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bmn? ? ?Premium,ExMod 2003-06
join:2001-03-15
hiatus | And the reasonable people in the house say... "Big whoop!"
Nothing really fantastic is going to come out of this for Bellsouth customers based on everything published, including the concessions document from the other day since Bellsouth already had or was working on most of the things that ATT agreed to...
UVerse... Bellsouth was already working on their own version of it...
Naked DSL... Limited to 768kbps...
Broadband penetration rate... Already what Bellsouth had...
Definitely a snow job if there ever was one in corporate mergers...
The shareholders are definitely dancing, but the customers aren't getting jack squat.
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|  | | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by bmn:"Big whoop!" Naked DSL... Limited to 768kbps... Naked 768 DSL for "not more than $19.95 per month (exclusive of regulatory fees and taxes)" is a hell of a lot cheaper than any other broadband option out there.
Goes a long way to bridge the gap between the digital haves and have nots.
Also, "AT&T/BellSouth may make available such services at other speeds at prices that are competitive with the broadband market taken as a whole." | |
| | bmn? ? ?Premium,ExMod 2003-06
join:2001-03-15
hiatus | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by Claybraker:Naked 768 DSL for "not more than $19.95 per month (exclusive of regulatory fees and taxes)" is a hell of a lot cheaper than any other broadband option out there. True, but you need to keep reading beyond just that... Its a time limited offering. They are only required to offer unbundled DSL for 30 months after they start it. Nothing prevents them from discontinuing it for some made up reason like the loops needing voltage on them to prevent corrosion, etc.
Goes a long way to bridge the gap between the digital haves and have nots. In theory, yes, but in practice, no. In all honesty, the poorest (the digital have-nots) are still going to need a landline, so this really doesn't help them.
It looks like a great thing, but when you take a closer look at the concession, its not really all that great of an offering.
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| | | | | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by bmn:In theory, yes, but in practice, no. In all honesty, the poorest (the digital have-nots) are still going to need a landline, so this really doesn't help them. It looks like a great thing, but when you take a closer look at the concession, its not really all that great of an offering. With all due respect, you need to pull your head out of your 4th point of contact. The lower economic stratum tend to incur much higher support costs.
But what do I know, I drive a van and provide on premise support. | |
| | | | bmn? ? ?Premium,ExMod 2003-06
join:2001-03-15
hiatus | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by Claybraker:said by bmn:In theory, yes, but in practice, no. In all honesty, the poorest (the digital have-nots) are still going to need a landline, so this really doesn't help them. It looks like a great thing, but when you take a closer look at the concession, its not really all that great of an offering. With all due respect, you need to pull your head out of your 4th point of contact. The lower economic stratum tend to incur much higher support costs. But what do I know, I drive a van and provide on premise support. Perhaps you should take your own advice and pull your head out for a bit... How do support costs relate to what we are discussing here - benefits seen by the customer ?
We're talking about whether or not people are even going to purchase the service, much less whether customers at the low end of the economic spectrum are going to make out ahead. Chances are that they aren't because they are going to want a landline to keep in contact with people, call for pizza, etc, etc.
Additionally, how is dry line DSL going to improve the number of support calls you get ? Seriously, I seriously doubt that T is going to go through the expense of line condition of dry pair DSL.
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| | | | | | | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by bmn:said by Claybraker:said by bmn:In theory, yes, but in practice, no. In all honesty, the poorest (the digital have-nots) are still going to need a landline, so this really doesn't help them. It looks like a great thing, but when you take a closer look at the concession, its not really all that great of an offering. With all due respect, you need to pull your head out of your 4th point of contact. The lower economic stratum tend to incur much higher support costs. But what do I know, I drive a van and provide on premise support. Perhaps you should take your own advice and pull your head out for a bit... How do support costs relate to what we are discussing here - benefits seen by the customer ? We're talking about whether or not people are even going to purchase the service, much less whether customers at the low end of the economic spectrum are going to make out ahead. Chances are that they aren't because they are going to want a landline to keep in contact with people, call for pizza, etc, etc. Additionally, how is dry line DSL going to improve the number of support calls you get ? Seriously, I seriously doubt that T is going to go through the expense of line condition of dry pair DSL. In the Section 8 housing projects I work in, DSL Lite is the norm, if they have any broadband at all. Fairly common for them to drop the landline completely and go with prepaid wireless. Or go next door to borrow the phone from their wealthier neighbor.
When they use the phone, it's not to order a pizza, because
(1) they can't afford it.
(2) the pizza delivery places won't send their drivers into those neighborhoods.
In addition, it's not surprising that those customers tend to lack computer skills, and the hardware they use isn't always the most up to date. Second hand Win98 boxen they got from their cousin Peaches for the most part.
The CPE is a piece of crap, so actually making stuff work involves sending an underpaid but highly skilled BellSouth technician to the premise.
Given those facts, $19.99 naked DSL is a helluva concession. | |
| | | | | | bmn? ? ?Premium,ExMod 2003-06
join:2001-03-15
hiatus | Re: And the reasonable people in the house say... said by Claybraker:In the Section 8 housing projects I work in, DSL Lite is the norm, if they have any broadband at all. Fairly common for them to drop the landline completely and go with prepaid wireless. Or go next door to borrow the phone from their wealthier neighbor. When they use the phone, it's not to order a pizza, because (1) they can't afford it. (2) the pizza delivery places won't send their drivers into those neighborhoods. In addition, it's not surprising that those customers tend to lack computer skills, and the hardware they use isn't always the most up to date. Second hand Win98 boxen they got from their cousin Peaches for the most part. The CPE is a piece of crap, so actually making stuff work involves sending an underpaid but highly skilled BellSouth technician to the premise. Given those facts, $19.99 naked DSL is a helluva concession. When you put it that way, for the technicians, yes, it is a hell of a concession. For the company overall, its still nothing since they are going to make out like a bandit on all the people who aren't having issues. Technical support is a subsidized service where your most problematic users are subsidized by the users who never call tech support.
I get what you are saying though...
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