The phone company finally has DSL Broadband available in my area. I have been on NetZero Dial-up all this time--I figure it is time to join the new decade and get on with it. I've decided on the 3Mb service which the phone company has been advertising at $34.95/month for new residential broadband customers. My question is should I go for the 1-year agreement of the 2-year. After the offer period, the price will reflect std. rates which appear to be $49.95.

My concern with doing the 2-year plan is that after 1-year, what are the chances that their std. rate may even be lower than their current promotional offer. I haven't been watching the trends in internet prices other than what I have been paying for NetZero the last 5 or 6 years which has always been $9.95. I assume the cost for broadband is, however, still gradually going down.

Thanks for your help,
Kris

 

Kris, you're going to get a lot of differing replys here. My personal one is $28/mo for phone and internet. You have to shop around for the best deal, but ultimatly your local provider may determine your user rates. Hope any replys top mine.

 

I actually can get it for free because of my wireless router. When my cable is down it just piggybacks onto a neighbors and visa-versa. I do pay however and it is a write off for me.

 

I'm currently using *** cable as my provider. I buy the bundle package through them and i get the phone, internet and digital cable for about $100 per month plus taxes and pay channels. I refuse to buy into a contract plan as i have one on my cell service. I hate being locked into contract.

I'd recommend speaking with local cable provider.

Tim

 

Who is the provider?

What is the price for 1.5mbps service? Is it substantially less? If you've been on dial-up all this time, you'll find it to be crazy fast, and you probably won't notice any difference between 1.5 and 3.0 (or faster). The real limiting factor of internet speed is your upload rate.

The rate seems high, unless it's a local carrier and not a big name, or unless you're getting internet as stand-alone. I'd certainly suggest looking at all other options, but since you've been on dial-up this long, I'd imagine you've already done that.

Chances are there is a 15-30 day grace period where you can try the product and still back out of the contract. I'd read the fine print and see if that's the case. That way, if you're for some reason unhappy, you can bail.

I hate contacts since it's hard to say how things will be in a year, let alone two. I'd take the one year contract because there's a good chance the prices will be lower in a year, and you can get in at the cheaper rate.

If the service is from AT&T, I can say I've been nothing but pleased with it. It outperformed my 5mbps service from Comcast easily, even after I rewired all the coax in my house.

Some folks may recall that I work for AT&T, but above all else I listen to my wallet, and the service has been the best value for my dollar, so don't worry about any company shilling here.

 

Thanks for the replies so far.

The provider for the Mossyrock, WA area is TDS Telecom.
TDS Telecom: Telephone and Internet Service for Home and Business
Other than satellite internet, I think it is my only option around here; I guess they got the monolopy on it or something. NetZero just spamed me today with their DSL offer. I looked into it, but it was not available at my local.

TDS Telecom does offer a 1.5Mb that is about $10 less at their regular prices, but with the special they have now, it is only $5 less; so i figured what the heck. So you think I won't notice much difference between 3Mb and 1.5Mb for watching videos, broadcasts, photo up & downloads, GoogleEarth surfing? It seem like everyone I talk to/play around on their internet, they don't know what their speed is, so i haven't done any speed comparison myself.

Kris

 

I seriously doubt their "standard" rate will be less than the promotional one. And I can almost guarantee that your rate will go UP after the contract is over, no matter what the other prices are.

Their promotional rate will probably go down, but ONLY if they get competition. Their standard rate will probably not change much over time, but you never know.

Is there ANY advantage (except for when you actually go back to "standard" rate) to a two-year versus a one-year term?

In other words, any freebies? Anything?

3Mb will be faster than 1.5. But as more people pile onto the service, you will probably get less and less overall speed. Because even with DSL, you are eventually sharing the connection with other people. The more that pile on, the less room for you.

But get the 3Mb. That way, if the time ever does arise when your speeds start to suffer, you can complain and maybe get something done about it, having paid for the faster service.

Me, I have a Cablevision Cable modem, and "boost" which gives me (supposedly) 30Mbps down, 5Mbps up. Just checked it out with a dsl speed checker, and getting only 15 down, but the full 5 up.

Google "dsl speed test" and you'll find plenty of places to check out what you're getting. And, the DSL provider usually has their own speed checker too.

 

I hate the phone company!!! So for DSL, I would look for an indpendent that offers DSL in your area. Most areas have one or more, because the phone company is forced to offer their lines to resellers. What it means is that you don't personally have to ever speak with the phone company. Your reseller does that. And a good reseller will offer competitive rates, a better Redback router, and better bandwidth per user allocation.

I also don't think 3mb DSL is worth the extra cost. Just go 1.5mb and you will get just as good service. I actually reduced mine to just 768kb, because it works just as good. I pay $18/mo. But I'm a longtime customer and that's below their current new service rate.