Comments on: DSL strikes a chord with frugal shoppers
Middle-income households and price-sensitive Internet users have been signing up for DSL service.
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I killed my phone line and got Vonage and between the two -- cable modem and vonage I have much less cost, much better service.
I killed my phone line and got Vonage and between the two -- cable modem and vonage I have much less cost, much better service.
to the USA, but check out websites like The Register and
you can read stories about the rollout of offers like
£21 (about $40) a month for a combination of phone and
8 Mb/s broadband. Now compare this with the latest offer from
Comcast which came in the mail a few days ago, $33 per month
each ($66 total) for phone and for "up to 6Mbps" broadband.
And those rates only last 6 months, after which they go way up.
to the USA, but check out websites like The Register and
you can read stories about the rollout of offers like
£21 (about $40) a month for a combination of phone and
8 Mb/s broadband. Now compare this with the latest offer from
Comcast which came in the mail a few days ago, $33 per month
each ($66 total) for phone and for "up to 6Mbps" broadband.
And those rates only last 6 months, after which they go way up.
In any case as others have point out, its all moot. I've yet to met a consumer that could tell 1.5Mbs from 3 or 6Mbps when doing basic surfing, email and messaging use. Any perceived slowness is usually due to DNS delays and latency which can hit any network connection.
My experiences of people trying to get cable support is that basically its non-existant - don't even think of trying anything remotely business critical with it (like working from home or using VoIP even) because when it goes down you could be weeks without resolution. And, the average big telco DSL comes a close second. My best experiences have been with small local ISPs that resell DSL connectivity (I'll give a big plug to Sonic.net in California for their amazing job at doing this and pleasing customers) and specialize in supporting it like its a real network connection and not just some add-on package from a big media company like comcast or big telco like SBC/ATT.
Two things to remember when getting DSL or cable - buyer beware and you mostly get what you pay for.
If network connectivity is critical to you make sure you have backup solutions like good old fashioned dial up (don't laugh, you'll be surprised how good 56K dial up can be) or WWAN from your cellular phone (GPRS/Edge or HSPDA). With all three configured and working you should be good to go next time the cable goes out and there's a week or so wait to get the cable guy out...
Most consumers should opt for the cheapest 384K solution they can find because anything higher is a waste of money for simple surfing and email. Which broadband use studies show is what about 75% or broadband users do with their connections.
I must disagree with your assumption that local ISPs reselling DSL is a better option. Local ISPs suffer from lack of trained personnel to deal with anything technical above simple web surfing issues and the dreaded "I can't get my email!" complaint. Not to mention, most local ISPs don't have the upstream bandwidth to support several highspeed customers at once unless they opt for a DS-3 at around $2,000 a month. Most simply opt to tie multiple T-1s together and multiplexing has its own issues. And finally, paying a local provider to simply route my connection through their system and adding latency (make no mistake, rerouting DSL connections through third parties adds about 50ms of latency) is not an attractive option.
I used to be in the local ISP game from 1995 through 1999. I could see the writing on the wall and got out. The days of the local ISP are numbered. City-wide wireless is going to take over the consumer market and local ISPs will be relegated to the sidelines with the dialup holdouts.
In any case as others have point out, its all moot. I've yet to met a consumer that could tell 1.5Mbs from 3 or 6Mbps when doing basic surfing, email and messaging use. Any perceived slowness is usually due to DNS delays and latency which can hit any network connection.
My experiences of people trying to get cable support is that basically its non-existant - don't even think of trying anything remotely business critical with it (like working from home or using VoIP even) because when it goes down you could be weeks without resolution. And, the average big telco DSL comes a close second. My best experiences have been with small local ISPs that resell DSL connectivity (I'll give a big plug to Sonic.net in California for their amazing job at doing this and pleasing customers) and specialize in supporting it like its a real network connection and not just some add-on package from a big media company like comcast or big telco like SBC/ATT.
Two things to remember when getting DSL or cable - buyer beware and you mostly get what you pay for.
If network connectivity is critical to you make sure you have backup solutions like good old fashioned dial up (don't laugh, you'll be surprised how good 56K dial up can be) or WWAN from your cellular phone (GPRS/Edge or HSPDA). With all three configured and working you should be good to go next time the cable goes out and there's a week or so wait to get the cable guy out...
