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Many Internet Users Happy With Dial-Up
Posted by
simoniker
on Mon Apr 19, 2004 05:19 PM
from the keeping-it-screeeech dept.
from the keeping-it-screeeech dept.
prostoalex writes "With cable and DSL operators constantly pushing the values of broadband, and with the President of the United States himself announcing broadband access a priority, the New York Times reports (free reg. req.) that some people actually are perfectly satisfied with their 56K connection. In February 2003 Pew Internet conducted a survey, where they found out 60% of dial-up users weren't interested in switching, a year later in 2004 the percentage was roughly the same."
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well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Funny)
My ISP connection sucks (Score:5, Insightful)
I went through the @home/ATT/Comcast shake-ups, but I ALWAYS loved my broadband. Even with Comcast I didn't have much downtime and the speeds were just great. I loved it.
But now, me and my family had to move to St. Joseph, Michigan and the only high-speed (where I am) is this fly-by-night ISP called "Green County Cable". I mean, they SUCK. They are down quite a bit, and their speeds are 400 kilo bits sec...down from the great 3Mega bits sec I was getting when I was last on Comcast (they upgraded from 1.5 to 3).
Add to the fact that I'm paying the exact same price I was paying for Comcast...and it SUCKS. But even after all that, no way would I ever ever ever go back to plain dial-up. It's just way too slow.
I have a feeling that if all those people that are satisfied with dial-up were given a taste of broadband, they'd never go back. I know from experience my mother-in-law. She's been on AOL for years, and had no intention of ever switching. But Comcast came through her neighborhood and offered to hook her up for free for 30 days...and she's never gone back to dial up.
It's like the drug pushers...the first hit is always free.
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:4, Insightful)
In addition, I'm not even at 56k. I'm connecting on a used 28.8 modem because my computer came with one of those stupid winmodems and I had to switch with my parents.
It's really not a bad gig. I have SDSL at work, so I can download anything I want overnight at work, and burn CDs to bring it home. I'm not missing anything.
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Funny)
I don't want to spend $50 a month just so hackers can set my computer on fire, impregnate my wife, and steal my inner child.
That and,
I don't know what I would need the extra speed for, all I use is AIM and email.
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:well. the logic is simple. (Score:5, Insightful)
For argument's sake lets assume that the other 40% switched to Broadband after they were surveyed in 2003. Now if 60% of the remaining people have no interest in switching a year later then we have an increase in broadband interest.
Parent
Real Response (Score:4, Funny)
Q: Are you interested in switching to broadband?
A: Well, I haven't really considered it before. I mean, the costs are high, but it seems to be the rage these days, so I'd really be in-NO CARRIER
Parent
Re:$30 a month for what? fast web pages? come on ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
In other news.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)
Most people eat hamburger not fillet mignon.
Most people buy at WalMart not Maceys.
Most people....
Parent
Re:In other news.. (Score:5, Funny)
Most people spell it Wal-Mart, not Walmart.
Most people spell it Macy*s, not Maceys.
No malice intended
Parent
You missed (Score:5, Funny)
You could have had every line in the parent post but you blew it.
Parent
Re:In other news.. (Score:5, Insightful)
While the "premium channel" analogy has validity, I'd say that broadband is more like a microwave oven in the late 70s.
Many people (my grandmother, for example) said that they didn't see the need for a microwave. The stove and oven were more than sufficient for their needs.
Until they actually got one.
My grandmother was a holdout until 1992, when she finally bought one. A week later, she mentioned to me that she couldn't believe she'd waited that long, and that it had changed the way she cooked (and she was always a really good cook).
However, unlike a conventional oven (which is still better than a microwave for certain things like turkeys, bread, and pizza), there's not really anything a 56k connection does better than a broadband connection. Dial-up's only real advantage is that it requires no additional equipment or infrastructure, but that won't last long as the equipment becomes more common.
Another example would be the cell phone or a TiVo... something that doesn't seem all that necessary until you actually use it, then you can't stand dealing with the old way. I'm not chained to my desk anymore because I can always forward my phone to my cell. I can't stand watching "live" tv now, because TiVo has unshackled me from the temporal fetters of the network programming droids.
