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Broadband Access Without the Pork?
An anonymous reader writes "Like many consumers nowadays, I find more of my time spent on the internet and various wireless devices (e.g. mobile phone). This has gotten to the point where I basically do not use a landline or cable television anymore, and they are essentially pork on my broadband bill, which further subjects the consumer to all sorts of clandestine fees that aren't disclosed until the first bill arrives and add a non-trivial sum (in my case, nearly 100%) to the monthly rate. However, it seems that all broadband access providers have this stipulation, that an internet customer must first have a basic phone or cable TV service in order to sign on for the internet service. Are there any ISPs that can get around this and still deliver broadband internet service at a competitive rate?"
Speakeasy provides me with naked DSL.
Charter Communications does not require cable TV service for their internet plans. And the rates are pretty good too, IMO.
some broadband places may give you a cheaper rate with such pork but not
all of them require it. Also some dsl providers do offer dry pair (or naked)
dsl, but only if you ask. Some digging may be required on your part.
If I could walk that way I wouldnt need cologne.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Bell Sympatico, Rogers, Cogeco, and Telus all offer internet only solutions.
Aley Tannes
I have Verizon Fios 10Mbps up / 2 Mbps down with no other services from them. They also do DSL without phone lines and the only thing you miss out on cost wise is that you start paying the "normal" price right away instead of a 6 month promo price that is then raised to the "normal" price. Of course, if you don't live in Verizon territory, this is completely meaningless.
In my area and within the past two years, AT&T has decided to begin offering DSL without local phone service. Their highest speed plan is about $10 more than if you get it with local phone service, but even still it is only $45. Two years ago when I looked at Comcast in my area, it would've been $54 at least for me to have internet service alone.
Where I live in S. California, Verizon is required to provide dry loops to residences if requested. That is, I have a copper pair which Verizon has provided but overwhich no POTS runs. Just
ADSL. ADSL provided by LinkLine communications with ~7.x
Mbps down, 768 Kbps up.
The cable company I work for will sell you a internet only account. They do however charge you a $10.00 fee on top of your internet bill.
If your area is served by AT&T, ask for a dry-loop DSL line.
it's the same thing, just no dial-tone on the line.
I just got the Elite (up to 6Mbps down/ 768Kbps up) for 35.00 a month.
... offers Dry-Loop DSL for $30 per month, plus the cost of the copper line at around $9.00 a month.
I use Earth Link cable which is just resold Time warner and that is all... no cable TV no land line $41.95/mo
I know that both Verizon and Comcast offer no-strings-attached DSL/cable (at least in my area), although Comcast has a surcharge for TV-less internet that slightly exceeds the cost of their $15/month basic cable package, making it slightly absurd.
However this is all a bit pointless as we have no idea where you are and therefore have no idea what ISPs you can subscribe to. Seriously, wtf? There are no global ISPs. If you're being typically US-centric (nothing really wrong with that here) there still are no national US ISPs. So the question is stupid.
If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
AT&T offers the same for DSL, though they don't really advertise it:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071231-att-offers-20-naked-dsl-if-you-know-where-to-look.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-att-launches-10-dsl-it-hopes-no-one-signs-up-for.html
As always, Google is your friend.
I don't have a land line connected to my Verizon FIOS account.
I recently moved into a rural area where I had no options for cable or DSL from my telco, ended up getting EVDO (mobile broadband) from Sprint. Not as fast as cable, but certainly fast enough to be usable. I got the service directly without tying it to a voice plan, so all I pay for is the EVDO service. I then got myself a Cradlepoint router that let me plug the EVDO modem right into it, becoming as easy to use as a cable modem.
Works really well, speeds similar to DSL. There is a 5GB "cap" but whenever I ask Sprint about it they don't give me the same answer—sometimes I'm told I'll be asked to pay more, other times they say it slides, and I've also been told they have higher-tiered plans but I can't get into one until I exceed the cap regularly. Not sure they know themselves what they're doing. But the service is excellent, and I haven't had any issues with my data usage.
I have broadband internet from Earthlink through Time Warner Cable in New York City. No cable TV or phone. I'm happy with it, moderately cheap, run web/email servers, IP technically dynamic but it hasn't changed in a year, etc.
However, don't get Earthlink digital phone. That sucks fucking shit, horrible service, no one can fix anything. They even *lost* our phone number! (Lot of stories about that online if you search.)
We know where leadership by an anti-intellectual "strongman" who scapegoats minorities and likes boisterous rallies goes
No Comcast does not...
They offer the service, but they tack an additional fee for those who do not subscribe to cable TV that is $2 less than getting basic cable service.
