AT&T Quietly Introduces $10/Month DSL

prostoalex writes "As part of the deal with the FCC to approve the AT&T/BellSouth merger, AT&T started selling, but not advertising, a $10-per-month DSL service in 22 states, AP has learned. 'The service provides download speeds of up to 768 kilobits per second and upload speeds of up to 128 kbps, matching the speeds of the cheapest advertised AT&T plan, which costs $19.95 per month in the nine-state former BellSouth area and $14.99 in the 13 states covered by AT&T before the acquisition.'"

And what's to stop them from...

...oversubscribing on a small amount of bandwidth and end up clipping real-world performance down to ISDN or dial-up levels on a regular basis?

Re:And what's to stop them from...

But at $10/month, if you can get even 128k, then that's a win. Since nowadays, dialup service is $9.95/mo. plus with not having to wait for the connection to establish, etc.

If it were free it would still be overpriced

Dealing with AT&T is just not worth it for cheap Internet Service. Even if it were free, I don't think I'd go for it. Besides, if it goes anything like my experience getting phone service from them, that $10 will really be $25 a month with all the extra fees and surcharges they are sure to add on.

Re:If it were free it would still be overpriced

I've been with AT&T DSL for about a month. There were lots of problems getting it installed (turns out the problem was that none of the four telephone lines to my apartment were physically hooked up, but only the last tech bothered to go into the building's phone closet to check). But now that it's on, it works well.

I have a plethora of high-speed internet choices where I live. I went with AT&T because it offered twice the speed of Speakeasy and the other resellers at half the cost AND NO CONTRACT. That was the big problem I had with most of the resellers.

Another option would have been Comcast, but the Comcast lady told me that cable internet doesn't work with Macs (which I know is a lie because I've had Roadrunner in the past). She said if I can't install Comcast's software on Windows XP I can't have internet.

In the end, I'm paying around $25/month for three megabits from AT&T that work fine so far. Comcast would have been six megabits, but for $75/month.

I have a lot of reasons to hate the beast that is Southwestern Bell/SBC/AT&T/Ameritech/MegaGiantConHugeCo [houstonarchitecture.info], but this time around I'm moderately pleased.

Re:If it were free it would still be overpriced

Funny. My AT&T heartache story has to do with moving, too.

I moved from the third floor to the fourth floor of a builiding. AT&T wouldn't move my phone service insisting that there is no fourth floor in my building. AT&T claimed it was only a two-story building, which doesn't explain how it was able to hook up phone my original service on the third floor. AT&T refused to send someone out to verify the building had four stories. One hypothesis they proffered was that it was a new building. Nope. The building is older than AT&T.

I ended up getting Roadrunner and Vonage since AT&T for some reason didn't want my money.

Re:If it were free it would still be overpriced

I hate dealing with both the phone companies and the cable companies. I only have two options where I live: ATT or Timewarner. I think both companies are equally incompetent and the services are crap. For example ATT phone bills don't make much sense and have lots of additional charges. If there is a technical problem, they will charge you an arm and a leg. Meanwhile, Timewarner prices are too high and they will only offer lower rates as long as you purchase more services from them. Even then, the service you do get may have problems or have setup fees and miscellaneous tech charges associated with having some idiot tech come to your house just to flip a switch. (Side note: we all know that he's not really just flipping a switch, but rather intentionally making it so that only the cables connected to the TVs you asked are functional while the other cables are not!)

And because both companies know they're so close to having a monopoly over the services, they do not put any effort into making the service better. Instead they offer less service at cheaper prices and increase the top end service (which was really yesterday's normal service), call it "Pro" and charge an arm and leg for it. At the end of the day, no matter who's charging you, you're still paying a premium for poor service.

It's the new business strategy of America: don't hire engineers or researchers to improve your technology to have a superior product or service, instead just hire more marketers and business people to come up with new ways to sell the same crappy product.

That price is basically a lie.

From TFA:

Local phone service and a one-year contract are required.

$10/mo my ass. You have to sign up for a POTS line with them, and I'm willing to bet that's going to be at least another $10, not counting all the taxes, fees, and bullshit they attach on to that. ("Cost recovery fee" my ass. Do they still have that one?) And if you already have AT&T for your POTS line, then you're screwed! You're not eligible for the price anyway.

