AT&T Confirms New DSL Prices/Plans

I'm paying $12.99/mo under their yearly promotional contract for 1.5 speed. If I had known about this change a week in advance, presumably I could have upgraded to 3.0 speed for $17.99/mo and had another yearly contract.

But now, with no more special promotional pricing nor yearly contracts, when my current yearly contract expires in March 2007 it will cost me $19.99/mo for the same 1.5 DSL speed. If I want to accept a 50% speed cut, the price will be $14.99/mo. If I want to upgrade to 3.0 speed that will be $24.99/mo. Those are all reasonable possibilities for me, but I probably won't consider paying more for their new 6.0 speed. I read that although no yearly contract will be required, they'll give a bonus month to those who pay for a year in advance.

They probably figured the market correctly. I will probably stay with my 1.5 DSL speed and pay them $19.99/mo after March 2007. That is cheaper than the dialup ISPs such as AOL, Earthlink, etc. Almost everyone will probably do likewise. From what I read, despite some fears, the transition will be seamless. In other words I shouldn't have to do anything for this to happen automatically. (?)

The problem comes later when they decide that they have a monopoly again, and start jacking up the monthly price. My question is: How long do you think they'll stick with those new monthly rates before they start raising them? My optimistic guess would be 1-2 years. What's your guess?

AT&T DSL has usenet service (newsgroups) although you have to rummage around a little to find the info. I'm using their free nntp service at news.chi.sbcglobal.net which hopefully will continue. I don't use usenet much anymore because with the advantage of DSL speed, the internet forums are just about as fast and are becoming very diverse with the popular phpBB, proBoard, etc forum systems.

I'm not concerned that AT&T doesn't provide free webspace with their DSL plan. I've already made the switch to a satisfactory commercial web host for only $1.99/mo for my personal website, which I found through google searches. Their server space may be slightly oversold (aren't all hosts oversold?), because there are occasional temporary throughput and connection difficulties (who doesn't have occasional outages?). It's OK 99% of the time and for my limited purposes as a personal website. I've even put up a new phpBB forum using a MySQL database on my website without any increase in rate, but there will be increases if my forum becomes very active. phpBB forums are fairly bandwidth-hungry. In that case it might become cheaper to switch to a different web host with a different pricing structure. For those wishing to put up an ordinary personal website without much space or bandwidth requirement, maybe you'll want to take a look. The customer support is very good:

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Broadband to reach 1 billion consumers

Over the next three years brands and marketers, online and offline, will benefit from the use of broadband services. Why? According to a new In-Stat report broadband subscribers will top the 1 billion mark by 2013. This means more consumers online and more consumers utilizing faster online services, all of which means marketers and brands will be able to create more engaging content.

by Kristina Knight

Broadband services allow for quicker downloads of video, audio and flash content. Faster downloads mean consumers are less likely to click away from a page. The longer a consumer remains on site the more apt they are to convert from a window shopper to a buyer.

According to comScore researcher Michael Brown page load times can try consumers' patience, making them click away and - worse yet - not return to a website. According to a comScore report websites with shorter page loads were more likely to have purchases than websites with longer page loads.

"The growing popularity of bandwidth-intensive applications, such as watching online video, using IP-based telephony services, and downloading music files, is spurring global demand for broadband Internet connections," said Mike Paxton, In-Stat analyst.

By the end of 2009 there were 578 million broadband consumers worldwide. That number will double by 2013 as more consumers obtain access to cable modem, DSL and mobile wireless systems.

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Mexico cable operators attack Slim's telecom tie-up

Mexico cable operators attack Slim's telecom tie-up

MEXICO CITY, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Mexico's cable television industry asked the country's antitrust watchdog on Monday to block tycoon Carlos Slim's $21 billion plan to combine his wireless and fixed line telephone operators.

Stocks | Mergers & Acquisitions

The Canitech industry chamber, which includes leading cable operator Megacable (MEGACPO.MX) and companies owned by media giant Televisa (TLVACPO.MX), warned that allowing Slim to combine his assets would create a cartel and cripple competition in Mexico's telecommunications industry.

Slim's America Movil (AMXL.MX), which is Latin America's leading cellphone group, offered last week to acquire the holding company through which he controls dominant Mexican fixed-line operator Telmex (TELMEXL.MX) and regional company Telmex Internacional (TELINTL.MX).

America Movil's Telcel has around 70 percent of Mexico's cellphone market with Spain's Telefonica (TEF.MC) a distant No. 2, but once-frantic expansion in the country and across the region is tapering off.

Once Slim's companies are combined, America Movil will have clients with a total of 250 million connections, making it one of the world's largest telecom operators.

"It would be abhorrent for the Federal Competition Commission to permit ... Telmex and Telcel to formalize and increase what in practice are abuses of their status as dominant carriers in telecommunications," the chamber said in a statement.

Telmex is by far Mexico's largest fixed-line operator with more than 80 percent market share, but cable television companies have begun to grow in recent years by offering their own Internet and phone service. Mexican regulators have blocked Telmex from offering video services, which it says it needs to compete against Televisa.

By tying up his operators, Slim wants to offer customers bundled packages of fixed-line telephone, wireless, Internet and television.

Televisa and cable companies have said they are keen to offer similar packages and that they could bid for wireless frequencies in an upcoming government auction. (Reporting by Noel Randewich)

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