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Dial-Up Users "Don't Want Broadband"
Barence writes "The majority of dial-up Internet users say they don't want to upgrade their connection to broadband, according to a new study in the US. The Pew Internet & American Life research found that 62% of dial-up users had no interest in upgrading to a high-speed connection." (CNN is carrying the AP's story on the study, too.)
Interestingly, the percentage of dial-up users lacking interest in high-speed connections was identical to the minimum age at which such disinterest is first seen.
I don't know if it'll still connect (though I suspect it would...), but by the time I was in high school, broadband had so permeated my neighborhood that my dialup provider didn't even bother deactivating inactive accounts. Three years after we switched to broadband, we could still use our dialup service when the cable was down.
Dialup was good enough back in the day. Couldn't -- and still can't -- beat $4.95/mo when 90% of all you needed to do is check your email once a day, which pretty much describes the internet habits of my parents. If they needed anything bandwidth intensive, they'd usually just take care of it at work.
I think the only reason my parents switched to broadband was because I would spend hours tying up the phoneline when I was IMing my friends.
I've been sticking with dial-up service because high speed Internet's too much money for me. It's an added monthly fee that I just don't need. I can make do with dial-up. Turn off graphics and Flash and most web pages load just fine on a 56K dial-up connection. I just download patches for my Mac while I'm at work. I don't have a cell phone or cable TV either. I think I was just raised frugally.
There is a fair chunk of "satellite is the only high speed option" people. Satellite is way to expensive for what it is.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Makes this article all the more interesting...
"according to Ofcom, they [anyone who doesn't want to pay for broadband] are excluded from broadband ... we all know the next step: the rest of us will be forced to finance broadband for the digitally excluded."
It's the same phenomenon that leaves me shaking my head every time they interview some laid-off Detroit autoworker who says something like "This is what I've done my whole life. What am I going to do now?" The obvious questions would be "Good Lord man, you didn't see this coming?" and "Why didn't you get some training or find a field with a brighter future in the last few decades?" Sometimes you just get used to doing something one way, and are lethargic about changing.
You CAN teach an old dog new tricks, you just have to kick him in the ass sometimes to get him out of his rut.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Offer someone a connection that doesn't tie up their phone line, is always on and is the same speed or faster than their current connection FOR THE SAME PRICE and of course they'll take it. Even those 19%, who probably misunderstood the question.
Anyone else miss the days where you could go make a cup of coffee while awaiting the interminable loading that accompanied nubile photography? My favourite was the glorious sound of connecting to the rest of the world though. Reminds me of that time I put my cat through the paper shredder.
There are exceptions for even this. My grandmother, before she passed away, was on $20/month dialup. Broadband in the area the last time I visited: $14/month for their cheapest package(512k).
She didn't want to change.
I don't read AC A human right
Linux suppot for dialup is next to nil. Yes it's because of those winmodems, but you'd think a couple of the common chipsets would be reverse engineered or something could be done like ndiswrapper.
I mention this cause I have a friend who got a machine with vista and it runs fairly slow, I was going to set him up with linux, but realized he uses a winmodem for dialup. So that blew that idea.
Many rural areas still lack broadband access. My father lives in such an area where even the dialup is run out of a closet leased from the local funereal home. There is no cable television provider, and he is far outside the allowable distance from the CO for DSL.
Yeah, he's in the middle of nowhere in Utah, but then again a lot of the population lives in rural areas with similar constraints.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
There are certain technologies that just aren't compelling until you've actually experienced them, and had a chance to explore the possibilities they give you.
DVRs would be a prime example. Nobody realizes what a difference timeshifting with a season pass makes, until they use one. It converted me from a non-watcher to a fairly avid TV fan, since my primary block was scheduling.
Broadband is another. My parents didn't understand why it was compelling either, until I finally more or less browbeat them into getting a connection. -Now- they get it, and wouldn't go back to dialup for the world.
Once you have it, the value proposition becomes pretty obvious: always on, internet being easily available to all computers in the house, a -lot- faster, more types of websites available, being able to effectively use web-apps, not having to worry about missing emergency calls from relatives (no matter how you configure the modem, sometimes the call-waiting beep doesn't disconnect it) and so on.
I'm not saying these techs are right for everyone. I am saying that in many ways, they're transcendent, and you can't make a good judgment about them until you've actually experienced them.
Why should someone pay more money for broadband for the purpose of watching glitzier advertising?
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Basic AT&T DSL is $19.99/month not that much more that dial-up. Other DSL providers have a basic DSL setup that is 384KBPS or 512KBPS which is way more than the old dial-up users need but cost less than that $22 AOL dial-up account that most of them have. In fact AOL will work with the DSL company to offer AOL access and software through the DSL and keep their email and web sites.
It is when you need the 1.5MBPS or higher speeds that you pay a higher price for.
I should note that a lot of dial-up customers still use Windows 95/98/ME systems and some form of WINMODEM and lack the basic Ethernet card needed for most broadband connections. A lot of broadband services no longer give that free Ethernet NIC, but people can buy them for $35 or under and install them themselves if they knew how. Just that the average person doesn't know how to open up their computer and stick in a card to upgrade it even if their lives depended on it.
Also Cable and Satellite companies offer broadband as part of a package deal to make things more affordable and so do local phone companies as well. So we can rule out that it isn't affordable, because it is affordable.
Most POTS systems only get like 33KBPS even if they support 56KBPS protocols due to line noise, as they are forced to connect at lower speeds.
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what makes you think that being out in buttfuck does not equal being in civilization ? Civilization does not equal 'living in a city'.
I've lived in many different places, some rural and some not, the thing I noticed is that it doesn't really matter whether you're in a rural area or not, the big deciding factor for a carrier to install broadband is COMPETITION.
As soon as they start losing their dial up customers to some yokel with a wifi hookup they make sure broadband becomes available pronto.
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