So let's review. It forces people who don't have a line with AT&T, and presumably don't want one, to get one -- upping the price. And people who already have service with them, can't get it.

Nice work, FCC, nice work. This is a 'concession'? What did you have to give them? (Besides your bank account numbers, to deposit the cash.)

Re:That price is basically a lie.

If you re-read the TFA, it also said:

who have never had AT&T or BellSouth broadband

Au Contraire

I just ordered it for someone today that already had POTS.
Got the 1.5Mbps package for $20/month. Did it online,
which probably helps.

The catch is that you also have to purchase a DSL modem ($50)
or a combo DSL Modem/Router ($80), plus another $27 for S&H.

And you'll definitely want to skip the $200 technician option
to install it for you.

Re:Au Contraire

$27 for shipping? Are they out of their fucking minds? For $27, I expect it to be hand delivered to me same-day by a hot female courier, with a big ol' sloppy blowjob thrown in to boot.

Re:Au Contraire

That's the "handling" part.

Re:That price is basically a lie.

It's $10 a month, with an additional feature of sending all your packets directly to the NSA at no extra charge!

Oh yeah, you can't opt out of that feature. It's a bundle.

Advertising

The article mentioned that it was difficult to locate information about the service. Does anyone know if the FCC has the power to not only force them to offer the plan, but also to make it (reasonably) accessible? I'm not talking about posting it on every billboard, but hey, it looks like they're banking on people not knowing about this service.

Worthless

To get ATT DSL, you need to sign up for a 1 or 2 year contract, pay an installation fee, and buy their landline service.

Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point, these terms basically mean their $10 DSL costs $35 (=$10 for DSL + $25 for worthless phone service) PLUS the amortized cost of installation and the effective cost of an illiquid 1-2 year contract.

Note: Last time I priced DSL, these were the requirements. They may have changed, and if so, feel free to correct me. Until T unbundles their services, though, I'm sticking to cable.

Re:Worthless

Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point, ...

Except that many people (more every week) live in areas where the only ISP is the phone company, and they block user-level VoIP (while using it internally themselves).

In such a situation, all the clues in the world won't get you what you want.

It's the old "If you don't like it, you can move."

Re:Worthless

"Because anybody with a clue is using VoIP by this point..."

Kind of arrogant aren't you? (oh, yeah, this is /. ;-)

Hate to tell you, but lots of people who have clues don't use VoIP and don't really want to, myself included. DSL for a regular phone line + net access works great, phones are cheap, and I have a working phone when the power goes out. (if you're close enough to the phone company office as I am anyway).

So why do you think VoIP is so freakin' mandatory for the clue-full?

Random thought.

I've had Comcast cable internet and it's like $60-70 a month around here. It was alright, but my big beef was the upload was only 40kB/s. How hard would it be to get like six of these lines and rig them up so that I have almost 100kB/s upload bandwidth for the same price?

And then the real question, if they can offer me that service for that price, why the fuck won't anybody just sell me a cable or DSL line with more upload bandwidth? I would be willing to pay more.

They better ask M$oft

They got more money.

Which states?

A quantity of states is provided in numeric form, but how about a list?

Re:Which states?

Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, California, Nevada, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee

Link

Its there for anyone signing up, as its on their page [bellsouth.com].

I'm still stuck on crappy dialup or one way services. :(.

But will they filter the connection?

I don't care what it costs. If they restrict my ability to get to things on the internet, their service is worthless.

-ted

For voip??

FTFA:

However, at 768 kbps, the download speed may be too low to appeal to the relatively sophisticated customers who use the Internet for phone calls

I would be more concerned about the 128k upload than 768 down. I mean, you do want to be able to talk to the other party right? That being said, even 128k is enough for 2 POTs lines using standard compression (64k/DS0), though the VoIP packet overhead would probably force a higher compression to actually use 2 lines at the same time. It sounds nice and all, until you compare price/kbs against other countries and remind yourself again, that the US is still falling off the backend of the broadbandwagon. Its cheap, and ideal for people like my parents, who would only be downloading emails and the occasional video or picture page forwarded by me or other family members. The upstream is a bit weak compared to other offerings, but I wouldnt get this service if I were serious about gaming anyways (yes, you can play WoW over it, even over 56k modem, just not very well and if it gets into a complex scene, forget about it).

