Sprint ION's $100/mo, 8Mbps Home Service Tanks

Dr. Zowie writes: "In the current gloomy high speed connection market, a ray of light was Sprint's ION service. For $100/month, they would provide local phone service, long distance service, and 8mbps down, 1mbps up DSL-like digital connection. I've been waiting for the service to turn on to write a review about it -- but the service has been discontinued and all orders are being cancelled. Too bad -- ION was like a geek dream come true." ION was only available to a relative handful of people, but it sure sounded good. Anyone have suggestions for this sort of combination service?

Comments

Re:MS as telco savior?

[aquarian]

There's a mountain of DSL research that says Bubba was buying DSL (when he bought it at all) primarily for the always-on feature, not for the speed. Folks don't like the dial-up process. Well, Microsoft is heading down a path that will force a lot more dialing up, so it's a safe bet there might be a lot more interest in always-on connections.

Nonsense. I'd like to see your "mountain of DSL research." Most DSL setups are PPPoE, using Microsoft Dial Up Networking, or something like it. So the experience of getting online with DSL is about the same as with a phone line, just a bit quicker. Very few services are "always on," and if you leave them connected, they'll drop you when your connection is idle for awhile, to make room for someone else.

And just because it's advertised that way, doesn't mean it's true (imagine that). Companies ultimately need to find out how customers repond to the product, not just how they respond to the advertising. Perhaps that's why the broadband industry is in trouble. Their marketing departments are incompetent.