Ya know, I recall back in the days of POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) before Ma Bell broke up, you could have a phone line put in and fired up and owrking in a day -- or for some areas you needed to give them a few working days. But these horror stories seem to me not to have occurred back then. Of course the tech was simpler, the competition was nonexistant, and the number of lines was about half what it is now, but you would kinda like to think they could take advantage of all the high-speed technology to support an old-fashioned high standard of service, wouldn't you?

Sigh.

A