Tm

G711

FYI, there are two VoIP codecs which are common: G711 is relatively uncompressed, and when Ethernet overheads are included, comes out to about 80K per stream (yes, much more than POTS). G729a is highly compressed, and runs about 8K. There is a significant MOS score difference between the two codecs, and many IP Telephony add-ons (lots of voice mail, for instance) requires G711.

-David

Southern California.

Does anybody know if this will be eligible in Southern California?

Does anybody know if this means I can finally download and upload torrents of UbuntuStudio and other FOSS without being throttled down to dial up and repeatedly disconnected?

For the record, those of you who live near San Diego and have Cox communications probably know what I'm talking about.

What about?

At&t also quietly forgets to mention that all of your traffic is being spied on and sold privately. Enjoy!

not so quiet, bellsouth/att advertises it

http://www.bellsouth.com/consumer/inetsrvcs/inetsr vcs_agreement_plans_pop.html [bellsouth.com] right there on their website, thanks consumerist!

wow

It's as fast as my 3g phone.

$10 a month?

Cool. If they're willing to pay me $10 a month to go to the Dark Side, sign me up.0.00

Not a bad option

If your using dialup currently and its doing the trick, this isnt a bad option. it mght be a few bucks cheaper and a lot better.

Sure, if you want to do gaming, or 'warez' it migt hurt, but how many average people really need more bandwidth then this? If its still around, I might even consider it when i drop my real broadband after the big squeeze starts across the industry and i cant use my line for what i want anyway. Why pay extra just to be throttled and filtered?

Cost in Chicago

I've had Ameritech or SBC or ATT DSL for over seven years now. Here's what it costs for May 2007: Telephone (excluding calls & Call-Waiting): $16.08, DSL Basic:$14.99. Tonight's line test: 1313kps download / 313kps upload. Other than the fact that the DSL charge will go up to $19.99 upon renewal, it's done nothing but get less expensive. My only grip is that on the rare occasion when I have to call customer service, I have to deal with some off-shore help center. I always demand level two support immediately.

I've been wondering

You can get 100/10mbit/s here (in Finland) for about $40/m.

100+10 = 110 - Total bandwidth.
0.128 + 0.768 = 0.896 - Total bandwidth.
110mbit/$40 = 2.75mbit/$ - How much penis a buck buys you.
0.896/$10 = 0.0896mbit/$ - How much penis a buck buys you.
2.75-0.0896 = 2.6604 - Calculating the difference.
2.6604/2.75 = 96.7418182% - The difference (per cent).

The ultimate conclusion: Newsworthy DSL deals in the US tend to suck nearly twice as much as the better deals in some random country (Sweden has even BETTER deals).

I didn't even consider all the silly bandwidth limitations or the actual price ($35) as some users pointed out, which would make it suck thrice as much. I'd expect more of a country that created this wonderful thing called Internet. What's the reason behind this? Sorry if this post offended anyone ): 3.

Up to?

Ever notice how high speed internet connections are always sold as "up to" so-and-so speed? That doesn't mean anything to me - I want to know the lowest it can go and the typical up/down speeds. I'm just glad my salary isn't an "up to".

perfect!

This is really perfect for my needs. I already use my neighbors' wireless and high-speed cable connection for things like bittorrent anyway. I just need something that's always on that I can configure for port forwarding so I can ssh in to my desktop when I need to.

AT&T's cherry picking service model

My home and residential neighborhood were built in 1973. A state highway with the highest traffic flow in Illinois (Il-159) passes just 200 yards from my home. The Metro East area across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, MO has a population of well over 200,000 yet since 1992 I've been unable to order anything but POTS from Illinois Bell, Ameritech, SBC, and now AT&T. "Not currently available" is the perennial status. The cold hard truth is that AT&T refuses to upgrade its physical plant from the classic copper-based exchange-centric service model. Oh, for years they've made widely-publicized promises of universal broadband service to the Illinois legislature, then refused to install the fiber-connected satellite equipment needed to expand DSL coverage beyond the 16,000-odd cable feet radius limits around their existing dial central offices (exchanges). A pin map shows that AT&T offers DSL service ONLY within those areas served by their existing copper cable plants, and they don't give a damn about investing in the infrastructure needed for universal service. They just keep milking that ol' copper cable plant for all it's worth.

they forgot to mention....

that this service is going to be the one of the new monitored systems to help stop movie and music pirating. You like AT&T filtering your traffic at the request of hollywood? F*CK THAT!

