How much do you pay for Internet service?

[Carl]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7961396

kentuck  (1000+ posts)        Sat Mar-20-10 12:40 AM
Original message
How much do you pay for Internet service?
 Remember when Internet was going to be free?

Now it's been taken over by big corporations, like everything else?

They say that there are several countries ahead of the US in broadband Internet development. Wonder why? How many Americans can afford the prices asked by some of these folks?

What do you pay per month? How much do you pay for dial up and how much do you pay for your high speed?

Isn't it becoming monopolized like much of the telephone industry several decades ago? Do we need reform of the tubes?

Anybody getting "free" Internet?
 

Skink  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 12:42 AM
Response to Original message
1. 34.99 but I have just been told that due to a class action lawsuit..
 AT&T could owe me 2 dollars. It's tied up right now in the courts. False advertising or something.

Mz Pip  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 12:47 AM
Response to Original message
6. I have no idea
 It's all bundled up together - internet, cable tv, premium channels. Comcast is making a profit off us, that's for sure.

And yeah, it's becoming a monopoly again,
 

LaPera (1000+ posts)        Sat Mar-20-10 12:51 AM
Response to Original message
7. $50. bucks a month for cable internet - No other high speed where I live.
 so the only cable company has a monopoly. I have no other choice.

Sebastian Doyle  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 01:13 AM
Response to Original message
14. $60/month for ****ing Comca$t
 I have no other options. In this market it's either Comca$t or Qwest DSL, and they want a ****ing $300 deposit before they would hook it up, despite the fact that I had previous phone service with them for 15 years. Even if I had an extra $300 lying around right now, that wouldn't happen.

SoCalDem  (1000+ posts)        Sat Mar-20-10 01:56 AM
Response to Reply #19
22. $83-something for cable-internet & phone package (unlimited calling)..landline..
 Time warner.. they call me all the time to try & get me to switch from Dish for tv..said the package would be cheaper..but I love Dish..and if they offered phone service in my area, I would get internet, tv & phone from them..

msongs  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 03:34 AM
Response to Original message
26. internet should be a public utility NOT run by greedhog anti customer corporations IMO nt

pipoman  (1000+ posts)        Sat Mar-20-10 09:19 AM
Response to Original message
34. $70 for Wild Blue
 pro package which allows for their fastest speeds and largest amount of bandwidth. The speed is halfway between cable/dsl and dialup. It sucks living in the country when it comes to availability to high speed internet. Ma Bell has dsl line just across our road but will not let us buy access..aren't landline telephones close to obsolescence? I hope ATT and Bell are finally broken for their long history of captive market abuse.

I thought that all DUmmies were broke and just barely keeping food on the table.

[NHSparky]

Haven't looked at the breakdown in my cable bill lately.  And no, I'm not going back to dialup.

[franksolich]

Haven't looked at the breakdown in my cable bill lately.  And no, I'm not going back to dialup.

I pay $35.95 a month for wireless, but at times contemplate going back to dial-up.

The climatic and atmospheric conditions around here are pretty volatile, which means at times the service goes "down."  That never happened with dial-up.

So the constant debate within myself: do I want speed with interruption, or no speed with no interruption?

There's also an option for the internet via cable television, but I don't do television, and of course that would double the cost, because one would have to pay for cable television as well as cable internet.

It's six of one thing, half a dozen of another thing.

[NHSparky]

No way I could do satellite here.  Too many trees, weather too volatile for a small Direct TV or Dish setup.  When I still had XM, I had a home unit.  Didn't work, if that tells you anything.

[thundley4]

No way I could do satellite here.  Too many trees, weather too volatile for a small Direct TV or Dish setup.  When I still had XM, I had a home unit.  Didn't work, if that tells you anything.

We had DishNetwork for close to 9 years. The price had went from $72/mo. to over $100/mo.  During that time we had cable for local channels and the internet which cost about $53/mo.    A neighbor's tree finally forced us to drop DishNetwork, but the switch to Comcast for everything actually saved us a few bucks a month. Total bill for TV/internet is $143/mo. which includes two DVR units.

[shadeaux]

Who said the internet would be free ?

We bundle so our monthly bill is over $150.  We have crappy service, lots of outages and the town signed a lifetime deal with a small cable company. I call my service the Bubba Net.

[Lord Undies]

It doesn't matter to me.  I live in U-Verse.  It's a friggin' bargain.

