FCC May Force Telcos to Cut Rates for DSL Providers 117
Sorklin writes "ZDNet has a story about a ruling in the FCC that might change the pricing structure of DSL. They write: 'Many in the industry expect the FCC will rule Thursday that such rentals are no longer necessary and that the DSL providers and RBOCs can share a single line into the
customer premises. If the Nov. 18 ruling goes their way, DSL providers will see about $20 dropped from their cost of delivering access.'"
While the FCC is forcing....... (Score:1)
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:2)
BT are rolling out to 400 substations by March 2000 (that's not a lot of areas - major towns/cities only). Also it appears that BT won't be an ISP for DSL initially - they're telling people to wait until other ISP's release pricing plans.
See BT's ADSL site [bt.com] for up to date details.
DSL Price is 1 thing, range of service is another. (Score:1)
PairGain, makers of DNS modems.. They said their modems can do 20 miles, and that it is NOT a technical issue.. Its a lingistics issue.
I called around, did some research.. and more and more, it looks like the Telcos are actually PREVENTING DSL from coming out. And when I call Bell Atlantic, they gladly say "Sorry, you can't have DSL.. BUT.. We can give you ISDN!!" Yay.
So whats going on? Does anyone know anything?
I'm getting tired of paying for my T1.. And I REFUSE to go back to modems.. AND.. My cable company has that coax/modem combo connection crap.
I could definitely use some info.. I'm located in Potomac Maryland, near Rockville.
Thanks,
-Matthew
Technetos, Inc.
Re:Faster, Better, More (Score:1)
I suspect the prices will come down as the "fear of installation" does too. Most people not in the tech circles hear about the cable modem more, so it's going to take some time. But like anything that follows the economies of scale theory the price will drop as more people get into it. I just think that most people who have never used a high speed connection are too content with dial-up. I know I could never go back to it!
And this will help how?? (Score:1)
~$20 to the ISP. ($22 for the telco's isp)
~$40 to the telco for the line.
~$30 for router rental (unless you pop up the $500 for the thing up front.)
Getting the service directly from the telco is not cheaper, actually it is $2 more.
So this won't save me a dime will it?
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:1)
People complain about the time it takes to get DSL, but in many cases, it is just a matter of infrastructure, and not some sort of nefarious plot. You can't change a nation's wiring overnight.
Re:DSL Price is 1 thing, range of service is anoth (Score:1)
I get 150kb/ps on my T1 for downloading, and alot of places ping within 20-50ms. Thats VERY nice, especially for those realtime.. ahem.. business applications..
Have you ever experienced a T1 on UUNet, with a Cisco router before? Or something close to it? Would you say going to DSL isn't much of a difference? I'd love to hear your input. I'm getting so sick of spending $900 a month..
And as far as the range.. I have called other companies (not CAIS though, I will definitely call them).. And so far they all have the same limits, although one company offered me DNS for $199 for a 128kbs connect.. YAY.. No thanx. I have to have at the VERY LEAST 640k/bs.. and I prefer my 1meg T1 bandwidth thank you very much.
...Latency is a HUGE deal to me too, thats why I never did radio modems or anything like that.
Thanks,
-Matthew
Technetos, Inc.
Re:DSL Price is 1 thing, range of service is anoth (Score:1)
My suggestion would be to check out Flashcom, CAIS, and several other DSL providers in the area. They will gladly offer you DSL service in places Bell Atlantic can't. My guess is that BA has some rigid limits they want to stay in to minimize the trouble with customer service, i.e. they are only wiring people who are within a range that they KNOW their DSL will work trouble-free. I know several people living in Potomac area using a DSL line from CAIS. CAIS has a better reputation than Flashcom, you you might check them out first.
Comments about the connectivity of Washington DC area pop up at Slashdot from time to time, but I would agree the DC area is one of the best wired areas I have seen in the US. It is really difficult to get a DSL unless you try very hard. BA is not the only option.
Re:And this will help how?? (Score:1)
Ooops, typo. (Score:1)
I've just discovered that programming in PL/SQL for long periods of time makes one sleepy and increases the frequency of typos. Also, friends don't let friends drive after coding in PL/SQL.
Re:good... (Score:1)
As for DOCSIS having QOS controls, most areas have not implemented it at this time (the SF bay area being one huge exception). In fact, not all equipment is even able to implement QOS, although they are working on it.
