Comments on: Broadband price war brews

The nation's two largest phone companies offer more aggressive promotional pricing on DSL service as they try to compete head-to-head with cable operators.

[john55440]

One reason that telcos are having slow subscriber growth is, is that they have poor coverage. I live in a highly populated suburb of Minneapolis that's a Qwest Broadband Dead Zone, with no high speed DSL and no fiber-optic broadband. If you want high speed internet service here, your only choices are Comcast, Comcast, or Comcast.

[tctangoman]

have you tried comcast?

[glorgau2]

It could be that subscriber growth is slow because they have conditioned customers to not expect service and to expect evasiveness and buck passing.

I for one have come to expect nothing but neglect and ignorance when dealing with either telecom or cable companies. Oh yeah, they like to change names every one or two years so one doesn't even know who owns what.

[gsmiller88]

That's the thing:

Contract

The same thing that is keeping me from getting satellite TV is keeping me from getting DSL, I do not want to sign a contract. I didn't have to with my cable company, why should any other broadband service be any different?

[expatincebu]

The contracts are unenforceable. I have broken my wireless contracts many times in the past. The call and threaten and bluster but there is nothing they can do. File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or your department of commerce or communication and the company will soon be calling you apologizing and informing you that they have decided in the goodness of their hearts to drop all charges.

[AppleSuxLeo]

ATT has no-contract naked DSL , at twice Verizon`s speed for $28/mo. Because of the population density ruling years ago , in So Cal Verizon always charges more...for less speed.

[B-S]

Where did they get the data stating that 60 percent of Americans have high speed internet? That is the biggest load of lies.

I don't feel sorry for the big phone companies loosing out to the cable companies. ATT was supposed to have moved high speed and fiber optics into most of east Texas back in 2000, here 8 years later and not anywhere to be found although they are the only phone company. We are locked in and what do they care about providing upgrades to the areas that they have the monopoly.

They have no issue spending the money that they make now without reinvesting into this area. Cable companies do not reach out to the more rural areas on the outskirts of towns. They may sign up new customers just by winning the contracts of the new city that they moved into.

With the monopoly's that we are dealing with when if your lucky enough to have them its not who is the best priced its who is allowed to do business in your city or town. So your stuck with them good or bad.
And we know our government leaders are above board on these contracts.

Now rural American's pay the highest prices for dish's, either TV or Internet. I would love to pay "Verizon's DSL service typically costs between $19.99 per month for 768Kbps downloads and $42.99 a month for 7.1Mbps downloads. Add traditional telephone service, and subscribers can get high-speed DSL and phone service for as little as $45 a month versus $65 a month."

But no I have to pay $80.00 per month for Wildblue or Hughesnet. Both truly are a rip off. The best download speeds for WB is 1.0 mbps for that amount with a limit on monthly usage....let alone consistent outages due to weather at the uplink or here or maintenance . Why doesn't someone actually report the truth in how most suburban and rural Americans are paying the most for very little.

All because the big cable companies and phone companies are not investing into upgrading the infrastructures where we live.

[Lerianis]

Well, you have a point about the rural Americans and suburban Americans paying the most. Frankly, Comcast has been charging way too much for their service for YEARS now, and I am surprised that they haven't gotten into a bidding war with AT&T and Verizon where I live.

[BenFlavoredCandy]

For statistics on internet access, check out the US Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract:
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/information_communications/internet_information_industries_and_internet_usage.html

You may be surprised by some of the numbers.

[Bobalkin]

We have exactly the same situation in central Pa. Verizon has been saying they will provide DSL to my area for 8 years now and ...........nada. Where I live there is no cable and satelite is not feasible as I live in the woods. We are second class citizens in the global age. Also America lags far behind other 1st world countries in the numer of households served by high speed internet. Profits are more important that investing for the future to the cable and phone companies!

[rdwalton]

Competition is the key, I have Charter Communications as my provider and I was paying them $50 a month 1 Mbps for 3 years because we didn?t have any other broadband provider in our new neighborhood. I called them on several occasions to ask for a lower price and I told them that they were only charging that amount because they knew they were the only provider in our area. The rep. said that they charge the same amount everywhere, even where they compete with others, yeah right!

When we finally got another provider to come to our area, I called Charter back to cancel my service because I was going to make the switch to AT&T, they ?amazingly? offered me a $19.99 a month price and for 10 Mbps ? so I stayed because AT&T?s service is nowhere near that fast. It?s amazing what a little competition will do.

[strykernyc]

DSL from anyone is very very unreliable and super slow on the NYC area.
Cable modem is much much faster and 24/7 online. I had DSL for the price but I end up switching back to cable, dsl is just poor and slow heck even my treo from sprint is faster than dsl.
Verizon bring FIOS to nyc then we can talk. But by the time fios is available in my area I think I will be getting WiMax lol

[lippin75]

thank you bill gates/Microsoft i dumped the world of bs. now i own represent apple/mac!!!!!!!!!!!! roylippin or sir_roy

[jdzions]

Um, and this is relevant to the conversation... how? Remember we're talking about Internet service, right? Has nothing to do with what computer you have, what operating system you have...

Oh, right. Everything bad is Microsoft's fault, right? Sheesh. Sheerest idiocy.

[stephengnb]

Where's Qwest in all of this? Qwest actually has really good deals on 7 mbps.