And I shudder inside when I have to stay in a hotel that doesn't have a broadband connection in the room... even text-email seems to take forever to download. I don't bother with web sites much when on dial-up.
Spoiled? Yeah... but then I don't see many folks using rotary phones these days, either.
Parent
silly people (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd be very interested to see how many of these people have ever experienced broadband, and if their attitudes would change if they had.
I realize that broadband can be overkill for many people, but even casual web-surfing can be painfully slow on dial-up.
Oh well, more bandwidth for me
Re:silly people (Score:5, Insightful)
At work: T3, DVD-Burner, USB Flash drive.
At home: USB port, DVD-reader. 56k modem for emergencies.
Total mantenance cost: around $4 a month on top of my phone bill.
Parent
Re:silly people (Score:5, Informative)
I'm one of them.
We have 100Mb throughout the work organization, with a link to Internet2. I've got a DSL connection to a remote system for work. Yes, I think I've experienced broadband.
I almost never surf at home. When I do, I sometimes think "I ought to get broadband", but when it comes down to doing it, it's not a high priority. Because it is slow, I never enable images or scripts, which means I never get popups or annoying ads.
I does email and sends a bit of data out to be posted on a website. Most of that is automatic. I have more media (music, radio, and TV) than I can watch and listen to already, I don't need to download more. I gets distros on DVD or CD, either from work or in Linux Format.
Why do I need broadband at home?
As an aside, I actually did "get" broadband, for a day. I experienced the Qwest "Spirit of service Inaction". The qwest sales team lied to me and told me that static IP was included in the price they had quoted me. When it came time to deliver, they wanted $15/month more. That was after they installed the service on the wrong line, and then said it would take another week to get it right. They lied to the state public service commission when I complained, so I never got any action taken against them for the fraud they committed.
So, why do I need broadband?
Parent
Re:silly people (Score:5, Insightful)
If, on the other hand, I was like my friends who only check their email every couple of days, there'd be no value to going to DSL... I can wait an extra 3 minutes for all of that spam.
As a general rule, I'd say that if you don't go online enough to make getting a second line worthwhile, there's a low probability that you could reasonably justify a broadband connection (and vice-versa). People who are wealthy enough that they wouldn't even pause to think about the $20/month but want their spam and porn right now the 3 days a week that they are online are an exception.
Some people can find better things to do with the extra money (like paying for theatre tickets).
Parent
Re:silly people (Score:5, Insightful)
Kind of like how many people remain virgins until they're married, but once you KNOW about sex, you're far less likely to intentionally be celibate for many years.
LK
Parent
Re:silly people (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:silly people. It depends on priorities, silly (Score:5, Informative)
We've got dialup at $12 on top of our standard phone bill.
DSL is cheaper than cable modem and the cheapest I could find DSL is $40/month.
Thats a savings of $28/month ($336/ year)
Sure, that's not a ton of money saved, but we also don't have cable tv or eat out much and have only one car. It all adds up, especially when you are working to be debt free.
Parent
always connected... (Score:5, Insightful)
The people I know who are staying with phone lines do so because they like getting all of their internet chores done is a single short session.
I think the overall download speed really is a secondary issue to how you organize your online time.
Parent
I understand... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Definitely the case of 'once you've tried it, you'll never go back...'
Re:Maybe... (Score:5, Interesting)
Give all those people 1 or 2 months of free trial broadband, and then force them back to dial-up and I garauntee that those percentage's will change pretty fast.
Parent
Re:Maybe... (Score:5, Insightful)
My logic is pretty simple:
1) I have high-speed at work for anything serious.
2) When at home, I really don't want to spend time on the Internet. I get to read, garden a little, talk to my wife, generally behave like a non-geek.
3) When I had high-speed internet, I would always be on. It's addicting.
So I discontinued my cable-modem. I can honestly say that I much more enjoy saving the $40 than the experience of high-speed internet (but maybe just because I get that at work.) Still, it's remarkable how much you can do on the Internet over a dialup. Google, for instance, is fast even on a dialup (as is the Google cache.)
Parent
Re:Maybe... (Score:5, Funny)
You wanker. Get a life ...
