FCC Boss Kevin Martin Leaves For Think Tank > "ever-declining prices" ????

"ever-declining prices" ????

My Verizon DSL prices had gone from $50 to $30 and speed quadrupled. And for pretty much everyone, the price for Mb has dropped substantially.

reply to AstroBoy
i must have missed it. who lowed there price. uverse is increasing it. i what to know what kevin is smokin?

reply to Dogfather
50 for dsl. your crazy and what kind of speeds to they give u. i pay 45.95 for 12mb cable internet

reply to AstroBoy
Wondering the same thing...

reply to jt4
Now you do. Not 10 years ago.

reply to AstroBoy

reply to AstroBoy

Re: "ever-declining prices" ????

And you think they should have gone down in those 5 years? everything goes up in price. not down. You're always free not to use it. Also i'm sure you're getting a much faster connection now than you did 5years ago.

reply to Dogfather
Those are somewhat 'bundled' services - I take it.

I agree that in general, a price/kilobit or megabit has dropped. I did pay $39.99 / month for AT&T ADSL for 1.5/384kbps (with POTS service as a requirement) or $45/month for 2-4Mbps cable ($10 more w/o).
Now, its $24.95/month for 3Mbps (POTS requirement) or $40/month (dry) on ADSL, or $45/month for 10Mbps cable - lower bundled prices.

What _IS_ going up is the basic cost. I.e. you will get a ton of service... but you will not find any 'cheap' service.

E.g. I can not find a $25/month 1Mbps dry loop anywhere. Or a $25/month standard cable service anywhere.
Those that do have cheap(er) service are often full of fees/taxes/unfees/charges/adware

reply to fAcEtIOUs
The 'price per unit' (ie. $/minute, $/txt, $/MB) has dropped, but in general, the cost of the actual service for the customer has always been creeping upwards.

Eg. SMS on AT&T Wireless was ... Free incoming, and $0.05 to send.
Now on AT&T 'Mobility' its $0.25 to received and $0.25 to send.

Cable TV service _was_ $45/month for standard broadcast, is now $56/month

The 'All The Best' package was $89.95/month, now is $119.95

POTS fees have been pretty stable (grossly overpriced), yet taxes/fees applied to it has gone up.

VoIP (indie) has been competitive in price, while Cable VoIP/Telco VoIP has been charging prices mirroring POTS service.. without the taxes.

reply to fAcEtIOUs

reply to jt4

reply to hottboiinnc

reply to en102
Basic costs in services industries in general always go up because of general overhead cost increases. eg...the building they're in costs more, labor costs more, regulatory compliance (taxes, healthcare, workers comp, equipment and vehicle leases, general regulatory compliance fees, etc) go up. And up until very recently energy was up, particularly electricity and gasoline.

While the overall bills in some cases have gone up (mine have stayed the same or gone down), what you get for that has gone up more...in general. 10 years ago I certainly couldn't have gotten my T1 for the $400 I'm paying now. Before that my first office 768/128 DSL line was $49 and now a 1.5Mb biz DSL line is $30. I have been paying Cox about the same $43-$45 for HSI for over 10 years but speeds have gone from 3Mb with @Home to the current 9Mb and increase virtually every year.

In terms of what you would call "cheap" service...I don't think you ever saw a "cheap" service like that. The cheapest service I ever had was 1.5/1.5 best effort WISP for $25 but that was in a day where there was "nothing good on the internet".

reply to fAcEtIOUs
The "cost per unit" dropped only because of technological advances. When I first signed up with my web host, they gave me 1GB of storage. That increased over the years to the 160GB that they give me today. I'm paying less per month than when I started. Does this mean that Martin or Sectorlink was responsible for dropping the price per unit? Or does it mean that technology progressed and Sectorlink had a choice: Offer more space for the same amount of money or see their customers move to a web host that does.
--
-Jason Levine
Support a children's charity. Buy a calendar and/or a photo book. Shooting For A Cause

reply to banditws6
And of course that is different. Most of that has moved from the US to another country so labor is cheaper.

But you can't tell me you pay more now for a loaf of bread then compared to now. You also can't say that milk was cheaper 5years ago as well.

Prices do go up. It's a matter of doing business.

Computers are different. They're able to cram more into a smaller area and cost less but also you get the prices cheaper when the companies start pulling a Wal-Mart and shipping production of the products to China and Mexico where labor is almost 80% cheaper there than here.

reply to fAcEtIOUs