You'll never see broadband as cheap as dial-up, and rightly so. My DSL cost roughly double of what my dial-up service used to cost, but it is WAY fast. I suffered through dial-up HELL for years because that was the only gig in town. With my broadband there is no more slow downloads, no annoying connection sounds and wait, no tied up phone lines, yea I really miss dialing up! ;-) The extra cost of broadband is worth it to me!
-- Joe Michel NAR 82797 L1
To Frank Udon:
Frank, I created a flyer for the Discovery Channel Show for your consideration. Where should I send it?
Rich Kroboth TRA#4148 L2 Reply to: snipped-for-privacy@optonline.net
sorry mark. you have ANY idea how much that costs !!!
$680 in Equipment that YOU HAVE to buy PLUS $60 to $90 a month depending on their mood.
and you must sign up for a 1 year contract even after buying the equipment. sometimes they have half off sales on the equipment.
they do have a slightly lower cost option. $100 setup and then a non optional $100 a month for 15 months (thats $1600 for 15 months) and then you can go to the then current monthly rate (right now its $60 a month and that could change)
VERY VERY Expensive option. Most if not many people would rather live with dial up than pay that much money.
for a setup fee of $600 you own the equipment right off and then pay $60 a month. and you STILL are stuck in a 15month contract.
I was looking into it for something to give me broadband "live" on the field. figured I could dish out the bucks for the hardware (did not know it was $600) and then just pay for 2 months a year (july and august)
no go all plans require 15month contract. not even a year but 15 months !
Ouch so you only save $100 over the 99/99 plan.
Chris Taylor
by the way for me to do it I would have to pay $600 for equipment (might be able to get away with $400 for equipment since I will need no install but install might be mandatory whether you need it or not)
and then eat the $300 termination fee and then only sign up when I want to (if they allow such a thing)
either way I am looking at a grand to get going not including monthly fees.
Ouch
ehh just plug it into a router.
unless it > >
Ya, but direcway sucks like a 40 lb. leech! I know because I've had their so-called "service" for some time now. To be honest I have to say it usually is somewhat faster than a dialup connection, but nowhere near as fast as they advertise it to be. And their support is an absolute joke! It simply doesn't exist. And, from what I've heard from several of their other customers I'm one of the lucky ones because my direcway "service" actually works once in a while. Too bad they don't have any competition. I'd switch in a heartbeat if I could.
Regards, Michael Newton
because you are both connected by a different medium that is otherwise not controlled by any one COMPANY
The internet is not on your phone you just connect TO the internet via your phone line (or broadband connection)
if the phone company could stop you from doing that they would but to the net packets is packets whether it be your conversation or taht jpeg download.
Chris, using his rather, um, unique way of explaining things, is pretty much correct.
Programs like IPhone simply convert your voice to data, which is then sent out onto the internet packetized. The "network" couldn't care less what *kind* of data's there. When your data arrives at it's destination IP, it's decoded by the software running on the end machine.
IMHO though, the quality does not match POTS, but it's definitely still useable.
I use MS Netmeeting in conjunction with a webcam when I tele-commute/code/design for several clients that are way far away. It operates in pretty much the same way. My clients love it, as they get the same programming support at a vastly reduced rate, and I love it because my "commute" to the jobsite is about 25 feet. It runs pretty much all day, and it's kinda like having an open phone connection, or conference call. I can hear the PA there in the background, printers running, towmotors driving by, etc., just as if I was sitting at a "tube" onsite. The video is nice too, but a little blocky. Nevertheless, quite useable.
IIRC, the major phone companies *did* get bent out of shape about this awhile back, but either they were told "tough noogies", or the issue just died off, probably in much the same way as the Post Office's issue with email.
tah
Time usage billing has been the phone comapny metholology to maximize revenue for light users for decades.
You will find that in local markets there are now flat rate unlimited usage phone plans from $20 to $60 per month and DSL for between $30 and $60 per month.
It is a way to make a profit off a multi-billion dollar network with recurring repair and maintenaince needs.
Jerry
Ray,
You have to be a Direcway customer BEFORE they'll let you see their "Fair Access Policy (FAP)" When I first signed up the policy was in effect but they hid it from customers. Eventually they posted it on their useless web site; probably because so many customers were complaining about the service suddenly slowing to a crawl for no known reason. This is typical of Direcway's lousy service.
Here's the text of their FAP policy (from their mydirecway.com site):
"Fair Access Policy
To ensure equal Internet access for all DIRECWAY® subscribers, Hughes Network Systems maintains a running average fair access policy. Fair access establishes an equitable balance in Internet access across Satellite broadband services by service plan for all DIRECWAY customers regardless of their frequency of use or volume of traffic. To ensure this equity, customers may experience some temporary throughput limitations. DIRECWAY Internet access is not guaranteed. This policy applies to all service plans including "Unlimited" plans where customers' use of the Service is not limited to a specific number of hours per month.
