Over the years, we've seen plenty of opinions from the telcos (and their employees posting to our forums) as to why they couldn't provide DSL independently of local phone service (aka naked or dry loop DSL). Some, if you remember, claimed it was illegal to do so. Others spent considerable energy claiming it was technically impossible. Some execs insisted existing lines would oxidize and the network would fail should dry loop DSL be offered.

These were all excuses of course, aimed at masking the fact that the carriers didn't want to further expedite their already painful landline revenue losses. In 2004, Qwest started offering naked DSL. Verizon of course is now focused on FiOS and offers standalone FTTH, albeit at a premium. They allowed Earthlink to begin offering naked DSL last July, though their own dry-loop offerings remain inconsistent across markets.

AT&T too has been slow in adapting to customer demand for standalone DSL, but they've recently shown signs of change. The company's CEO and several other high-level executives have recently been very vocal on the subject, insisting that force-bundling of products was an "old mindset." While that sounds great, we were still a little confused as to why standalone DSL remains out of reach for many customers, so we asked AT&T their plans.

AT&T tells they will be offering a $20 768kbps naked DSL tier before the end of the year. The tier is required as a BellSouth merger condition (pdf). The company also recently offered $10 bundled DSL as a merger condition, but because the FCC agreement didn't require they tell anyone about it, they didn't.

We'd expect the 768kbps dry loop offering to be kept equally quiet once launched.

AT&T's primary interest over the next few months will be promoting their new DSL & wireless bundle. What started as a promotional offer in a few college towns has apparently done so well, AT&T has plans to expand the offer nationwide. The $60-a-month deal includes 1.5Mbps DSL, 450 anytime wireless minutes, 5,000 night and weekend minutes, unlimited calls to AT&T customers and rollover of unused minutes to the next month.

"Earlier this fall we launched initial availability of standalone DSL and wireless service as a packaged bundle starting at about $60, available in select retail locations in trial markets," says AT&T's Brad Mays. "We made public announcements in these trial markets, and have since seen a positive response to the offer; we're working to expand availability." Mays says we should see national availability "within the coming months."

Bundling DSL with wireless is certainly better than bundling DSL with traditional copper landline, but what about true standalone DSL? That remains a somewhat elusive and inconsistent animal across AT&T territory.

Users in BellSouth territory can get dry loop DSL, but only by calling AT&T and asking for "bundle 96" (see this forum thread for pricing). Users in AT&T's legacy 13-state footprint can get dry loop DSL by calling 888-800-4095 and asking to switch to "DSL direct" (users say you may have to state this is a retention offer). These offers are not available online, nor are they advertised. Naked DSL also remains unavailable through independent ISPs who use AT&T's ATM network.

So while AT&T executives have made a lot of noise lately about embracing standalone DSL, users are still being forced to engage in some hoop jumping. And our users tell us that not all of them are getting the same prices when they call the above numbers for service. Retention offers "are unique to each customer situation and handled on an individual basis," Mays tells us. AT&T/BellSouth pricing discrepancies in general are something they're working on.

The good news? AT&T tells us the standalone DSL offer we mention above is not retention only, and will be coming to retail alongside the company's wireless bundle.

"It will hit retail locations to supplement the wireless / DSL bundle," he says. "We are working to push this to all retail locations in the coming months. It's available in some markets today, and we are on track to reach others in our service territory soon."