Just when frustrated customers of America Online began scrambling last month for a new gateway to cyberspace, Spokanes Internet On-Ramp Inc., an otherwise likely beneficiary of AOLs woes, was putting a hold on accepting new customers.


Internet On-Ramp, one of Spokanes dozen or so Internet service providers (ISPs), couldnt get its telephone company to install enough phone lines to handle growing customer demand for Internet service. So rather than let its existing customers suffer through busy signals, as AOL did, the Spokane company threw up its hands and stopped taking new members.


Its struggle to get phone lines wasnt unique. At the U.S. Bank Building downtown, where several ISPs share a telecommunications-operations room, confusion and equipment failures manifested somewhere in the murky waters between two of Spokanes competing phone companiesUS West Communications Inc. and Nextlink Washingtonwere holding up ISP orders for some 200 new phone lines there. Worse yet, some calls on the lines the ISPs already had were being blocked or cut off, just as AOL refugees were signing up in hopes of getting better service.


January is our biggest month of the year, says an exasperated David Schmidt, president of Internet On-Ramp. This January, especially, we were expecting good business because of AOLs troubles. It was an ideal marketing time for us, and we couldnt do anything.


So it goes in the new era of telecommunications, where yesterdays telephone infrastructure is straining to meet societys now unquenchable thirst for communicating via computersand where getting phone service is no longer as simple as calling Ma Bell.


Most Spokane ISPswhich are intensely competitivelease their telephone lines from Nextlink, which in turn leases lines from its competitor, US West. Its a relatively new relationship that is still a bit rough around the edges.


Lack of communicationISP and phone-company executives say the recent phone-line problems are due partly to a lack of communication. When phone lines are ordered, the competing telephone companies must work together to fill the order. When technical difficulties arise in the process, that communication can break down, sometimes causing delays in installation and confusion over such seemingly simple questions as whether there are enough phone lines available in a specific building or part of town.


To be real honest, this is so new to the communications worldhaving a competitorthat US West and Nextlink are struggling to communicate with each other, says Marty Dickinson, marketing and communications director here for Nextlink.


In fact, say ISP owners, it wasnt until a group of them got together earlier this month with representatives of Nextlink and US West that real progress was made toward easing the phone-line problem.


Nextlink called the meeting, originally to deal with rules governing the U.S. Bank Building telecommunications equipment room that Nextlink makes available to several ISPs. Quickly, however, the meeting evolved into a venting of concerns by the ISPs over recent blocked and disconnected calls. Also, some of them needed additional phone lines, and there were questions about whether there were enough lines available to the building to accommodate the requests.


Concerned about the problems, Nextlink put on hold ISP orders for the nearly 200 new telephone lines.


Until we could get a handle on the problem, we didnt want to load the system up any further, Dickinson says.


Nextlink invited a US West official to join the meeting, since US West supplies to the building the phone lines that Nextlink leases to its ISP customers. Though that Feb. 7 meeting was thick with frustration, it was successful, say the ISP owners, in that all of the parties were together in one room, talking, and became motivated to research the problems and find solutions. The group met again Feb. 14, this time with engineers from both US West and Nextlink, as well as representatives of ISPs that dont use Nextlinks shared telecommunicatons room, and soon the two phone companies began fixing the problem.


By last week, the blocked and dropped calls, which apparently were caused by hardware and software problems in the urban switch US West operates inside the bank building, reportedly had been corrected, and as of this week, orders for new phone lines were being filled, says Nextlinks Dickinson.


The meetings were very informative, says Annette Miller, area manager here for US West. The issues all came to light when we all started talking about them. The light bulbs started coming on, and the research started getting done. Until we had sat down in this group, we didnt really understand the problems.


James Moody, president of Interlink Services Inc., one of the ISPs that uses the shared ISP room, says that though its been a frustrating few weeksduring which Interlink also had to temporarily stop adding new customershes generally happy with the response of US West and Nextlink. They did a very good job responding to the issue, says Moody, who is serving as an informal spokesman for the ISPs. At this point I have nothing but high praise for US West and Nextlink and their solutions to the problem.


He also points to new-found communication between the competing ISPs as an unexpected byproduct of the phone-line problems. In fact, the ISPs agreed at the meeting to form a local association that they hope will help them, among other things, solve future telecommunications problems.


For some ISPs, the current problems arent over.


Internet On-Ramp, whose offices and modem banks are located at 915 W. Second, continues to fight for more phone linesa battle it has waged since November. It was then, long before AOLs problems became national news, that the Spokane ISP ordered 20 new lines for anticipated future growth, says Schmidt.


He contends that in December, when US West began to fill the order, which had been made through Nextlink, Internet On-Ramp was told it could get only 17 of the 20 lines, because of a lack of line availability to the building it occupies. Of those 17 lines, three ended up dead, and three more couldnt be accessed due to an installation problem, which left the ISP with just 11 new lines.


