RSSSBC Offers $15 Per Month Broadband
By Ed Oswald | Published June 1, 2005, 11:27 AM
SBC Communications significantly lowered the prices of its DSL service on Wednesday, cutting the monthly fee by 25 percent. Subscribers will now be able to get broadband Internet for $14.95 per month, which is $5 lower than prior fees. The new pricing structure now makes SBC competitive with dial-up services, and one of the lowest prices for broadband in the country.
Why is SBC doing this? Company executives have said they only have another two or three years before cable companies will be able to offer similar services that could essentially replace phone companies for voice, video and data.
SBC has found through internal research that once a customer has a DSL line, the chances of churn decrease significantly. The company has done well, adding 500,000 new DSL subscribers in the first quarter of this year alone.
Currently, cable companies provide about 60 percent of the broadband access in the United States. This is primarily due to the fact that cable was intitally able to deploy itself much faster than DSL. However, in recent months, DSL has made a comeback through aggressive pricing.
For example, in the Philadelphia area, a consumer can get high-speed Internet through their cable line for a $42.95 monthly fee. However, that same customer can get broadband at the same speed through Verizon DSL for only $29.95 per month.
"It's about market share," SBC CEO Edward Whitacre told Reuters. "The sooner we get there and the bigger piece of market we get, the better off we are. It's essentially us and the cable companies vying for that."
There is no price hike at the end of the years contract with SBC. ive had the service for about 2 1/2 years and my brother and one of his friend got it about 1 1/2 years ago. I tryed cable and they were fast, but they sent me a letters saying i went over my download and upload limit.So I asked what the limit was. They wouldnt or couldnt tell me.At least I have full use of SBC without restrictions and I like that
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|Let me guess like the last deal it will say you already have DSL :P. So if I call in for bosses home I will not get it? He did not re-sign and went from cheap to $55.## a month. Thats right, you have to renew at a new rate each year (except our biz package at work.). So it really is not a good deal. I rather stick with Comcast at $42.95 ( has not gone up) no contract and the speeds are very near advertised.
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|Yeah, wonderful, at least until you read fine print. Whic states after the first year, the rate will go up to whatever the "current rate at the time" is. See below (I copy pasted this straight from their site):
*$14.95 promotional pricing available for new SBC Yahoo! DSL residential customers who purchase the DSL Express service. SBC Yahoo! Pro service available for $24.99 promotional price for residential customers. Offers only valid for orders placed online at www.sbc.com or http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/; other third party channels excluded. Static IP products not included. This online price is a limited time offer. Offer not valid with any other SBC Yahoo! DSL promotion. SBC local service and one year term required. $200 early termination fee. At end of term, then-current monthly rate applies. $150-$200 additional charge if technician install is required or desired. Equipment charges will appear on the first bill along with any corresponding and offsetting instant credits. Laptop users and some desktop users may need to purchase an Ethernet card. Billing begins on service activation date. Service not available in all areas. Subject to change without notice. Maximum speed achieved depends on customer location. Acceptance of Terms of Service required. Taxes and additional fees & surcharges extra. Other restrictions apply.
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|This is the value point price for me.
How do I sign up for this
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|I must say that I have had both Verizon DSL and Time Warner's DSL service. I disagree with SBC that this is, as stated by another poster, a "Cable Killer" move. DSL provides (as it is used currentally) not as much "speed" as cable does. With my $48 Road Runner now I am getting up to 6M, while verizon only provided 1.5M. If SBC was here, this isn't something worth switching to DSL for as I would miss my grreat broadband connection. This should only be for dial-up users not yet ready to make the switch to full cable broadband, the future of the internet.
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|Sorry to be a nitpick, but...
1) Currently is spelled 'Currently', not 'Currentally'
2) Someone just said verizon provides 3.0mbit down, not 1.5mbit.
3) Cable is NOT the future of the internet. Cable is outdated and slow - OLD technology. Fiberoptics/VDSL are the future of the internet.
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|You have to pay much more to get 3.0 over 1.5 with Verizon as well. Also, 3.0 depending on where you are to the CO. We all can't be right next door to it, which means the majority of the subscribers will have lower bandwith in the .5-2M vicinity, muss less than cables 7M.
VDSL is only good if you have the wiring for it. For the near future cable is clear winner.
