| "Almost Naked" DSL? I disconnected my DSL and voice line service at the end of June 2005 and ditched SBC for a month even though service was very reliable for me here to try out TW-Road Runner since I could get a "naked" broadband connection through TW.
I had what I thought was the cheapest phone plan available through SBC. I had made the mistake of calling SBC and dealing with a phone representative instead of signing up for service online. The phone rep. told me SBC's cheapest plan was their unlimited local calling only for about $20/month. He kept trying to upsell me with features that I would never use even after I told him repeatedly that I'll only be using this line for a DSL connection.
Because of frequent TW Road Runner outages in the Houston area during late-July/early-August, I figured I would need to bite the bullet and go back to SBC even though I would pay for a phone line that I would rarely, if ever, use since I already have a cell phone.
The phone sales staff at SBC never told me the first time I signed up for phone service at this location that I could get a "measured rate" line for about $5.00 a month that would allow me up to 25 local-only, within LATA, calls, along with the required emergency, 911 service. Calls would be $0.08 a piece after 25 calls. If I wanted long distance, I could still use calling cards on my land line or use my cell phone for continental US calls.
If you sign up for phone service on the web at SBC's web site, you don't have to deal with pushy sales staff and you have more flexibility as to what services/frills you do/don't want to be billed for.
Apparently, this line/plan qualified for both the SBC Basic and SBC Pro DSL packages. So I went ahead and placed the order for the measured-rate phone plan and the SBC Basic DSL package.
Phone service was activated this Friday (12 August.) DSL service was working the next day, although it was not to be activated until 16 August.
So I'll be paying $5.20/month for land-line limited use service and $14.95/month for DSL for a year plus whatever amount in taxes (probably for a total of $30/month.)
You may want to see if your local provider can offer an emergency only or limited used, measured rate type of line. In many cases, you don't need to meet certain income requirements. Then see if you can get a DSL plan on this line. |