Most consumers should opt for the cheapest 384K solution they can find because anything higher is a waste of money for simple surfing and email. Which broadband use studies show is what about 75% or broadband users do with their connections.
I must disagree with your assumption that local ISPs reselling DSL is a better option. Local ISPs suffer from lack of trained personnel to deal with anything technical above simple web surfing issues and the dreaded "I can't get my email!" complaint. Not to mention, most local ISPs don't have the upstream bandwidth to support several highspeed customers at once unless they opt for a DS-3 at around $2,000 a month. Most simply opt to tie multiple T-1s together and multiplexing has its own issues. And finally, paying a local provider to simply route my connection through their system and adding latency (make no mistake, rerouting DSL connections through third parties adds about 50ms of latency) is not an attractive option.
I used to be in the local ISP game from 1995 through 1999. I could see the writing on the wall and got out. The days of the local ISP are numbered. City-wide wireless is going to take over the consumer market and local ISPs will be relegated to the sidelines with the dialup holdouts.
we need almost t1 level uploads and these jokers won't provide it
we need almost t1 level uploads and these jokers won't provide it
Price pressure alone won't win that war
All the bandwidth in the world means nothing when your surfing is impacted by your neighbor's porn appettite.
Price pressure alone won't win that war
All the bandwidth in the world means nothing when your surfing is impacted by your neighbor's porn appettite.
I soon discovered that what we were getting was a slow broadband speed of 256 kbits/sec and does not even reach that speed anyway and is not fast enough to play CNET videos!. Bigpond does not offer anything over 1.5 mbits/sec and charges very expensive prices like our plan is ADSL Unlimited which costs $59.95 AU half price for the first 9 months and 129.95 for 1.5 mbit/sec.
They were very pushy to put us up to those speeds but we couldn't afford it. Were are also on a 24 month contract so if we were to backout there proably would have been conseqence. Other ISP's offer higher speeds than T1. There were talks of speeds up to 8 mbit/sec but I dont see anything happening yet at Bigpond. At least in the US you can probably get a good deal for a low price, thats why I hate my ISP!.
Fact: 70 % of Australians that have internet access are still on dial up!
I soon discovered that what we were getting was a slow broadband speed of 256 kbits/sec and does not even reach that speed anyway and is not fast enough to play CNET videos!. Bigpond does not offer anything over 1.5 mbits/sec and charges very expensive prices like our plan is ADSL Unlimited which costs $59.95 AU half price for the first 9 months and 129.95 for 1.5 mbit/sec.
They were very pushy to put us up to those speeds but we couldn't afford it. Were are also on a 24 month contract so if we were to backout there proably would have been conseqence. Other ISP's offer higher speeds than T1. There were talks of speeds up to 8 mbit/sec but I dont see anything happening yet at Bigpond. At least in the US you can probably get a good deal for a low price, thats why I hate my ISP!.
Fact: 70 % of Australians that have internet access are still on dial up!
(Also, 2Mb uploads, which is a Godsend for we lowly developers!)Of course, it's in very limited release right now, but those that have it say it's worthy of the hype.
(Also, 2Mb uploads, which is a Godsend for we lowly developers!)Of course, it's in very limited release right now, but those that have it say it's worthy of the hype.
I called Verizon today and found out that they have absolutely NO bandwidth limitations for any of their services. I'm switching to the 15mbps/2mbps connection ASAP! :)
CNET.com, you should confront Comcast for us, though I've read an articel from 2003 that you did about their threats.
I called Verizon today and found out that they have absolutely NO bandwidth limitations for any of their services. I'm switching to the 15mbps/2mbps connection ASAP! :)
CNET.com, you should confront Comcast for us, though I've read an articel from 2003 that you did about their threats.
- Don't want a home phone...
- by coconinoite June 18, 2006 10:38 PM PDT
- I don't want a home phone. In my area, if you want DSL, you gotta get a home phone, too. However, with a kid to raise, I need cable (many will disagree with me, but too bad-walk in my shoes first) and so the cable modem is in. It greatly sucks, though, that there is no cable competition except once every five years or so, when the local community gets around to renewing the contract. That means incredibly stiff rates for something that I'm sure they make a whopping profit on. And no chance for us peons to fight ffor lower fees...
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