AT&T increased the price of its residential DSL high-speed Internet service by $7 a month Tuesday, while eliminating the requirement consumers sign one-year contracts to get its lowest rates.

An AT&T spokeswoman said the new rate schedule was designed to "better meet the needs of our customers," but one industry executive suggested the communications giant was shifting its focus from gaining market share to making more money.

Previously, AT&T offered DSL service for as little as $13 per month. For that price, consumers got download speeds of up to 1.5 megabytes per second, but had to commit to a year of service and sign up online. Also, faster-service tiers of up to 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps were available for $18 and $28 per month, respectively.

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