4 edits | Let's Look at the Numbers... They say that the price increase of over fifty percent is designed to keep their dial-up prices competitive with others in the market...
Really now. Ok let's run the numbers here...
Monthly Service Prices:
AT&T world net dial-up: $19.95
At&t World Net Dial-Up with the fifty percent price increase: $22.95
AOL Dial-Up: $23.90 (Though I heard that if you go through Netscape or threaten to cancel your service they will offer you $9.95 a month access)
NetZero Dialup: $9.95
Juno Dialup: $9.95
So with the price increase you can see that AT&T World Net will be just under a dollar cheaper than the most expensive dial-up provider, AOL. Yet, AT&T said that the price increase is to make their dial-up more competitive. What a load of crap.
How can you be more competitive in the dial-up market when you jack up your price when have the the second highest price in the dial-up market? If you look at the market NetZero and Juno offer their dial-up at $9.95 a month. If AT&T really wanted to be more competitive in the dial-up market they would of lowered their prices to reflect the dial-up marketplace, not jack the price up.
Oh wait, it said it was suggested that the move may be designed to get stubborn dial-up customers to switch to broadband. What if stubborn means that you have no choice other than dial-up? Sure, there is satellite broadband, but last time I checked AT&T does not offer that service. Not to mention even with the price hike, dial-up will still be cheaper than satellite.
It sounds like what's going to happen is that those "stubborn" dial-up people are going to have two choices. They are either going to get AT&T DSL service or jump ship completely and find some other dial-up provider. I am sure NetZero and Juno are going to be happy as clams taking up the dial-up folks that decided to jump ship. |
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 dvd536as Mr. Pink as they comePremium
join:2001-04-27
Phoenix, AZ
kudos:4 | Juno is still around?
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You can never be too rich, too thin or have too much Bandwidth |
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| reply to Nightshade
Chances are those cheap dial up providers have no local numbers in the same markets as where the price increase is likely to hit. |
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aglinka
join:2005-10-21
Saint Johnsbury, VT | btw, AOL is down to $9.95 now. Level(3), which supplies most cheap dial-up numbers, has access numbers everywhere.
AT&T is basically saying we dont want to provide dial-up anymore. |
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ncbillPremium
join:2007-01-23
Winston Salem, NC | reply to Nightshade
»www.vtisp.com
$40/year for 150 hours/month |
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1 edit | reply to aglinka
Just checked a few no local numbers here.
Give me a link and I will believe you. |
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| reply to ncbill
Checked, no local numbers in my area.
607 334,335,336, Norwich N.Y. Largest town and county seat. |
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| reply to dvd536
Juno and NetZero are the same company United Online. |
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| reply to dvd536
said by dvd536:Juno is still around? Yup, I know a friend who uses Juno.
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True Happiness Must Come From Within |
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3 edits | reply to older dog
The way I look at this is that AT&T is trying to force a decision on their dial up base to switch or be charged more than what it costs for their DSL service. AT&T hopes, that by using this tactic, that they will switch.
Now I can see the AT&T dial up folks who can get DSL service from AT&T make the switch. I know I would. It may be a small number, or a large number who may have this opportunity to do so. There is no way to tell how big this base is since there is no realistic measure of who can get DSL and who can't.
There is a third choice that will present itself for the AT&T dial up folks. The people who are stuck because they have to pay to have a internet connection, even if it is dial up, because despite the price hike it's still cheaper than satellite. This choice will be eventually all that is left of the AT&T dial up base. But expect this base to get smaller over time because the cheap dial up providers will add more access numbers. |
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| reply to aglinka
said by aglinka:btw, AOL is down to $9.95 now. Level(3), which supplies most cheap dial-up numbers, has access numbers everywhere. AT&T is basically saying we dont want to provide dial-up anymore. I wish they would say they dont want to provide service of any sort, and just shut the hell down altogether. |
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