I live in a Time Warner area where they charge an extra $20/mo for *not* subscribing to cable TV. Enter Earthlink. I called them to get the same rate but it doesn't include the $20 monthly surcharge. Here's the kicker, Time Warner came out to connect my service that they provide, install the modem and hand me my first bill. It's 100% Time Warner, they mail me a bill every month for about $45, but because I signed up through Earthlink I don't pay any additional "no cable TV" fees. When I need support, I call Time Warner and get the same crappy (but first party) support that everyone else does. To be honest, I'm not sure what Earthlink does besides provide EMail accounts and hijack my invalid DNS requests.
I believe Earthlink has similar agreements with other coax and DSL providers, you should at least give them a call.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
Here's AT&T's packages.
I do enjoy not having to pay a list of regulatory and gov't fees, also.
AT&T offers the same for DSL, though they don't really advertise it:
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071231-att-offers-20-naked-dsl-if-you-know-where-to-look.html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-att-launches-10-dsl-it-hopes-no-one-signs-up-for.html
From the linked article:
Customers must also order phone service to get the budget-priced DSL service; those looking for cheap, naked DSL should look elsewhere.
Track your TV Shows with your iPhone - FREE
I think that's true in many cases. Like I said in reply to the parent, that's why I think the Netshare program my ISP (Speakeasy) runs is cool. The only problems are that a) Speakeasy isn't cheap and b) you then have to get your neighbors interested/convince them it's not some kind of scam.
"You call it a new way of thinking; I call it regression to ignorance!" -- Operation Ivy
If your local Cable provider is Time-Warner, you can order Road Runner by itself. I can state this authoritatively, because Road Runner is my current ISP. I pay $45/month (though this is going up to $50 next month) and no additional taxes or fees. I am not paying for cable TV because I am not buying cable TV. This has been my arrangement since 2001.
www.wavefront-av.com
I use Time Warner cable internet (I guess they bought Roadrunner or something). 10Mb down, 1Mb up, $45/month. I don't pay for cable or phone through them or anyone else.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
I spelled Verizon wrong.
Verizon Wireless (cell phone) does have the "secret cap", but Verizon FIOS (fiber to the home) does not.
With my 15/15 FIOS connection, I've downloaded 375GB (8% utilization) and uploaded 1887GB (40% utilization) in the past month.
The problem isn't that they give you a discount when you order multiple services, it's that the base 'advertised' price is the one you get when you have multiple services. They charge 'extra' when you only get one service. They say High speed internet is only $39.99/month. Then they say, oh yeah, that's only if you already have cable. Otherwise its $49.99/month. The bill shows up as: $39.99 High speed internet $10.00 Fee
I live in Arkansas and have the Direct Elite 6Mbps service and my bills are EXACTLY $45.00. http://www.att.com/gen/general?pid=11523
They offer a discount for anywhere from 3 months to a year.Then the price goes back to the normal rate.
I assume the basic service you're talking about is the "limited basic"... the one they don't advertise. The cost for standard basic is $1 less than the first digital package, and it's about 3 times the cost of limited basic. Having any type of cable TV service reduces the Internet price from $55 to $45 (in my area anyway). That was useful to me, because we only have the limited basic analog TV package, which cost $13 (at the time I signed up... it has since gone up to ~$16).
So the cost for Internet w/o TV is $55, but the cost for Internet + limited basic TV is $58.
So it rounds out to paying $3/month ($6 now) for the convenience of not having to mount an antenna on my roof... plus we still get TVLand, Discovery and History in addition to a bunch of local networks.
Plus, every 3 months I call them and threaten to switch to a local wireless ISP in my area which would save me $15/month. 3 out of the last 4 times I've tried that, they've put me on a 3-month promotion for $20 off the cost of the Internet service.
I got dry-loop DSL through AT&T.
I don't think that means what you think it means. It sounds like you got "naked" DSL. If you were able to get a dry pair out of an RBOC in the last 5 years I'd be seriously surprised. I dry pair is simply a bare copper pair, with no repeaters, from one location to another, usually cross-connected through your local switching station. It's used typically by the alarm monitoring industry (well, not so much anymore, but it used to be) and people trying to use DSL equipment to make a point to point connection on the cheap across town.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
If you live in Australia, try iiNet. They have ADSL2+ where the others don't, and give you some of the largest caps (they also increase the size of your cap if you pay an extra $10 for VOIP).
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
It's worth noting that a significant portion of most land-line phone bills is various fees and taxes that will go away when you give up the dialtone -- Qwest charges extra for their "naked" line as well, and when you first look at it the price difference is not significant. But tack on the Universal Access Fee, e911 fee, and all the other sundry fees and taxes on dialtone service and it's actually quite a bit cheaper to drop the phone service.
I don't know that AT&T would be cheaper without a dialtone, I'm just saying it's important to note the non-trivial "other charges" section of the bill when you're comparing the price.