Re:Good! (Score:1)
Sorry to burst your bubble, but any upstream provider can force you through a proxy. I do it to all my customers to keep my bandwidth useage down and keep me competitive. It's as easy as a 1-liner route on a cisco router, linux router, or practically anything. Proxying is not a bad thing if done right; you'd never even know it was happenning.
I've heard many good and bad things about cable. The good ones are on underutilized segments. The bad ones are on normal to overutilized segments. Me? I'd rather take a guaranteed CIR and work around the dynamic IP 'cuz Murphy's Law sez that the second you need the bandwidth it won't be there.
As far as I can tell, your static IP is not guaranteed. Shaw/Rogers can at any time decide to go to a dynamic system. And Rogers (at least in Toronto/Kitchener-Waterloo areas) route MUST go all the way down to (I think) Californina before it gets to where you want to go. My traceroute between a box in Waterloo and my house in Waterloo goes through Cali... Great routing, boys!!
(an aside about Bell's HSE -- they're fighting with PPPoE... [apparently it's "better" than DHCP but they're shoehorning PPP into an interface which wasn't designed for a point-to-point connection... yuck!] Works great under Windows but the PPPoE drivers for Linux dont' work sending large packets... something about ignoring the MTU settings entirely)
Re:DSL In Canada (Score:1)
My friend and I have been looking for a solution for Linux for a while... tried both PPPoE drivers mentioned on freshmeat with limited success.. the userland one won't let you send large packets without barfing (seems to ignore MTU) and I believe he had bad luck with the kernel-space driver as well...
independenceof system??? (Score:1)
>independence from England, based it's
>Constitution on a simplified version of the Great
>Charter, because it works!
???
There is no independence of the "system" from the British system. The separation came from the colonists demanding the Rights of Englishmen, to which they were entitled but that Crown and Parliament denied them. The state constitutions, the Articles of Confederation, and the Consitution of the United States were *about* implementing the British system which we had been denied. The Constitution even refers directly to the Common Law.
hawk, esq.
Re:DSL In Canada (Score:1)
I hear there is a *BSD solution now, but when I go t going there wasn't so I have only played with linux --- don't have time to try and roll my own at the moment. The company Bell contracted to provide their pppoe client for wintel also built a linux client (presumeably there were enough linux DHCP clients already that bell didn't want to lose) but the implementation was incompetant, to be charitable (have a look at the source... ).
Fortunately, the linux community reacted as you might hope and by the time I was connecting there were three other solutions; one solid (if expensive cpuwise) user space client and two using kernel modules for efficiency. I am not claiming that these are perfect (some people are having difficulty getting up and going, it seems) but the upshot is that I have a solid 850/120 (on a nominal 968/128) connection to my linux box that has uptimes on the order of a week (and of course my recovery is automated if they drop the connection so even my dynamic dns (yuck, but what do you do) only takes about 5 min to update). CPU usage is less than 4% at full b-width. This may not sound great --- but consider that HSE is in the middle of transit between DHCP and pppoe; they are having server outages all over the place and many people on wintel are complaining about uptimes on the order of an hour, and 200K/s transfers....
If you have a look at the newsgroups you will see that many wintel users are having to resort to and additional commercial ($90) package just to get back to 'acceptable' service after losing DHCP. Of course this is not making bell/sympatico look particularly good.
So for me at least, CDN $35/mo is looking just fine compared to that $20/mo dailup....
S.
Re:Good! (Score:1)
The rate is fine but.... (Score:1)
good... (Score:2)
Re:My only real concern.... (Score:1)
If I'm totally wrong, let me know and I apoligize
Re:At least you've got roll out! (Score:1)
Still, good to see the US threatening to force prices down - keep in mind Oftel is starting to show it's teeth to BT, and it basically looks bad for BT if the prices for xDSL stuff is forced down _further_ in the states.
(Makes no difference to me, the exchange i'm on isn't on the initial list of xDSL exchanges, but 3 of the 4 surrounding exchanges are. Bastards.)
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
I'm curious - I'm getting the Telocity DSL [interchangedsl.com] service through them, with Earthcafe as an ISP. How do you know that they are Linux friendly? I don't see that on their site. I didn't know this before signing up with them; this is an unexpected bonus.
Broadband in New Haven? (Score:1)
Story Title (Score:2)
As far as I can tell, the ruling doesn't force anyone to change the pricing on anything. What it does is force the phone companies to allow competing DSL providers to use the same loop as the phone company uses for voice.
