I telephoned AT&T today, just to make sure that my DSL contract has passed and I'm now a month–to–month customer. Their customer service person confirmed that and let slip that they're raising the price US$ 5 per month. Circumstances dictate an economy drive, so we would like to ditch our analogue telephone (POTS) line, which seems to cost us upwards of US$ 30 every month, with US$ 20 on top of that for DSL.
A little digging today unearthed the following options for Internet service...
- Satellite Internet: US$ 400 equipment and installation plus US$ 60/month for service. Massive latency.
- Terrestrial fixed wireless: US$ 150 installation plus US$ 50/month, sketchy about technical details but at least they've heard of Linux.
- GPRS/EDGE: US$ 10/month for additional telephone number, US$ 20/month for service. Slower than ISDN BRI with much higher latency.
Earthlink DSL looked promising at US$ 30/month, but they will not (or perhaps can not) provision a dry loop. I'm open to other suggestions!
3 comments:
Cable is off the list if saving money is the goal (I've got cable + Vonage). Mobile broadband from Sprint is $60/mo unlimited (internet only), plus the wireless phone (varies based on minute plans). Slow slow DSL is probably the cheapest, unfortunately. I pay more to avoid the phone company (though I pay for some gamer's package for cable to get the fastest speed).
GPRS/EDGE would be least expensive because I wouldn't have to pay US$ 30/month for the phone line. Sadly it's also glacially slow.
Less severe satellite option: WildBlue want US$ 250 for equipment and $55/month for service.
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