Why-o-why do dumpy Little Goons think a "public" service would be the answer?  Do the Little Goons not realize that - well - take the city water going into their house as an example - if the "public" decided the Little Goon was not worthy of water, the Little Goon would be screwed.  

"One road" may mean "no one gets lost", but it also means "there is no other way to go and I am at the mercy of the one way".  

Idiots.  Goons.  Dumbasses.  All of them.

[Mike220]

$500 a month. All my utilities are rolled in with rent. 

[thundley4]

Mz Pip  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 12:47 AM
Response to Original message
6. I have no idea
 It's all bundled up together - internet, cable tv, premium channels. Comcast is making a profit off us, that's for sure.

And yeah, it's becoming a monopoly again,

Fight the power, DUmp them, DUmmie.  I blame the local municipalities for allowing only one cable company to service a given area. The major cable companies have been fighting to have Dish and DirectTV pay local taxes to try and gain another advantage.

[NHSparky]

$500 a month. All my utilities are rolled in with rent. 

Must be nice.  During the winter my utilities (oil, electric, cable) top that.  During summer, not so much.  Oh, for the days of $500/month rent.

[BEG]

We have AT&T U-Verse. We have the bundle which includes the phone. I won't lie, it is expensitve but we have the tier that has a ton of channels including HBO & Showtime. Even though we only watch a handful of channels. I have to have the HBO & Showtime tier because I have to have my Dexter. I wish we could just pay for the channels we watch.  We have five boxs (or whatever they call them), two of them are DVR's. Each extra box (over the two you get with the package) is over $7 a month.

At first I hated it because it froze all the time but over the last few months it has gotten so much better. We have several options in our area so if we get pissed at AT&T we have others we can use.  

[Mike220]

Must be nice.  During the winter my utilities (oil, electric, cable) top that.  During summer, not so much.  Oh, for the days of $500/month rent.

Be nicer if I lived alone, but I have 2 other roommates in half of a duplex. But I can't really complain cause it's just the right price since I'm not working at the moment and living off my GI Bill.

[ScubaGuy]

msongs  (1000+ posts)      Sat Mar-20-10 03:34 AM
Response to Original message
26. internet should be a public utility NOT run by greedhog anti customer corporations IMO nt

Good idea make it public utility.  It'll then cost at least as much as it does now and kill innovation.  It the internet was a public utility we would all be stuck at whatever broadband speeds were available 10 years ago.   Why would a public utility improve their product when you have a captive market?

The DUmmies don't realize that the connection speeds are getting higher and higher is due to companies competing for their service.

It's nice to have a choice of what service I want and how much do I want to pay for it.  

pipoman  (1000+ posts)        Sat Mar-20-10 09:19 AM
Response to Original message
34. $70 for Wild Blue
 pro package which allows for their fastest speeds and largest amount of bandwidth. The speed is halfway between cable/dsl and dialup. It sucks living in the country when it comes to availability to high speed internet. Ma Bell has dsl line just across our road but will not let us buy access..aren't landline telephones close to obsolescence? I hope ATT and Bell are finally broken for their long history of captive market abuse.

I had Wild Blue until DSL became available and their pro package is more like 1/4 way between dial-up and good DSL.  At very best WB would give me down link of 1.5M and up link about 200K. My DSL package is giving me a consistent 5M down and 680K up.

If you're working on something where latency is an issue you can totally forget satellite. That round trip to space and back take more time than one would think.

[Alpha Mare]

Only satellite here, for TV or internet. Dial-up doesn't work out here because the phone lines are old and,"No, we have no plans to update." Works ok, except for rainy days like today  . The 'fair use' catch sucks when the kids download stuff, and they can't play games online. It's expensive, but it beats living in town. 
We used to have radio internet, worked great, but they shut down.

[thundley4]

Only satellite here, for TV or internet. Dial-up doesn't work out here because the phone lines are old and,"No, we have no plans to update." Works ok, except for rainy days like today  . The 'fair use' catch sucks when the kids download stuff, and they can't play games online. It's expensive, but it beats living in town. 
We used to have radio internet, worked great, but they shut down.

What's the "fair use" catch?

[Carl]

Only satellite here, for TV or internet. Dial-up doesn't work out here because the phone lines are old and,"No, we have no plans to update." Works ok, except for rainy days like today  . The 'fair use' catch sucks when the kids download stuff, and they can't play games online. It's expensive, but it beats living in town. 
We used to have radio internet, worked great, but they shut down.