By January, when On-Ramp got a predicted surge in new customers, it was unprepared for the increased demand, and its old customers began getting busy signals when they tried to log on to the Internet, he says. As of Jan. 21, On-Ramp stopped accepting new customers.


This problem was not from lack of planning on our part, says Schmidt. We ordered in advance. We have the modems standing by. All we need is lines.


By the end of January, US West had found three more lines for On-Ramp, and fixed the six bad ones, giving the ISP all 20 lines it had ordered in November, he says. But by then, On-Ramp needed more lines, and was told that it would be difficult for US West to get more lines to the building. Not knowing when or whether it could get more lines at its offices, it looked into setting up a branch operation in the common ISP room in the U.S. Bank Building, and ordered 30 lines there. That order was held up due to the problems the other ISPs already were experiencing there. On-Ramp also arranged to forward some calls to a startup ISP that didnt have many customers yet.


In a fourth strategy, On-Ramp decided to order a voice version of a so-called T1 line from US West into its West Second office. Such a line was available there, and could be broken down into 24 new telephone lines, though the cost per line would be more than twice what On-Ramp was used to paying, and additional, expensive gear would be needed.


Weve ordered lines everywhere we can, and well take the first ones that we can get and cancel the others, Schmidt said last week.


On-Ramp was to get its T1 line this week. It has ordered a second T1 that is expected to be installed in early March. Schmidt says the ISP will cancel its order for lines in the U.S. Bank building, since it will have an additional 48 lines with the two T1s. He says that although the cost per line is higher now, eventually, as faster modems are available, On-Ramp will be able to take advantage of the higher transmission speeds available on a T1, and perhaps recoup its investment.


For now, though, the companys moratorium on new customers is still in effect. Only after both of the T1s are installed, he says, will On-Ramp resume taking on new customers.


Its been very frustrating, he says. Theres a lack of communication. If they had told us in November that they didnt have the lines, and then started looking for more (lines), it would be easier to take. They should have started that effort then instead of waiting until right before the scheduled install date. They left us on hold, basically.


Bumps along the wayUS Wests Miller says she understands On-Ramps frustrations, and predicts that communication between the various phone companies will improve as US West gets used to working with competitors to provide phone service.


It will get better as we move into this new environment, she says. There are some bumps and bruises along the way.


Miller says that one of the results of the meetings US West had with Nextlink and the group of ISPs is the development of a method the phone companies can use to prepare for future ISP demand for phone lines. Before now, there was no way, other than to place an order, for ISPs to let the phone companies know what their growth expectations were. Now, Nextlink and US West will work with ISPs to forecast future phone-line needs, so engineering can be done to help ensure that the lines are available when needed, Dickinson and Miller say.


Thats very positive, says Miller. That will help us with our forecasting.


She says that the fast-growing demand on the existing telephone infrastructure is a constant challenge for US West. Planning has been done based on call histories, and those histories dont reflect the heavy concentrations of data communication taking place today.


That challenge has gotten US West in hot water in the Seattle area in recent weeks. There, high telecommunications traffic reportedly is overburdening US Wests phone system, causing blocked callsand heated exchanges between US West officials and the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission.


WUTC spokeswoman Marilyn Meehan says that ISPs across the state have experienced problems.


Weve made visits all around the state, and everywhere we go, weve had at least one ISP saying theyre having problems getting phone lines, she says.


The complaints have prompted the WUTC to call for a meeting to discuss telecommunications issues specific to ISPs, Meehan says. As of last week, that meeting hadnt been scheduled.


With Internet use speeding ahead, more potholes are expected on the information superhighway. In many respects, the Internet is still in its infancy. Spokanes first ISPs are only a few years old, and corporate use of the Internet here is still nominal, observers say.


Jeff Presley, president and co-founder of Computech, one of the first ISPs here, says that only about 5 percent of the potential users in the Spokane market are using the Internet, which means that the growth potential is huge.


Computech, says Presley, caters mostly to business customers, so it wasnt affected as much when disgruntled AOL customers began looking to local ISPs for Internet links. Still, he says, Computechs current order for new phone lines is held up, since the ISP also is located in the U.S. Bank Building, though not in the co-location room. He says its a problem hes confronted before.


We experienced all that two years ago, says Presley, adding that it can be frustrating to deal with US West at times.


Meanwhile, a new ISP called Washington Super Net Inc. also is setting up shop in the U.S. Bank Building, although not in Nextlinks room. Co-owner Jim Barker asserts that the new venture orderedand promptly received100 new phone lines directly from US West.


Asked how he secured such fast service, Barker says, Im very insistent. You have to push them.