In other words: Previously, if I were to call up Covad (A competing DSL provider here in Seattle) they would have to use a seperate pair of wires to get DSL into my apartment. There is to technological barrier preventing them from using the same wires as my voice line. In fact, I get DSL service from US West, and they use my voice lines to carry DSL to my aparment. US West can charge less for DSL service, because they do not need to use an additional pair of wires for DSL. Covad would have to rent a whole seperate pair of wires in order to supply me with DSL, hence, the $20.
--GnrcMan--
modem rental? (Score:1)
that is a weenie idea, but ADSL itself is consumer-oriented by nature, so you have to expect that kind of thing... most people rent their cable tv boxes, too. SDSL, on the other hand, is usually provisioned with a router. The company I work for usually bundles deals where the router is free with a year's contract, etc. That's not just a selling point: routers really make life easier for those of us who have to troubleshoot these circuits when they go down! Of course, SDSL costs a lot more...
Re:So I will be slightly less screwed? (Score:1)
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:2)
Re:Good! (Score:2)
As far as utilization goes, this has to do with how the provider manages the network. My provider resegments the network as the amount of users grows, preventing terrible transfer rates. Of course utilization makes for variable traffic, but that's just as true on major internet backbones. Just look at sprint. They oversell their bandwidth many times. They often let it come to a point where they are overutilized. It's just a matter of proper management. The same can occur on sympatico.
Rogers IP's are more or less static. I have friends who have had the same IP for 3 years. The only thing that changed for them is the PTR (reverse DNS record). Mine on shaw, on the other hand is dynamic based on DHCP. We have 3 day leases though. I've had the same IP for 1.5 years. I wouldn't mind it changing every couple of years.
As far as the routing of rogers@home goes:
yep, that's true. Rogers was stupid and bought into a nationwide network with a limited number of backbone interconnections with other providers. What doesn't go through a major NAP or MAE ends up going halfway across the country. Shaw on the other hand buys local bandwidth from teleglobe, uunet, sprint -- and they have an @home connection for regional data center and modem to modem communications. It's still managed by @home though (or so I'm told by calgary and richmond hill noc monkeys). Blame rogers
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Re:good... (Score:2)
my cable modem (Score:1)
i'm not sure of the download speeds, but they're pretty good generally....
and i've personally uploaded stuff in excess of 100 kbytes/sec to a guy at an university in canada, usually its only around 40kbytes/s though, but thats not bad at all
internal ftp traffic on my network only gets up to about 200kbytes/sec anyhow, so i don't imagine that my cable modem is the only bottle neck
Re:DSL vs T1/Frame Relay (Score:1)
Perhaps this is why the telcos don't seem to be in any hurry to get dsl to a wider area?
Re:good... (Score:2)
Re:good... (Score:2)
Re:Would this slow down the rollout? (Score:1)
I've signed webforms on a lot of DSL sites indicating interest and just got an offer last week from Flashcom [flashcom.com] for Internet access (w/ Northpoint as carrier) for cheaper than Bell Atlantic ($39.99/mo, free install, free DSL modem, with 1 year term, all for 410kbps down, 200kbps up.) It was a "special limited-time offer", (through Nov 15th?) but I'd be surprised if it doesn't reappear. On the email I received and web form, they said it was a two-year requirement, but when a sales rep called me the next day, he said I only needed to sign up for one year. So do ask about that.
A little slower than BA's 640/90 plan downstream, but $10/mo cheaper and faster upstream. This was in Westchester County about 45 minutes north of NYC, so you might check to see if that offer is available in your area too. I too have no love lost for Nynex/BA.
After BA said on their website in July that they'd have DSL in my area in "August," then "September, ", then "October-November," and now "November-December", I'm not eager get strung along further. And now especially that I'd be paying more. So I signed up w/ Flashcom on Monday. Provisioning is still problematic: 45 days to install they say, in part because they have to get Bell Atlantic, their competitor, to come to my place to do a line test. Screwy, isn't it?
--LP
Re:DSL vs T1/Frame Relay (Score:1)
Actually, at PacBell (disc: I work for their Network Integration arm) about half of the people seem to realize that this is an issue, the other half think that people will pay more for better service. I think that about half the people will pay more for better service and the rest will shift their WANs onto DSL and ride through the rough spots.
Anyway, last time I checked all the CLECs were heavily invested into CAP technology which requires them to use a complete pair (no voice services sharing the pair). If I'm reading the FCC correctly, the justification for changing the rules is that the RBOC could offer split billing for the loop (voice bill goes to RBOC, data bill goes to CLEC). That justification is invalid unless the CLECs replace their infrastructure with DMT.2 gear, which is a significant cost. I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for Covad to get $20/mo cheaper...