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|Just to put in my $0.02... I was with Comcast paying ~$50/mo and typically getting 500k down except durring 5-8pm when it foten dropped to 100-200k... this was ~4yrs ago. Then Wide Open West came to town and I got 700k (suppossedly) for $25/mo... I'm still with WOW in a different city and the service I get is supposed to be 4M down... I've tested it on several occasions against different destinations and it's usually in the 500-700k range... the peak I've seen is 950k... they just raised their rates, so I'm paying about $80/mo for internet access and basic analog cable. This Yahoo deal isn't sounding too bad...
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|That is great news. Now if only our phone
company we've been with for 30 years could
get dsl out here, we would be good to go.
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|Wish it--or any form of broadband, for that matter (except satellite, which is coming this summer but will be prohibitively expensive)--were available in my area...
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|I would move. In fact, I did move to a place I was certain I would have broadband. if your job depends on it, then it's a small sacrifice.
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|It is over simplistic and misleading to pit different "broadband" technologies against each other on price alone. With all due respect the article looks more like a puff piece for SBC DSL! It does not address speeds or hidden costs.
SBC's Yahoo DSL Express service has 1.5Mb Download/384K Upload. Verizon's DSL service is 3.0Mb Download/768K Upload. Both of these services may require you to have a landline (e.g. about $20 for no frills service). You also have to sign a minimum of one year contract. By contrast Comcast cable has 4.0Mb Download/384K Upload, no contracts to sign, and no landline requirement.
The real cost of SBC DSL Express service can be $35/mo. This can be a bargain if you don't care about speed too much and have a need for a physical land line (e.g. DirecTV, security system). However, this also assumes you will be happy stuck with a contract and tolerate any problems with service.
I think DSL providers should offering more value rather than misleading customers on price alone. Such offerings could include naked dsl, no contract, higher speeds, unlimited LD (to compete with vonage), etc. I'm sticking with my cable internet and vonage for now.
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|Actually I have SBC, and while it is "Only" 1.5/384. It really is that speed where as some of the Cable services I had were rated higer and went slower.
My "Land Line" is $6 a month. And I use it for my Tivo to make calls as my phone is a MetroPCS Cellular unlimited for $45 a month.
It works out that My internet is $24 a month including all taxes and fees. Not bad at all. My Xbox Live, and MMORPG of the month costs more than the internet access.
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|One issue that I've always found is that bandwidth comparison between DSL and Cable is hands down better value through cable. You consistently get more bandwidth per dollar on cable, which I utilize. However, this is a great opportunity for dial up users to move onto broadband which offers a better browsing experience. Overall a good move for DSL, but not a "cable killer" move.
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|Hey! All I needed to hear! I'm switching to SBC...
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|We sell a product that is used over the web. Our customers need to use broadband to get complete use of the product we sell, and I have never seen anyone who has more problems than with SBC. It's always difficult.
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|From what I've heard from others and what I observe, most 'problems' with SBC are due to their lack of complete antivirus solution/etc. People ping your address so much it boggs the connection, etc. With a good AV scanner and firewall SBC works fine for those I've spoken to. Of course having never used it myself I could definately be wrong.
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|Although I have no experience with SBC DSL, I DO have experience with their ISDN and Phone services. And, "service" does not exist with these guys. As soon as cable came to our area (Adelphia), I dropped the ISDN as fast as possible, and I love the cable. With SBC, EVERY time I called for "support", all I got was routed around all over in infinite phone-transfers, and then, when any "support" would supposedly occur, 3/4 of the time the problem was WORSE after SBC touched it. I don't care how cheap they offer a service, I'd NEVER go back to them.
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|When I had their phone service everytime it rained I lost my ability to use the phone for a day or two. After about 30 times of calling to gripe about that they finally sent a work crew out. The next time it rained my phone stayed on but my neighbor came over and asked me if my phone still worked because his went out. It seems like instead of actually fixing the problem the just switched it to someone they hoped would complain less.
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|I have SBC DSL and so far it has been a great service. I have 3.0M/384K service and my download is consistently at 2.5M. I switched from cable about a year ago when I found out that DSL was half the cost of cable at the same speed.
Toledo is broadband impotent so you take what you can get.
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|Rain causing phone lines to fail is common with almost any phone service around here--squirls chew the lines and water gets in em (you laugh, I worked for a local ISP for over a year and DOZENS of reports specifically mentioned squirls as the cause of the problem, SBC or no!) They probably fixed your phone lines but not your neighbors...odd though usually the lines replaced should make better service for the surrounding areas as well...were your neighbors on a different block on the street?
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