SBC Cuts DSL rates to just $15/month!!!

MooreBonds

Thinks s/he gets paid by the post
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From the CBS Marketwatch website:
http://www.marketwatch.com/tools/qu...={E1E88192-72EA-48E9-9BEE-F130AB0650DB}&symb=

SBC to Offer High-Speed Internet for $15
6/1/2005 8:22:00 PM

NEW YORK, Jun 01, 2005 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- SBC Communications Inc. is cutting the price for high-speed Internet access to $15 per month for new subscribers who sign up online, marking another aggressive move to add and retain customers in advance of the big telephone company's push into cable TV service later this year.

The promotional rate for SBC Yahoo DSL Express, which requires a one-year contract and lasts for 12 months, is priced well below what many dial-up Internet services as well as rival broadband providers charge.

America Online, the biggest dial-up provider with more than 21 million subscribers, charges nearly $24 a month for a far-slower connection. Rival providers of DSL and cable-based broadband generally charge from $30 to $45 a month.

The DSL price cut comes two months after San Antonio-based SBC reduced the month fee for unlimited local and long distance calling from $49 per month to $40.

That's well below what rivals such as Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. charge for the same bundle, and competitive with what many cable companies are charging for phone service using voice-over-Internet technology.

Both moves can be seen as a campaign by SBC to hold off cable TV rivals who sell phone and Internet service long enough for SBC to launch new technologies and services starting later this year.

SBC, which owns Cingular Wireless in partnership with BellSouth, is spending billions to rewire large portions of its copper-based phone network with fiber-optic cables so it can introduce cable television and speedier Internet connections.

The company hopes to lure subscribers with next-generation services, particularly interactive video using IPTV technology, which melds the Internet with TV programming.

"We believe the company intends to drive further subscriber growth ahead of its video rollout and fend off cable competition," John Hodulik, telecom analyst for UBS, said in a note to investors. "While we do not expect this pricing strategy to be implemented across the industry, SBC's move may force the cable (companies) to get more aggressive."

The $15 rate for DSL brings entry-level download speeds of between 384 kilobits per second to 1.5 megabits per second. The price will revert after one year to the regular fee, currently about $27.

As part of the promotion, SBC also is offering a speedier connection of up to 3 Mbps for $25 a month, also for a one-year term.

SBC Communications Inc. shares fell 10 cents, or 0.4 percent, to close at $23.28 in Wednesday trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Copyright 2005 Associated Press, All rights reserved
 
That is such a killer deal... too bad providers in my area don't have a clue. I pay $80/mo for my DSL, but then again, I have my own /28 and almost a full T1 up.

Heh...that last bit should weed out the true geeks
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Ah $%#%!! I just signed up for $19.95 a couple of weeks ago.....
 
Hey, I'm still paying $32 for GTE Hawaii, I mean Verizon, I mean Hawaii Telcom.

Here's what SBC's website says for my 808 phone number:

"Sorry, Broadband service is currently available to SBC customers in:
Arkansas
California
Connecticut
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Michigan
Missouri
Nevada
Ohio
Oklahoma
Texas
Wisconsin"
 
Peter and others,

What are the other costs to establishing DSL service? Do we need a dedicated phoneline or do we have to buy any equipments/ gizmos?

Currently paying $10/ month for decent dial-up but the extra $5 might be worth it if there are no other costs...

Janie
 
I just checked my area for IA (319) and it is not available. The only thing available is faster dial-up. This type of service is such a pain in the ass. :(
 
I just checked. You must have SBC residential phone service to get the deal.
 
Janie said:
Peter and others,

What are the other costs to establishing DSL service?  Do we need a dedicated phoneline or do we have to buy any equipments/ gizmos? 

Currently paying $10/ month for decent dial-up but the extra $5 might be worth it if there are no other costs...

Janie
I just signed up my parents for DSL. The only other cost besides the monthly charge was a one time "shipping" charge of $20. This $20 paid for the cable modem and line filters that they send you. The disc they send with they package walks you through step by step installation of the hardware and software.
 
I renewed my SBC DSL in March for a reduced rate of 25.99 + monthly taxes of course. Comes to about 28.00. They initially said the renewal rate would be about 45 - 50.00 when I signed up for the reduced rate of 35.00 or so. I was going to start looking around.

I hope they will offer a lower rate next time I renew, especially if this starts a price war with other companies.
 
There is some looking into "bare dsl" which is the dsl service over a phone line without any telephone service but chances are the cost will be a few dollars higher.

Without that, once you factor in the cost of the phone line, the dsl service is more expensive than cable if you also have cable television. I'm getting something like 5Mb/s download speed for $42. Its fun when you get a service pack for XP and it downloads in a couple of minutes.

If they offer the bare dsl service, I'd consider it. No land phone line now, just a pair of el cheapo cell phones and an internet phone from at&t callvantage.

A local company also offers wireless internet service for 1Mb/s download @ $19 a month. Unfortunately its single access only for one PC and requires software loaded on the pc. My three tivo's, other laptop, and occasional other appliances and oddball devices would feel left out.

Is SBC's 'television' offering still a partnership with Dish Network? Because I like Dish about as much as I like GE.
 
Uh, oh ... why don't you like DISH?    :eek:
   
    To answer your question about partnering ... yes, they still offer DISH in my area.

   As for the cost ... I'm paying $19 and change for local service (my long distance provider is seperate) and now paying $19.95 for the dsl, so that's just a hair cheaper than the $42.95 Comcast wants for internet....  and I'm as fond of Comcast as you are of GE ....
 