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
Re:DSL Rates, and how this won't really show up. (Score:1)
Re:good... (Score:2)
Re:good... (Score:2)
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
Good! (Score:1)
Install times should go down, too (Score:1)
If this does go into effect, install times for non-RBOC xDSL service should also go down. After all, do you think the Bells currently have an incentive to speed up the installation of extra pairs for their competitors?
But if they don't have the excuse of "oh, gotta find a qualified pair" or "that neighborhood's low on pairs", they may be stuck doing the install rather than saying "but you know we can give you DSL on your existing pair".
DSL In Canada (Score:1)
My only real concern.... (Score:1)
Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
...I'd settle for DSL availability. I'm within range of the local CO but no one seems to be able to tell me definitively whether or not I can get DSL. The phone company (Ameritech) only seems to want to sell me more cellular minutes, or caller ID, or telemarketer blocking, or a bunch of other crap that I don't want or need.
Oh, but they'll cheerfully sell me ISDN access for about the same cost as a T1!
Would this slow down the rollout? (Score:2)
I'm naturally for cheaper pricing schemes. In NYC (where I reside), the cheapest DSL you can get is from Bell Atlantic themselves. Any other carrier, the prices increase by about $20-30 for equivalent service. I'd love to use one of these alternatives, cause I don't much like BA, but with that kind of price differential (and a two year contract -- or the price increases again), I just can't see myself doing it.
What do you think?
Re:This Rules! (Score:1)
Also, the savings to the DSL provider would probably vary across locations...
the part I like best (Score:1)
now it's time for companies like Covad (COVD) and Paradyne (PDYN) to get their acts together from the backend and really start cranking up those speeds for little cost differences.
Re:Good! (Score:1)
The modem won't die until someone picks up the slack and finishes wiring the country properly.
Oh well, I'm living just a walking distance away from ISDN and ADSL. Too bad, even a large sum of money isn't going to cause Bell Canada to do something about it. That's what happens when the phone company is a monopoly.
Competition (Score:1)
Comments?
Passed on? (Score:1)
A little suprising... (Score:1)
Granted this is a little different, but it still suprises me.
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... DSL at all PLEASE! (Score:1)
I'd even settle for cable here in Switzerland
Actually, I'm one of the lucky few to live in an area where there is a cable internet offering. But whith those limitations:
No thanx. I'll stick with my Dual-ISDN for now (except the phone cost are killing me
--
Who does it affect? (Score:1)
My local phone company is Alltel and I'm wondering if it also affects them since they aren't related to Bell.
Re:DSL In Canada (Score:1)
Re:good... (Score:1)
Cable CAN BE faster, but if you live in a neighborhood where many people are techies that bandwidth drops geometrically. That 27mbs is split up among all the people on your block, what if you have a neighbor like me who is downloading porn at all hours? Your bandwidth goes to shit. The other downside is that with DOCSIS equipment the cableco can throttle your bandwitdh anyway, don't hold out of cable, take whichever you can get first.
LK
Re:This Rules! (Score:1)
DSL vs T1/Frame Relay (Score:2)
Eventually I was able to get pointers to pricing info from one of the comp.dcom.telecom.* newsgroups/lists. DSL seems to be MUCH cheaper than the prices that the RBOCs are charging their business customers at present.
So what happens when they make DSL available for hundreds of dollars less per month? Wouldn't they be cannibalizing a big portion of their data services business (income-wise at least.) How much does this factor into how long it will take them to roll out DSL or other consumer data services? Can the RBOCs insist that their business customers continue paying a couple of hundred dollars per month for a fractional T1 when an equivalent DSL technology is available to consumers for $50/month?
numb
Faster, Better, More (Score:1)
I know I'm spoiled, but what I want now is for the high end of the price structure to come down. What I'd like to do is upgrade to a faster line, but the cost starts to become prohibitive quickly. Last I checked, a 4mb down/1mb up was 480 bucks a month. And going to a 512k line (the next step up) jumps by about $40 a month, almost double. Hopefully these prices will come down.
For some reason St. Cloud seems to be a competitive hotbed of high bandwidth providers (1 DSL provider and 2 seperate Cable internet providers).