Parent
but why.. (Score:4, Insightful)
So why would a user switch to broadband for just checking emails and browsing some websites if this can be done reasonably well using dial-up?
Parent
Do they know any better? (Score:4, Insightful)
"Same percentage" != "Same number" (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Do they know any better? (Score:5, Interesting)
I find that far more liberating and useful than being tethered to a desk in a corner near the phone jack, and having to tie up the phone line while I'm online.
I don't know what call costs are in the US, but in Australia, you're generally paying 20c a call to dial-up. If you dial up 2-3 times a day (norm in my house pre-broadband), you've got your $25/month dial-up account + $18/month in calls. Suddenly your slow-poke connection that controls the phone line too is $43/month and not looking so fantastic against the $59/month ADSL connection with 12GB of data allowance.
I'm more than aware that families are being hit with costs like never before (monthly bills for gas, water, electricity, mobile phones (my household has at least 4), internet access, pay TV, and so on, but I'd choose broadband over pay TV, and definitely over dial-up. Imagine never hearing a modem handshake again. Bliss!
Parent
Re:Do they know any better? (Score:5, Informative)
One of the peculiarities of US phone service left over from the old AT&T monopoly is that all but the cheapest of residential plans allow free unlimited local calling. You can get straight metered service to save a few bucks if you never make any outgoing calls, but usually only the forgotten elderly do that. Back in the old Ma Bell days, local service was pretty well subsidized by expensive long distance rates. Perhaps it was to encourage residential phones so businesses would have someone to telemarket to...
Parent
Duh! (Score:5, Interesting)
I can relate to that (Score:5, Interesting)
Seriously though, the most I do is check mail, a few forums, and some web publishing. All low bandwidth stuff. So, I agree with the story. Broadband is nice but not necessary.
SAVAGES! (Score:5, Funny)
Do the math (Score:5, Interesting)
In other news: dog bites man.
E-mail's more popular than anything else... (Score:5, Insightful)
- Faster speed is not much of a benefit to them. They don't download images very often, and they're fine with walking away from their computer for however long it takes while those downloads happen.
- They don't particularly care about their phone callers getting busy signals, they don't get that many really important phone calls anyway.
- To them, changing e-mail addresses would be a nightmare. Some are even clinging onto address that they've had since 1994. The ISP may have gone defunct, but the old domain name is still being supported by the ISP that aquired them. Look at all the legacy domains Earthlink is still supporting. [earthlink.net]
- And, we're also talking about people who hate monthly bills. For retired people, they plan their budgets very carefully and even a $10/month difference bothers them.
Bottom line... not everybody wants an always-on Internet connection. Sure, everybody reading Slashdot who doesn't have one wants one... but there are a lot of people in the USA who wouldn't even know what Slashdot is.
Dial-uppers don't know what they're missin' (Score:4, Funny)
Text only pages, or ones with minimal images, are even much faster on broadband. They are still somewhat bearable with Dial Up, but anything with a decent image takes forever. Not to mention streaming legal videos, playing legal games, and downloading pr0....gressively more material.
Finite and ever-dwindling... (Score:5, Insightful)
So instead of saying "60 percent of modem users are happy", you could just as easily say "modem market shrinking by 20 percent per year". Most analysts would call that a dying industry.
Lies, damn lies, and statistics. It's all how you spin it. (i.e. no story here, move along.)
Kind of like slow soda drinkers (Score:5, Funny)
It's quite strange... (Score:5, Funny)
I also seem to notice that the friends without broadband seem to accomplish more and lead happier lives. Their lawns are not 8" tall all the time, the cars are always clean and they seem to keep a more tidy abode. Coincidence? Hmm...
Now where did I put that Slack ISO? Ahh, I'll just download it again. While I'm doing that, I might as well go check out Slashdot [slashdot.org] or Fark. [fark.com] My grass can wait 'til another day. Like I care what the neighbors think...
Thank God for broadband.
Percentage, schmercentages (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd be interested in seeing the raw numbers on this. In particular, I'd like to know the differential number on the "didn't cares" to see how many of those switched to broadband.
