Verizon Strikes Again

It never ceases to amaze me how fundamentally bad large carriers are. I have Speakeasy DSL at my home. Speakeasy’s service is good, and I have never had a problem with their network. The problem is, every single time it rains I have some sort of problem with my phone line. And because DSL is dependant on the phone line, every time there is a problem with the phone, I lose Internet access.
What sucks for Speakeasy is they are completely dependant on their carrier (Covad), and in this case their carrier is completely dependant on Verizon. I understand this, and I don’t get too upset with the Speakeasy technical support people, but I need to have working Internet access. Back to the point, my DSL modem lost sync Saturday night so I called and opened a ticked with Speakeasy. They ran some network tests and verified that I wasn’t crazy and then opened a ticked with Covad. Covad ran some more tests this morning and then opened a ticket with Verizon. Verizon confirmed there is a problem and needs to come out onsite to do work at the MPOE.
Now the fun part… my time window for this onsite service is 8:00am to 5:00pm Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Yes that’s right. Verizon has promised to be here somewhere inside of a 27 hour block of time.
The true irony of the matter is I have absolutely zero alternatives to Verizon. Any copper based service (ADSL, SDSL, IDSL, Frame Relay, T1) at some point runs across their equipment. There is always the Cable company (Aldephia) but I would rather go back to dial up than ever give them another penny. So I’ve come to the conclusion that my only real option is to set up an RF point-to-point wireless link and backhaul it to my Los Angeles Colocation downtown.
Anyone in Santa Monica looking for screaming fast Internet? I would be interested in selling the capacity at my cost just to help subsidize my installation.