DSL thoughts (Score:1)
Now that the cable-modem people are pushing their way into my town, the prices have actually gone down a bit for monthly fee, and my available bandwidth has tripled. I never seem to be able to use it all though. I rarely get above 40kps. My average is around 30.
Later
Erik Z
BTW, forcing people to rent the modems is very weenie. But if you don't like it, you can always NOT GET DSL.
Viva la competition! (Score:2)
In September, the FCC ruled that competitive exchange carriers must be provided access to subloops. [fcc.gov]
English translation: all of us unfortunate souls who live over 9k feet from a central office a) soon will qualify for DSL service and b) will have a choice of DSL providers.
With the removal of rental fees the value proposition of providing DSL improves, increasing competition. Hopefully this will get the incumbent and competitive carriers off their butts and providing DSL to anyone who wants it (i.e. ME).
Imagine a world without websites where you enter your phone number and wait two weeks to be turned down for service. Do we dare to dream that by then they'll have worked out the bugs in provisioning?
Maybe the next century won't be so bad after all...
Re:Broadband in New Haven? (Score:1)
--LP
Re:good... (Score:2)
So I will be slightly less screwed? (Score:1)
Will we ever have some competition in the Cleveland area?
Re:FCC: Pure Communism in its most virulent form. (Score:1)
Unless someone thought it was serious?... heh.. deficient sarcasm gene obviously..
--
Re:good... (Score:1)
DSL in Europe? (Score:1)
How far behind the U.S. is it? (western/south Europe... UK, France, Italy, Spain...)
It's becoming common in metropolitan areas in the U.S. and one can get it for less than US$100/month for personal use (about 160 KB/sec speed), and I'm about to get it for less than US$200/month for 160KB/sec for business, and that includes an 8-port DSL router/modem leasing. This is in New York City.
I'm thinking about moving to EU (don't like guns and people suing each other here in the U.S.
Otis
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
Re:DSL In Canada (Score:1)
---
This is wonderful! (Score:2)
It's all so pathetic... (Score:1)
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:1)
Buy about 3 miles of lan cable, or however much you need. Put the adsl modem right next to the CO, then you should enjoy blazing speeds through enough cable to trip godzilla!
I was just about to do that, then i found out im eligble...Yay for me!
Re:Ooops, typo. (Score:1)
Re:Eighty million dead. (Score:2)
Even the most esteemed document ever written by a political leader, the Great Charter, was 99.9% regulation of private industry, and only 0.1% about human rights & civil rights.
The American system, for all it's much-vaunted independence from England, based it's Constitution on a simplified version of the Great Charter, because it works!
Government regulation works. It's necessary. Would you care to pay for each road you use, as you use it? Imagine all the toll booths you'd need. Imagine the delays that would cause. No longer being able to drive smoothly, but stopping every few miles to pay yet another person for road maintenance. It's not far-fetched. This is exactly the state of affairs that Europe faced, when Macadam and Telford roads were first intoduced.
Decentralising is good, when appropriate, but it is more expensive (more managers) and less efficient (zero co-ordination) when it is not appropriate. Rather than spouting nationalist dogma and arrogant pride, =THINK= about things.
You don't use a hammer to install a hard drive. You don't use a screwdriver to nail a plank in a deck. Why should politics be any different? The right tool for the right job, and arrogance be damned.
clearly DSL is part of this sinister plot (Score:1)
Bell Canada (Score:1)
Outstanding! (Score:1)
about a month away, but, I don't like all the restrictions. If I'm going to pay for "always on"
I want to be free to anything I want to, as long
its not commercial.
My 56k is much better than that 300 I started
with. I can wait.
Re:DSL In Canada (Score:1)
DSL & Cable modems... (Score:3)
Here in England BT are *finally* going to grace us with 256K [or is it 512K?] DSL connections by March if you are fortunate enough to live in one of the 10 selected start locations; its going to cost around $80/month+ though.
The village where I live will probably get cable/DSL sometime in the fourth millenium
Re:Good! (Score:2)
Personally, I think it would be a good thing for the backbone providers to be forced to get off their duff and upgrade their services.
By now, backbones -SHOULD- be supporting very high-speed access (in excess of 0.5 terabytes), QoS (incl. ECN, CBQ and RED), native multicasting and multiple-path routing, in the event of network failures.
They aren't. There is no excuse for this. On the other hand, severe overloading through widespread DSL may force them to upgrade their pipes and their systems to avoid total collapse. (Which would cost them more money than they'd have to spend on such upgrades.)