Same here (Wild Blue) for the exact same reasons,old phone lines and no need for them to be updated.
Part of the trade off of living out in the sticks. 

[Alpha Mare]

What's the "fair use" catch?

Satellite internet providers allow you only so much bandwidth per day, depending on how much you pay. If you excede your use, they slow your connection- 1 day(hughesnet) or more (Wild blue was 1 week).  Considering how much they charge, it's 

[debk]

We have AT&T. 2 phone land lines and DSL and it's about $250 a month.   We're looking at getting rid of one line, and possibly the DSL, if I can figure out if my Verizon aircard (it's $60/mo and I'm 6 months into a 2 yr contract) will work on 2 desktops and 2 laptops.

But I'm also trying to figure out whether to stay with Verizon for my cell or switch to Sprint. Right now Sprint has a better deal for a smart phone, but Sprint does not necessarily work all over my house. AT&T cell phones do not. It's a "line of sight" and that we are down in a hollow, surrounded by very tall trees in a concrete block covered with either stone or stucco house.

We have DirectTV and they don't have satellite internet in this area. Even if they did, it goes out too much with weather issues to be reliable.

No cable in our subdivision because the houses are too far apart and the terrain made it too expensive for a private subdivision.

I'm really frustrated with the entire situation.....and really really irritated with the price of all of it. Including the TV, the land lines, internet access and 3 cell phones....we are paying about $750 or so a month. Way, way too much. 

[thundley4]

Satellite internet providers allow you only so much bandwidth per day, depending on how much you pay. If you excede your use, they slow your connection- 1 day(hughesnet) or more (Wild blue was 1 week).  Considering how much they charge, it's 

Supposedly, Comcast has a 250gB/mo. limit, but we haven't hit that yet.  We've probably came close a few times, though.

[Chris_]

Well....I suppose that I'm one of the ones that (sorta) get my DSL for "free".......

For personal reasons we needed an "unlimited" long-distance plan, so when we went from dial-up to DSL, we got a package for two years, where the DSL cost $19.95/month, and the "all distance" landline, which we already had,  went from $50/month, down to $30/per month......

In essence we receive the two services for the same price that only the long-distance cost before.....

doc

[debk]

Well....I suppose that I'm one of the ones that (sorta) get my DSL for "free".......

For personal reasons we needed an "unlimited" long-distance plan, so when we went from dial-up to DSL, we got a package for two years, where the DSL cost $19.95/month, and the "all distance" landline, which we already had,  went from $50/month, down to $30/per month......

In essence we receive the two services for the same price that only the long-distance cost before.....

doc

We've had DSL since we moved in here 6 years ago.

I think I need to do either some renegotiating or just something...because we're getting screwed.

[Alpha Mare]

We've had DSL since we moved in here 6 years ago.

I think I need to do either some renegotiating or just something...because we're getting screwed.

Yes you are.  ATT DSL (in town) is only $25 mo. Our business acct. is only $60.

[delilahmused]

I pay $35.95 a month for wireless, but at times contemplate going back to dial-up.

The climatic and atmospheric conditions around here are pretty volatile, which means at times the service goes "down."  That never happened with dial-up.

So the constant debate within myself: do I want speed with interruption, or no speed with no interruption?

There's also an option for the internet via cable television, but I don't do television, and of course that would double the cost, because one would have to pay for cable television as well as cable internet.

It's six of one thing, half a dozen of another thing.

You might check with the company, frank. We don't have cable here but the company that does phones/dsl tries to do the bundle thing. I had to ask for it, but can get just dsl. Can't remember what cable company they have at Camp Pendleton but lots of the guys only have internet.

Cindie

[miskie]

I have Comcast for everything, and I am in a market that's transitioning right now to their new Xfinity service which is supposed to compete directly with FiOS from Verizon. So, soon my ridiculously fast internet service will become even faster for no extra cost.

If I recall, we pay something like 170 a month for cable, internet, phone, US long distance, HBO and Starz/Encore.

[zeitgeist]

I have Commie-castic (Comcast) for internet and basic tv at a mere $109.  BTW I recently checked my average usage, 10 gig per month.  I use Hulu, Fox, Tvland to stream lots of stuff which may account for some of it.  We were one of first neighborhoods to be upgraded to a fiber backbone a few years back.  Speed is pretty good.  I usually have up to five computers running hard and wireless with no noticeable problem.