DIRECWAY® system usage data indicates that approximately 5% of subscribers are responsible for a disproportionate share - often as much as half - of the total DIRECWAY service traffic. Unfortunately, many of those subscribers are not using DIRECWAY for its intended purpose.
To ensure that all DIRECWAY subscribers have fair and equal access to the benefits of the Satellite broadband service, DIRECWAY has enacted a Fair Access Policy (FAP) to prevent abusive consumption of bandwidth by a handful of users.
FAP is straightforward: based on an analysis of usage data, Hughes Network Systems has established a DIRECWAY usage threshold well above the maximum typical usage rates. When a customer exhibits patterns of system usage which exceed that threshold for an extended period of time, the FAP may temporarily limit that subscriber's throughput to ensure the integrity of the system for all DIRECWAY subscribers.
Typically, the restrictions will be lifted within 8-12 hours of the original application of the FAP if the customer's usage in this period stays below the FAP threshold.
For example, you may experience FAP if the cumulative requested downloads in a relatively short time period (1-4 hours) exceeds 169 MB* (megabytes). An example of what can be downloaded within 169 MB* would be a software application such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Adobe Acrobat. Normal Internet surfing, on the other hand, generates small downloads for each Web page viewed. For example, an hour of surfing can generate 1-10 MB of download activity depending on the content being surfed - well below the amount required to trigger FAP.
Subscribers are likely to avoid the limitations imposed by the FAP if their use is typical of the majority of Internet users and consists of Web surfing and a reasonable amount of downloading.
We live out in the sticks and had to cut down several (10-15) large fir and cedar trees to get a clear path to their satellite. But that was something I had planned to do anyway. It really opened up our view of the Columbia River.
Yes, it's very expensive. If you look around you may be able to get the equipment and installation free, but you'll probably have to sign a contract which obligates you to keep the service for a specified length of time. If you cancel the service early they slam your credit card big time.
Another thing they don't tell you about is their subscriber agreement. It's a bunch of lawyer-type weasel words that basically say that they have all the rights and the customer has none. One little tidbit is that they do not have to provide any minimum level of bandwidth to the customer.
Regards, Michael Newton
If you define "screwing people" as "providing a service for which different-but-cheaper alternates exist"...
-dave w
Well, for one thing, I'd suspect that the POTS industry has a *much* larger installed base than the Internet. I don't remember the exact estimate of worldwide Internet connections, but I'd bet there are gobs more phones out there. Technically a bigger, more flexible network... for voice at least.. You're paying for that via your international tolls.
If you want access to that one person in Finland that does not have an internet connection capable of handling voice-over-IP, then the good 'ol telephone is the only way, and you'll pay the big bucks to get that access.
Now, if you can talk ol' Olaf into getting a decent computer, and at least 56K throughput, you'd be cooking with IPhone...
tah
It is merely PRICED differently. Nobody on the internet is doing cost recovery except ISP's themselves.
The phone company has to do cost recovery for every link of "las mile" already installed, every link from last mile to OC (swotch), and of course the trunk lines and long hauls.
70% of INSTALLED Internet long haul, for example becaused of nearly zero cost recovery, is dark and unused.There are obvious economic imbalances that have not been corrected and were probably dramatically exaserbated by government policies and regulations.
So sufffer, shut up, and hang on. Do NOT violate any of the HSA rules (gestapo).
Jerry
He obviously does. He should limit his rocket purchases and activities that are available at wal-mart to experience a dramatized version of what he proposes.
Jerry
And IIRC the satellite dish connections don't support things like VPN due to the time delays and are designed for primarilly downloading (surfing) and not uploading (running your own web server). Upload thruput is WAY lower than download. Satellite dishes may work in plaes that don't have hard lines, but they aren't the solution for everything.
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
The place you get the big savings on DSL vs dialup is the connect charges. I was dialing in to work using a company credit card. Even though the company was reimbursing me onthe order of $15 per month for the second line, the credit card charges were an order of magnitude more than that. The "forced" me to upgrade to something better and cheaper.
Bob Kaplow NAR # 18L TRA # "Impeach the TRA BoD" >>> To reply, remove the TRABoD!
Is there really that much difference in the operating costs? Cable uses an existing network (the same one they use to deliver your TV signals), so how much more did they actually have to invest to add internet access? I'm not very familiar with DSL, but doesn't it also use existing wiring from the phone lines?
In any case, I don't see why market forces wouldn't eventually drive down the cost of broadband access, just as we've seen happen with long distance rates, cellular phones, etc.
Sure, its simple. packet switching in the internet case vs. point to point connections for dial up phone.
PTP connections cost more to nail up. packet switching is cheap cause other peoples hardware is doing the work.
No and one could argue the cost per MG is so much lower with internet links than phone lines that internet links are and should be lower cost.
The disconnect comes in with cable utilities being more recent private enterprises with fewer traditional price controls or precidents than phone utilities.
Jerry
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