At least you've got roll out! (Score:1)
BT's ADSL [bt.com] site tells us nothing other than "exchanges will be upgraded by March 2000" and that most of the major cities will have access to the service shortly afterwards.
It's still going cost a bomb and installation lead times are probably going to be in the region of 6+ weeks if their budget ISDN (HomeHighway) [bt.com] service is anything to go by.
I'm looking forward to a 2mb downstream and a 640k upstream internet connection and I admit to some jealousy to you guys in the US who already have access to this technology.
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
Re:Good! (Score:2)
I was waiting for it before, but now that I've heard that it uses a nortel 1 meg modem with a dynamic ip and they even force you to use a proxy for web access; no thanks. I'd rather pay my 39.90 CDN a month for shaw cable. The 3-5.5mbps variable downlink and 320-768kbps variable uplink all of the sudden seem pretty good
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Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:1)
Pheet! Godwin's law, 15 yard penalty! (Can I call Godwin on myself?)
Sorry about this, just feeling mildly silly today.
Re:REBOOT.COM... (Score:1)
I can't seem to get a warm boot without the use of debug, but one of these days....
Real programmers use COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE!
Re:Lower DSL rates? Hell... (Score:1)
Try looking at EarthCafe.com. They are linux friendly! I don't work for them, I am checking them out. I have an ISDN BRI (2B+D). It is just too slow now.
DSL Rates, and how this won't really show up. (Score:1)
It is expensive in the long run, i pay 18.95 for the phoneline from Bell Atlantic, 59.95 for the DSL service & Internet, and then 24.95 for static IP (They rape you here, getting a choice of ISP would save me 25.00 a month as other ISP's would give DSL a static IP since DHCP is a pain in the arse most of the time!!)
So i figure i spend about 110.00 a month for a voice line and a 640K download and 130k upload DSL link.
Its not a bad price, but there is no competition, and you have to sign contracts and it takes forever and a day to install.
Even though cable modems are much faster, i am guranteed my bandwidth, thats why i prefer DSL. Cable modems are on a very insecure shared network, and DSL is an ATM cloud, but i'm guranteed my uplink/downlink and can upgrade at the whim of a call, as my Alcatel 1000 speaks directly to the ATM switch and can be reconfigured on the fly for multiple mbits per second transfer rates.
I love it, downloading music in seconds, watching live video, running my cuseeme, playing unreal tournament. Its definatly worth the price you pay.
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:1)
Re:REBOOT.COM... (Score:1)
I'd know that code anywhere! whats up man? drop me an email!
Re:While the FCC is forcing....... (Score:1)
Two or three years ago, a phone call from Holland to the US would cost me at least $1.50 per minute. It's down to 9 cents now with the former state monopolist, and it's 6 cents if you're willing to dial an extra 4-digit number before making the call.
And that should be enough (Score:2)
And we all know that 640 should be enough for anybody!
Re:DSL & Cable modems... (Score:3)
It's 512K download, 256K upload. And it'll be March at the absolute earliest, with £50/month (about US$80) being the minimum, too. It wouldn't surprise me to see the final figure for end user consumers being around £75/month. Sigh. Fortunately, I should be in one of the early adopter areas, but as fair as I'm aware, they haven't even published finalised details of that yet.
Hope so... (Score:3)
I'm paying $47.95/month for 384k and a 8-IP subnet (5 usable, since 1 is taken up by the DSL bridge, which I refuse to call a modem
The thing is, while I'm quite willing to pay the price for what I want (extra IP's, a subnet, TOS that permit servers), I'm not sure someone else would be. Typical home users would pay up to $40-50/month, and while there are offerings that allow this, they're not common enough. Then again, GTE can't install fast enough to meet demand right now, but we'll see how long this lasts. Even a portion of this $20 "discount" would go a long way for a lot of folks to feel that DSL is within their acceptable price range.
Re:At least you've got roll out! (Score:2)
You'd be out of luck then. BT dropped it to 512Kb downstream last month (and hiked the price up at the same time!). Mass roll out will only be at 512K, although 2Mb should follow at a later date.
DSL in Italy (Score:1)
The cost of an ADSL dubscription will be
Lit 400.000 (US$ 205) for installation
and then
Lit. 660.000 (US$ 350) per year, for 640 kbit
then there's the Internet connectivity cost, which is rumored to be about Lit. 2.000.000 (US$ 1100) per year, depending of course on the provider.
We're currently in the process of dismantling our former phone carrier monopoly, those prices might drop in a couple of years.