Tretakoff Musings
Friday, January 12, 2007
The Clash said it best
Should I stay or should I go now?
The quandary: I currently have Comcast for my broadband service; paying them about $60 a month. Speed, according to the CNet bandwidth measurement tool, is about 476.5 kbps. For my Phone service, I pay AT&T for their VOIP service about $30 a month: unlimited calls, great features.
My router is starting to fail, so I'll get a new one, but it made me wonder: were there other providers that could do the job for me? Lo and behold,DSL has finally made it's way to my neighborhood.
Looks like AT&T/Yahoo's system to determine if service is available at an address needs work. After a 45 minute chat online with a rep, she verified service is NOT available. Sigh. Read on for details for your research.
AT&T/Yahoo will give me DSL that is 6 Mbps for about $40; 3 Mbps for $25 a month. Roughly half the cost of cable, and almost 10x the speed. Plus, they'll sweeten the pot with a $75 prepaid VISA. Potentially, I could save even more if I combine with Cingular (which changes it's name to AT&T Monday). Downside? I have to put a phone line back in. Of course, they offer an "all you can eat" phone service for $40 a month, or I could just get a basic line for $10 and keep my VOIP.
Monthly total for broadband & phone today: $90
With AT&T:
1) $80 for 6 MBPS & Unlimited calling line
2) $70 for 6 MBPS & VOIP
3) $65 for 3 MBPS & Unlimited Calling
4) $55 for 3 MBPS & VOIP
If you'd like to benefit from my research, and see if this would work for you, I've put together a Google spreadsheet for you to use. Good luck!
The quandary: I currently have Comcast for my broadband service; paying them about $60 a month. Speed, according to the CNet bandwidth measurement tool, is about 476.5 kbps. For my Phone service, I pay AT&T for their VOIP service about $30 a month: unlimited calls, great features. My router is starting to fail, so I'll get a new one, but it made me wonder: were there other providers that could do the job for me? Lo and behold,
Looks like AT&T/Yahoo's system to determine if service is available at an address needs work. After a 45 minute chat online with a rep, she verified service is NOT available. Sigh. Read on for details for your research.
AT&T/Yahoo will give me DSL that is 6 Mbps for about $40; 3 Mbps for $25 a month. Roughly half the cost of cable, and almost 10x the speed. Plus, they'll sweeten the pot with a $75 prepaid VISA. Potentially, I could save even more if I combine with Cingular (which changes it's name to AT&T Monday). Downside? I have to put a phone line back in. Of course, they offer an "all you can eat" phone service for $40 a month, or I could just get a basic line for $10 and keep my VOIP.Monthly total for broadband & phone today: $90
With AT&T:
1) $80 for 6 MBPS & Unlimited calling line
2) $70 for 6 MBPS & VOIP
3) $65 for 3 MBPS & Unlimited Calling
4) $55 for 3 MBPS & VOIP
If you'd like to benefit from my research, and see if this would work for you, I've put together a Google spreadsheet for you to use. Good luck!
