or the other way around, i forget. anyway, it's so cheap, I haven't even bothered to look for a flatrate or skype for that matter.

Oh really?
Who are you with / what's your deal?

If you speak the lingo, you can pick the cheapest rate here http://www.billiger-telefonieren.de/

The problem is that thing about Alice not being able to provide internet service... what's the deal with that? Does that mean Telekom is the only ISP I can get?

The weird, weird, WEIRD thing is that in my flat, taken over from a previous tennant friend has Arcor already. How can Arcor be installed but not Alice?
Really hate Arcor, terribly slow and unreliable. It will soon run out anyway. But want it replaced immediately, it's a problem for my work (and play) to have slow internet.

Calls to America and Canada are free. You do not have to pay for them. You can get any internet service, and use www.voipcheap.com . You can even use the call back service, if you want so you don't even have to use the internet connection. Don't pay anyone money for flat rate international - it's a rip off.

Its surprising that Arcor could be installed but not Alice, as they are another service that takes over your phone line. Maybe you should try applying again, and explain that you already have Arcor.

Just did a quick check on the Alice website and you can find out if Alice is available in your building.

You had a lucky escape they are crap, they never send the right bills, my internet stops working every 8 weeks, and when we called them on saturday to tell them we couldnt use it again they said someone was stealing our wlan but it wasnt their problem

That sounds kinda crazy. But no, it isn't their problem if someone is stealing your wireless. It's your responsibility to keep it secure. And even so, it's crackable now. Wired internet is better because it's secure + faster. But people don't like having wires running around their house perhaps.

Not weird at all if you know the system. Telekom originally owned ALL the lines going into peoples homes. For an alternative provider to give you a service they have to wrench the line from Telekoms grip. Once Telekom lose the line to a competitor it disappears off their radar. By law Telekom are required to transfer a line to an alternative provider when the customer requests it, usually when the customer signs up to an alternative provider and the provider makes the transfer request in the name of the customer. other companies are not required to do this, or make life difficult when requested. In your circumstances Alice will have asked Telekom to take over the line and Telekom will have simply responded that they don't even have it and there the story ends.
If you really want Alice (and for flatrate calling I concur with the other posters that it may not be the cheapest deal) then you need to first contract with Telekom. Telekom are also unique in that they wan wrench the line back from Arcor (although it may take time because of the above issues) then later change to Alice.

I put Cat 5 cables around our house a could of years ago. Works a treat.

Weird to a north american, I should have said

That's...interesting information. Doesn't sound like a bucket of fun, but thanks.

My biggest irk is that supposing I went with someone else, I'd be paying almost as much as I would have for that package anyway, and that doesn't include the flatrate calling. (IE - that deal from Alice ended up being 65 euro in the end, the T-Com one I am looking at is 60 euro without the flatrate). But maybe if I brushed up on my German i'd have better luck navigating the deals on the sites

Do you not have a relocation agent to help you, or have you thought of contacting a middleman to deal for you?
You should be able to get a 6Mbit connection and simple phone for around €50/month. In this world of call-by-call and VoIP I continue to maintain that flatrate calling is a false economy, which you continue to pay for when you don't need it (like when you are on vacation). If you really want to cruise then the 50Mbit VDSL packet (only from Telekom) costs around €70 a month excluding calls.

Arcor has a package that is basically as good as the Alice one. Big downside is that there is a 24 month contract. If you're happy with that though, and they already control the line, setup should be quicker and easier than having to get Telecom back.

Arcor didn't seem to have any packages that had fast enough internet. Plus the experience i've had with them so far suggests that they are pretty bad.. I can't count how many hundreds of times I lose my connection just while casually browsing the net, let alone doing anything more "heavy" with it.

Thanks for the tip though.

I have a friend or two who can help with stuff like actually talking to them on the phone and ordering things, but doesn't have time for much else.

Thanks for the tips / info. Do you have a link to ths "50mbit VDSL " ? I couldn't find it when just browsing the site

I did not mean you should use a friend - I meant you should talk to (and pay for) a professional. The 50Mbit VDSL can be found at www.t-home.de

Keep in mind, if you try the tester for VDSL from t-com and your line isn't currently with T-Com, you will get a message saying its not available for you, even if you are in an area where you could theoretically get it. You will probably fall into this category.

VDSL? Is there an increased virus risk?