E-mail portability? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now, it'd be relatively simple to do this, just require that ISPs offer forwarding service for up to a year after a customer cancels, and the new ISP can kick back an e-mail telling anybody who's e-mails that the user has moved to them.
Of course, no ISP is going to offer this without the government ordering them to... but couldn't the FTC or FCC step in on this one?
More than Just the Speed (Score:4, Interesting)
And, the price difference is more than you might expect. Not everyone out there uses $24/month AOL. $9.95 dial-up is available from mom-and-pop ISPs all over the country, and some of these are even beginning to offer compressing proxies (ala AOL's "Optimized") to improve web browsing over 56k links.
As for the AOL users, they are accustomed to the special features of AOL, and yes, their aol.com e-mail address. AOL Broadband is $15 a month, on top of your connectivity bill.
And above that, there's just the percieved "hassle" of switching. They're relatively happy with what they have, and don't want to deal with getting a new service, cancelling the old one, telling their friends their new e-mail addresses, etc. etc. etc.
I wonder if number portability requirements will ever extend to e-mail addresses
It's really a lifestyle thing (Score:4, Interesting)
I actually observed the exact same change with my parents: They used to keep the computer off, as there was no reason to keep it on. If they needed something online (like checking their e-mail or looking at a couple of webpages), they'd turn on the PC, wait for it to boot up, fire up the dialup, wait for the connection, download e-mail/check stuff on web, and disconnect as quickly as possible since a) people could be calling on the phone; and b) phone calls were metered by the minute over where they live (Spain). For them, using the computer was a big barrier: You had to go through a long, involved series of steps before even being able to do what you wanted. Looking up someone's information was easier using 411 (over there, 003) than using the PC for it.
Once I convinced them to do the DSL thing, the lifestyle changed completely - the computer remained on constantly, all you had to do to go online and check something was sit in front of it and type - it was always on . I know that's the point of it, but it's a huge mentality change. Seeing the transformation firsthand was amazing.
The curious thing, I find, is the number of people in the article and in the forums here that have experienced broadband, and do so on a daily basis, yet still manage to resist it. Self discipline, cost, just-don't-need-it come up as (to me, surprising) reasons why they say no to broadband.
To me, broadband vs. dialup is like cable/satellite vs. over-the-air reception, faxes vs. mail (back in the 80s), air travel vs. jumping on a boat to come to the US. It's just stuff that once you cross a certain frontier, a certain line, you can't just uncross it, you can't go back. The always-on availability of information, entertainment, and yes, even pr0n
Amazing stuff.
-Jack Ash
The phone companies can blame themselves.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Phone companies, Bell South is by the worse, don't want to offer lower priced products. Not only do they want out taxes to pay to build their lines they want to charge us insane rates to use them. Everything about the phone company is extortion. Example, if I want Caller ID I have to pay about 8 dollars extra! Now, I can get caller id as part of a package of services for only 12.95 (or thereabouts).
What about their $30 a month DSL? Sure, 256 down! and only IF I subscribe to their expensive packages on my phone, like that $12.95 I mentioned earlier.
I truly believe the only reason the Cable companies can keep such high rates is because the phone companies do it.
I have given serious consideration to backing down to dial-up through a low cost provider. 30-40 dollars a month savings doesn't sound like much until you work it out across the year, then its 360 to 480. Thats many good dinners out with someone, some good computer hardware, or one motorcylce payment for me!
"Surfing" is just one application of broadband (Score:4, Informative)
By that, I mean VOIP.
Voice Over Internet Protocol is the next "big thing" when it comes to broadband.
My cable modem + Vonage VOIP service is cheap. No dial-up ISP and no copper phone line means i'm actually SAVING money each month.
It's only a matter of time (and bandwidth) until everything comes over your IP connection - TV, voice, and data.
-ted
60% (Score:4, Insightful)
2003:
10,000 people surveyed (note: I'm making up numbers to make a point)
4,000 currently on dialup
2,400 don't care to switch to broadband
2004:
10,000 people surveyed
1,000 currently on dialup
600 don't care to switch
"Last year, 60%, this year 60%" doesn't mean much without know whether a lot of the people who didn't care to switch a year ago have already switched.