DSL Phone Bill Pricing...How does it work? (1 Viewer)

[DeathStar1]

Question..

I have a 2.5 KB/s Connection. So, as you can tell, it takes me HOURS to download something like a 35MB AOL Setup file. So, every now and then I've had to leave AOL on all night to complete the download, if it ever does, since AOL stays connected longer than Prodigy.

However, I apparently chose the wrong local Accees number when I re-installed AOL, because instead of a $150 phone bill, we've got a $500 phone bill. About 2/3's of it was because of my internet connection.

If we had DSL, how does the phone line bill with that work? Is there major reduction, since it's on 24/7 with no way to turn it off? Is it just the amount that you pay for the online service that is offering you the connection, say 47$'s per month?

This could be a major turning point in my familly switching over to DSL, wich I so desperatly want. I can pay for it, but they still arn't convinced of it yet...

Any help will be appreciated..

 

[RobertR]

DSL is not related to your voice phone usage at all, and you make voice and fax calls the same way you always do. It's a flat monthly fee, with unlimited usage. The fee is typically $50 a month.

 

[BrianB]

Gulp, Neil, you *need* flat rate access asap. The beauty of DSL service is that it's flat rate - you pay one monthly fee for it & that's it - you do not pay for the length of time you're own, nor the amount of data you transfer with it.

 

[Matt_R]

Hi Neil,
As a fellow neighbor here in Wyckoff, I can help you out. I currently have DSL through www.speakeasy.net - I highly recommend them. DO NOT go for Verizon's DSL service... it blows.
I live in a big old house with a couple other guys, so we split our DSL - it's 1.5/384 service. So it's as fast as a T1 down, and we split the cost of $90/month 3 ways. Not a bad deal.
HOWEVER, Cablevision is finally starting to get their act together after what, 5 years of promises to do their upgrade and give us digital cable and internet access. As of right now, many streets in Wyckoff are wired for www.optimumonline.com - Check out your street. It's only something like $30-40 month and is sometimes FASTER than the 1.5/384 service we have now. Sucks for me that when I type in my address, all the homes with address of 300 and higher HAVE it available... I'm below 300! So people just about 5 house up the street have optimumonline.
Oh well, it will be here soon for me. I'm sure you've seen those Cablevision vans around?? Have you noticed big grey boxes on the telephone poles with Green/red lights?? those are the digital cable junction boxes. That should give you a good indication as to if it's available too.
As far as convincing your parents, how about the COST factor?? I'm assuming you have another dedicated phoneline for the modem, right? What does that cost?? 20-30 month? And how much is AOL these days? 22-25 month?? Well, if you get cable, you can ditch the other line and have the whole package for 30-40 month. And it's always on and FAST FAST FAST.
Hope this helps, and good luck!

 

[DeathStar1]

>>
HOWEVER, Cablevision is finally starting to get their act together after what, 5 years of promises to do their upgrade and give us digital cable and internet access. As of right now, many streets in Wyckoff are wired for www.optimumonline.com - Check out your street. It's only something like $30-40 month and is sometimes FASTER than the 1.5/384 service we have now. Sucks for me that when I type in my address, all the homes with address of 300 and higher HAVE it available... I'm below 300! So people just about 5 house up the street have optimumonline.
>>
I always used to joke that Cablevision was too busy buying up stadiums and chain stores to upgrade our cable. It took us 6 years to get Cartoon Network for petes sake. However, that joke might not be too far from the truth. And yep, I've seen the grey boxes on the Telephone poles about a street or two down from mine, but I don't think we have any on ours. I don't know how many houses one box serves, so who knows if it's in our area yet. I havn't checked in a while.
As far as your situation goes, it's understandable .
You don't know how damned happy I was to finally see all those Cablevision trucks running around the neighborhood. Are ALL Cable companies as slow as TCI/Cablevision? I have a feeling that the only reason we are getting TV Land now, is because they figure they better offer SOMETHING for all of the pissed off Yankee fans that arn't getting the YES network. Cheap bastards, the YES people want to offer it on the basic service, they want to charge for it. As if the $50 a month cable bill we re paying them dosn't give them enough. Thankfully, I'm not a sports fan, so I don't mind missing the YES network. I'd rather have TV land, or the Gameshow Network .
As far as the price goes, that's exactly the argument that I'm using, however they arn't buying it. If we ditch AOL and Prodigy, we'd be paying the same amount for DSL anyway. However, with my online hosting buisness, I only have two customers at late, so they don't want to go for it yet. I plan on re-launching my buisness website with a friends redesign, and really start to advertise it. 8 customers is my target, and hopefully that will be enough to let them have me get the online service .

 

[DeathStar1]

>>Gulp, Neil, you *need* flat rate access asap. The beauty of DSL service is that it's flat rate - you pay one monthly fee for it & that's it - you do not pay for the length of time you're own, nor the amount of data you transfer with it. >>
That's what I was hoping would be the case . I told them that the other day, and they seemed a bit more open for it. However, they still want me to be making more money than I am now in order to get it. Maby I shouldn't have quite my job at Blockbuster to go to that shoddy Katherine Gibbs College thinking I'd get a better job with their placement program .
As far as the first poster goes, what does it connect through? For some reason, I always thought it went through your regular phone line? Unless, of course, it's a cable modem service.

 

[BrianB]

DSL goes through your regular phoneline, but with a lot of services you still need to 'connect' to the server at the other end of the line when your computer switches on. It's not a big deal.

All your phones on that one line need filters on them to filter out the computer frequencies but that's no big deal - your DSL provider will sort all that out for you.

As someone else said, if you're already paying for a second line + AOL + paying for each call, DSL will really help your bills.