IMHO AT&T became a 'no touch' in my book when they announced they'd be helping hollywood. Yea, good job AT&T, make the net less effective and while your at it, monitor everything your customers are doing so Bush can whip out his jedi mind tricks and pull another WMD senario.

A ssholes
T yranny
&
T otal domaination

comes with free monitoring software!

Don't miss out on this great offer [eff.org]! act now and save!

I have

I have ATT (one other choice in the area is accounts managed by Comcast so internet alone would run $80 a month). The trick is to get the lowest possible phone line you only get a few calls a month with it which is fine (you can use vonage, grandcentral or other such services). They of course will jerk you around and try to sell you more phone service than you need. I got signed up with no problems but the installation tech didn't show up during his 4 hour window. So I called told them I was going back to work and he couldn't show up until after 4 and he needed to call before he came. He didn't call when he showed up but he did call to ask why I wasn't there for my appointment. I told him to call his office they had a message for him. I eventually got the installation fee waved after a few trips between billing, customer service and a large conference call with people from 3 different departments. Back when I signed up they were offering a cash card to offset the installation fee (so yes I got free installation and the card) when I signed up I was told I would get a $100 card. When I got the form for the card it was only for $50 I called and complained. They said they would credit my account for $50 (I made the CS worker stay on the line while I checked my online bill). I filled the card form out mailed it in and eventually received a $100 card (plus the credit). When I signed up they said I could combine my billing with my Cingular phone and monthly discount. When I called to get that they said they couldn't since I didn't actually have an ATT phone number, I protested and they said I still had a Bell number it hadn't been switched to ATT. That call ended in a conference call between them, me and Cingualr, they could do nothing. A few weeks later I was at the Cingular store so I asked, they lady there said she couldn't help that ATT in our state couldn't combine and she was receiving about 10 complaints a day.

Typical Junk - Good Luck Actually Getting It!

First off, it was virtually impossible to actually find the page. I finally had to go over to Google and do a search for the exact page(ie - you practically have to scan/crawl their entire site to find it!)

THEN I put in my number. It jams. It seems as if it will only "check" your availability if you are a current customer. Same with Bell south. So essentially you have to call them directly and confirm with an operator that it is possible in your area. But it says online ordering only - so you have to go through that as well.

Finally, as others have pointed out, they often tell you that the local connection point is full. Call them again asking for normal service and presto - hey - they have space.

It's such a typical ploy by them to skate around the law. Sure they offer it. Good luck getting it, though.

Free DSL modem from AT&T available for Linux u

Last time I inquired about one of these (similar) offers, I was told there was no support for Linux, there were no Linux DSL modems (available from them), each of my computers had to have a separate modem (versus networking them), there was a $50 charge for self-installation per modem, there was a penalty for dropping the service, at the end of the promotional period it would cost me $49.95 per month to keep DSL--and I could not go back to my "legacy" dialup connection. Does anyone know what the details are for Linux users under the current offer? Cost is an issue because we are a low-income household (one of us is disabled).

Plenty fast for most people

Sure 768k is underspeed for some purposes, but that's plenty fast for most people's day to day usage: web, email and a bit of youtube. 768k is a huge step up from dial up.

Re:Breaking AT&T news:

I just pooped my cute little pants.

Then I guess right now DSL means do some laundry to you.

Re:cheap prices mean nothing...

What was that last article, US is now 24 in the list of nations for good broadband all over? Every year we keep dropping?

While I take no exception to most of your observations, I must ask if the ranking to which you refer is a fair comparison. Compared to most nations of the world (excluding Russia), we have a huge geographic dispersion of our population. Sure, we may have greater population densities on the coasts (where broadband has become ubiquitous), but you cannot make an apples-to-apples comparison of the United States to most other countries in such rankings. Most European nations are only as large as some American states (no offense intended to European /.ers), bringing to bear a greater population density which makes a broader deployment easier in many regards.

Re:cheap prices mean nothing...

Manhattan still doesn't have fast enough broadband to rival a Swedish village. You tell me if it's a fair comparison.

Re:So much for lower TCO...

Of course it should have-- it was a blantant troll!

And I wasn't attempting to use an acronym-- the OTHER reason people sometimes capitalize words is for EMPHASIS.

But keep reading, you'll get there