I Had ATT DSL Dry Loop Installed Today. DSL with No Phone Line
Hi! My name is Dave, and below is original piece I wrote about Dry Loop from ATT that I wrote in march of 2008. But now it’s June of 2009, so I thought I would update the post by streamlining the information. You’re welcome to read the whole thing, but let’s see if we can answer a few key points right off the bat. And PLEASE EMAIL me or just leave your questions in the comment section below if you want more information. I’m a real person who will really answer you.
- Ok, “ATT DSL” is the current name and the $14.95 price ended last year.
- Dry Loop means DSL withOUT the phone service. Just plain high speed internet with no dial tone. Click here to see if you’re in the right area for ATT DSL.
- You can also get ATT phone service with Dry Loop. It’s probably possible to have phone service from one company and Dry Loop internet from ATT. I wouldn’t really really recommend it because of the technical complications. But I use go with one of the good choices 20 dollar phone from MagicJack
- The cost of Dry Loop (also called Naked DSL sometimes) is currently starting at $19.95.
- If you’re a brand NEW customer it is also possible to get the same service for 10 dollars a month in some areas.
I mentioned that I was getting rid of my ATT phone line based DSL service that involved having a telephone number in favor of their NEW phone-line-free service called Dry Loop (remember, at this time, it’s not particularly well known). Today I got it so I want to tell you a few things to watch out for and what to keep an eye out for. The first thing is to try to get all the steps taken care of at once.
When I called the DSL department I could tell in 30 seconds my customer representative was going to have problems since she barely understood what I was talking about, and wasn’t sure of prices or how it would be installed. I offered to hang up and call back but she REALLY wanted “to do her job” so I agreed with the full knowledge that I’d calling back to fix whatever mistakes were about to be put in place. See what needs to happen (if you have a phone line from ATT and DSL service already) is that line has to be cut off 24 hours in advance of the new DSL only service being turned on. You’re starting from scratch actually because they took my Social Security number to run a credit report. And I hate frivolous credit report checks because they lower your score .
So what you want to do is talk to one competent person that can do all the steps at once. Because the way I was originally setup, I was told the service would start on the 24 and I would have to call at least 24 hours in advance to turn off my current phone service and DSL. A couple of days later I looked at a calendar and saw the 23rd was a Sunday, and there was no way that was going to happen. That meant I had to change the turn on date for the 25th or before the weekend altogether. If you have phone service and you’ve decided you don’t want it from ATT anymore:
* Disconnect the current line
* Disconnect the current DSL
* Start the new Dry Loop
So when I DID call back I got all that packaged up as one thing so I didn’t need to call the day before and all that.
OK, Today is the 25 and my internet and phone went off yesterday around 10AM. And that’s one miserable day without internet radio. I can live without the email, or even the blog checking but the music is my thing man! Anyway. Get this call today around 11AM from a ATT tech telling me he’s here. And I’m like what, “this wasn’t supposed to be a home visit, I’m glad I’m here.” So verify when you set this up for yourself. Now, I should mention that around 10AM this morning the internet went on and when I checked the modem login page 192.168.0.1 I could see 384kb up and down, so I resigned myself to having to call and go through all the stuff I mentioned in my series about getting this service set up in the first place. But I couldn’t log in.

I expected I would have to go through the whole process of getting my 1.5mb, but since the guy was there I was like, cool, let’s take care of it now. So he did some stuff and I went back in and saw I still couldn’t log in and therefore get online but I could see my speed was now 768kb download. I went back out and the tech guy said he didn’t think my line could take the full 1.5mb. And I said, well why would they sell it to me. The whole point of asking my address when I signed up was to see my distance from the office. By the way; with cable your speed is determined by how many people are on the network connection you’re sharing, and with DSL your speed is determined by your distance from the originating signal . So he said at 768 my failure rate was 30% and I said well, just turn me up to 1.5 and tell me what you see. He saw a 80% failure rate, and so just like I told the last guy, I said turn me up. If it fails I’ll call and have it turned down.
Went back inside called the office, they said I could use the same login, but it hadn’t yet registered me and by 8pm I would be able to get online, but it should actually happen in maybe an hour. Around 2 hours later, still no connection. So I called back. This guy gave me the login and password of ATT and I got in and connected, and registered online. I had tried the registration CD they give out, but it didn’t work. Probably because it uses you phone number for the process, and when you get this Naked DSL package you no longer have a phone number but they give you a 10 digit account number that emulates a phone number . So I got registered online, had to restart my browser and the modem a few times and FINALLY TODAY I’M BACK ONLINE.
Folks the price right now is CRAZY, all you need to get MagicJack phone service working a a fast connection.
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Hi, Had a few Questions about dry loop.. I found a couple of phone #s, which one is accurate? 18002640002 or 8888004095.
Here is the situation, Im helping a friend with dry loop from AT&T
They are ATT customers with uverse, they want to take adavantage of a Voice I P (cheaper phone service)
They want to keep their cable and internet but port their home # out to one of those other companies. (so it cant be disconnected or canceled.)
As soon as possible, can you give me a step by step procedure and idea on what to expect?
Does the dry loop cost money?
How long does it take?
thanks for your help!
Hello Rebecca
Let’s see if we can tackle some of those issues.
I hate to ask, but did you just try calling the phone numbers? I mean it’s not some dude’s house who you’re going to disturb and he’ll hang up in anger.:) But the numbers are different for different states, so the easiest thing is to go to the ATT.com site and plug in an address and it’ll give you contact info for that area.
Now, in terms of service for your friend. It sounds a little confusing, but my understanding of uverse is that its “digital TV, Internet, and digital home phone service” at 30 dollars each for a total of 90 a month. I believe U-verse digital phone is VOIP, but again a 3 minute phone call to ATT could confirm that. As for the price I don’t think they’d save money on the 30 dollar phone deal they have already. Plus who knows if you can break their current “contract.” Since I think the package comes as a 12 month deal.
You say they want to “port their home # out to one of those other companies.” What companies? You mean like Vonage? They’re price with the taxes is over 30 dollars a month. Magicjack is a dollar a month but not everybody is comfortable with their phone being connected to their computer. Vonage DOES port numbers MagicJack does NOT.
Dry loop starts at 19.99 a month and goes up in 10 dollar jumps depending on how fast you want it. It takes about a week to set up. You do understand that dry loop means internet and NO phone service right? Are you sure that’s what they want?
The easiest and fastest thing to do is to go to att site, get the local number for your friend call. Then call and say “Here are the services I want. What is the best price” If ATT is asked they will tell you which things to mix and match to get the best price.