I like comcast a lot better than dish. The only trouble I've had with comcast has been when they've offered me six months at $xx or a year for $yy and then tried to start charging me the non-promo rate before the 6-12 months were up.

Let me summarize my dish experience. I leased two receivers from them for $1 a month about 4 years ago. Neither receiver ever worked right, dish kept telling me to unplug them and plug them back in again, or to switch them. They didnt work right with my tivo's. The picture quality on local channels is worse than my analog cable signal because they multiplex too many channels into small frequency bands. When I called them to disconnect they tried to ram all sorts of fees up my backside and then insisted that I climb up to the 40' upper roof of my house to remove their LNB (that they installed) and mail it back to them along with the receivers. When the box they were supposed to send me to send the equipment back to them came 2 weeks later, they tried to charge me >$1000 for the equipment as it was late. When I called the VP of customer service and tried to reason with him, he was the biggest a-hole I've ever had the opportunity to speak with. Months later after disputing the charges and filing with the BBB and attorney generals office, they finally reversed the charges they put on my credit cards.

There is a reason why Dish has been sued in many states over their contracts and handling of consumer issues, and lost every time. Theres also a reason why Dish has never (to my knowledge) posted a profit.

I never ever had a problem with Directv. Terrific to deal with, good equipment that never gave me any trouble, it worked great with tivo, when I had problems they fixed them, good picture quality on the local channels and when I disconnected service they went out of their way to be nice to me and make me want to be a customer again.
 
PacBell was sued and lost in California for not allowing "bare DSL." Unfortunately, I don't have a link and I don't know if it was in state court or district court. Maybe if you ask SBC/Pac nicely, they'll tell you. ::)

Edit: http://www.dslreports.com/faq/201
Qwest and Verizon and Covad offer[ed] DSL over a "dry" copper line. I didn't find anything on the lawsuit in CA...I'm pretty sure I didn't dream about it.
 
Not a big fan of Comcast, but I'm hopeful that the competition will eventually bring the lower prices implied...

SBC just finished pulling cable in my neighborhood.
 
Since I lost my free DSL perk from my company at the end of April, I got Verizon 12 month DSL contract with a free wireless modem for $29.95 a month with the 1st month free.
because they have been overselling their DSL service in my area, my connection speed during peek hours has been between 200K and 400k when they advertise the speed to max out at 1500k.
Because I know how to complain, I have been able to get 3 1/2 month of additional credit so I will be paying only 7 1/2 out of the 12 months.

If they continue to provide under 800k connection speeds during the evening hours and parts of the w/e, I will continue to request credits. Maybe my DSL will be free for years to come. :D
 
Just whatever you do, do not try one of those other providers over SBC's bare wire.

My old company did that with me, running covad over sbc (then pac bells) wire. It went out twice and stayed out for more than 2 weeks. It was pac bells problem both times but they refused to show up at the same time as covad, so the pac bell guy would show up and say the lines were fine, then the covad guy would show up and say they werent. Both times it wasnt fixed until I managed to get both of them pulling into the driveway at the same time and kept them from leaving. With the covad guy looking over his shoulder the pac bell guy found the bad line card right away. Then about six months later the same card went bad again. What are the odds?

I checked in with Jim Seymour (the old pc week writer) who lived in new york at the time and he said they were pulling the same stuff on him there with the new york RBOC and a 3rd party DSL provider.

Seemed to us like the gist of it was "if you aint buying your dsl from us, you're going to wish you had".
 
th said:
When I called the VP of customer service and tried to reason with him, he was the biggest a-hole I've ever had the opportunity to speak with.
I hear he's working for GE now...

My parents-in-law are always squabbling with Dish about their free movie coupons. Otherwise their only problem has been keeping the banana leaves trimmed away from the receiver.

After months of kvetching with our Time-Warner CATV & RoadRunner provider, cancelling RoadRunner, and threatening to go to Dish, Time-Warner has been "rebating" our CATV bill to make it just slightly less than Dish. Works for me.

Permanently Unemployed said:
Because I know how to complain, I have been able to get 3 1/2 month of additional credit so I will be paying only 7 1/2 out of the 12 months.
Teach me, teach me! They rarely exceed 600Kbps here. How are they persuaded by your numbers?
 
I lose track of where everyone here lives, but if you live in Verizon territory, they just started offering naked DSL last month. 

th said:
There is some looking into "bare dsl" which is the dsl service over a phone line without any telephone service but chances are the cost will be a few dollars higher.
 
th said:
Both times it wasnt fixed until I managed to get both of them pulling into the driveway at the same time and kept them from leaving.

On an unrelated note....how in the hell did you manage to get two service technicians from different utility companies to pull into your driveway at the same time?!!?!?!?!? Just getting one technician to arrive at an exact time requires divine intervention. The odds of two HAVE to be 2,493,809,344:1. :)
 
Thats easy. They were both showing up almost every other day, I just had to wait a beat on one so they'd get on the same day, and then try to hold one in the hopes the other would show up. Fortunately the covad guy was in a plain white van or I'm sure the pac bell guy would have driven right by.

What was really amazing was the power of the covad guys observation...without him looking the pac bell guy couldnt see anything wrong even with many trips between my house and the phone box up the street and hours and hours of looking. With the covad guy looking, it was about 1 minute to see the problem and 5 to fix it. Amazing. I hope that covad guy got some good bonuses and raises, he was amazing.

I'm sorry, I have to go see if my medical insurance covers surgical removal of the tongue from ones cheek.
 
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