Hi there , you seem to be very knowledgeable in this area. I have a similar issue - I now have a connection with mnet - which was ok but I see that there is a far superior offer available from tele2.de. Basically everything flatrate for 29,95 - with the first 3 months free if you order online! http://www.tele2.de/Privatkunden/Komplett.aspx

Here's the catch - and where I'm hoping you can help. They say although it is available in my building I can't have it at present unless I'm first signed up to Telecom. This seems silly to me but there's perhaps a similar legal reason to the one you outlined above. My question is if it is possible to get Telekom to change the line over without entering into a contract with them , and if so how?
Thanks.

First, you need to cancel your contract with M-Net (internet, telephone), hope you are not bound to a 24 month contract. I suppose you can sign up with Tele2 once your contract with M-Net is terminated. If not, you can sign up for "Call Plus/Analog Anschluss" from Telekom. This connection does not have a minimum contract period. Once this is through, you can contact Tele2.

In theory it should be possible to transfer between any two providers, but there is resistance in the industry (predominantly from Telekom) to permit this, so there are currently no inter-provider agreements for line transfer, only agreements between Telekom and everyone else (as required by the regulator). This does mean, if you want to keep your number you need to transfer back to Telekom (minimim 1 month) then over to Tele2. It's not a process I'd recommend as it is fraught with risk and potential interruption as there are 2 changeovers with 3 providers. You could, of course order a new line and simply cancel the old one, but you'd get a different number in the long term.

I've just checked with mnet - they say it should be possible as tele2 is just a reseller of Telekom. It's a 3 month waiting period to get out of the mnet contract - even tho it expires in 6 days - ah well can't have everything. But speaking to the guy from mnet it should be possible to get all the ducks in the row if i go talk to the other two guys now. thanks for your help.

it mad isnt it, the whole deal with cancelling contracts.

you may only cancel the contract maximum 3 months before it ends, minimum 1 month and the like. otherwise its legally extended for another 12 months... fucking unbelievable.

nah it's liveable-with i think , i had excellent service with m-net - far superior to telekom at least - i was sad that they couldnt offer anything competitive with that tele2 offer.
It's only 3 months from now - not a full 12 month wait - I can't complain too much.
Just talked to the doods at telekom - even they seem to be a lot better than i remember.

Did I say the doods at telekom were decent? what I should have said is that there is the occassional person there who is not bloody awful - spent the last hour on the phone to different peeps - first guy seemed to have a clue - he gave me a number of another person who should have sorted me out - uh nope and nope - sent me back to tele2 - talked to tele2 - apparently they want to dominate the market in broadband here and are gonna roll out a ton of products to do so - anyhoo - this fellah tells me to hang tight cos in a month or so it ought to be possible for them to do it without any interference BULLSHIT from telekom. I've got his name right by my desk and intend to fucking get some movement on this.

I'm currently with Alice and was thinking to move to 1&1 and I faced the same problem, I gave up then. but now I see new ads from 1&1 and other providers offering packages in twins: one for 30 Euros if you have T-com line, and another for 40 Euros if you don't have one! so apparently things are going into the direction to lower that border. but I still can't get the reason of continiously charging you 10 Euros more per month coz you didn't have a T-com! The switching through T-com would be cheaper on long term I think.

Hi Cosine,

Be happy you can not get Alice. 65 euros a month is not the cheapest deal out there. I was with Alice before and quite because my bills skyrocketted since I was making a lot of international calls and with Alice one can not dial the 01015 cheap short codes nor use the cheap internet calling cards.
I Recently signed up with 1&1 and I am very satisfied with the package.
Below is my configuration and price:

- Phone - Telecom - Call Plus/Analog Anschluss = 16.37 euros/month
- DSL - 1&1 - Phone, DSL flat + fastest DSL connection = 20 Euros/month
+ Movie package with Maxdome.

- For Canada and USA, register with www.voipstunt.com, load up 10 euros and you have free calls to both countries + many more for the rest of your life. You need to buy a VoIP headset of about 10 - 15 euros.

Check 1 & 1 for the latest offers.
http://dsl.1und1.de/xml/order/DslEinstieg;...8KQR&origin[site]=MX.EUE.DE&origin[page]=index&ucuoId=MX.EUE.DE-20070822145739-ac1704c4iudsumQ1immE2GJzGmfxLZHc-S1

Hope this helps.

Roland

Here we go again...

You must be planning a short life. Load up 10 Euros and you get (currently) free calls to those countries for 120 days. Thereafter it's a cent a minute, unless you load up another 10 Euros. voipstunt, along with many similar offerings from the same stable regularly change rates, offers, free entitlement and capabilities. I'm not saying they're not bad, just they are tricky and you have to take care.

A cent a minute is still cheaper than almost any vorwahl service, and that's after you've made loads of calls.

Use Voipcheap and you don't need the hassle of headsets.