June 17th, 2006
AT&T Standalone DSL — What a Savings
By Michael Santo
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
As part of the merger of AT&T and SBC last year, the company is required to offer standalone DSL for two years. This week the company quietly started offering the service. So quietly I, as an AT&T DSL subscriber, didn’t hear about it.
Unbundling DSL from phone service makes sense, what with so many people using cellular phones. And many advocates expected a savings of about $15 a month, based on typical costs for phone service alone. But don’t get rid of your landline yet, because the savings are a grand total of … $1 a month.
DSL costs $29.99 a month, but AT&T (formerly SBC) also required subscribers to use its telephone service, which with taxes comes to about $16 per month. All told, the entire package is about $46 a month.
But AT&T said standalone DSL, sometimes called naked DSL, will cost $44.99 a month, about a dollar less than the cheapest regular bundle of DSL and phone service.
She (Mindy Spatt, spokeswoman for The Utility Reform Network in San Francisco) said the price appears calculated to discourage people from dropping their phone service. “AT&T only wants to sell bundles of services at the price they choose,” she said. Source: SFGate
We Say: You don’t have to work hard to convince me, Mindy. On the other hand, this is no different than cable (in a way) … to get cable internet service without paying extra fees, I have to have cable TV service … and I prefer satellite because cable TV in my area has always been terrible (reception-wise). Either way, I have to pay extra. 
Christian says:
As expected, the only way the telecoms or the cable company will be willing to offer naked broadband is either through legistlation or competitive disruption. We seriously need Goog to start using their dark fiber to set up a nation-wide wi-fi network. I hate the telecoms and cable companies with a passion and would be willing to pay $45 to Goog even with no POTs just to spite them.
June 17th, 2006 at 7:24 pm
jb says:
I can get Verison’s (slow) DSL for $15 a month. I am sriously considering a switch from TW RR’s $45 cable. Perhaps I will try both for a few months.
BTW, Verizon’s “faster” version of DSL is $30 a month. Worth considering.
June 18th, 2006 at 8:56 am
David Johnston says:
This is a prime example of one of the forms of monopolistic price discrimination. Oh well…
June 18th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Dave says:
Qwest has been offering naked DSL in the Rockies for about a year now. I don’t have the figures, but I don’t recall it being horribly overpriced compared to bundled DSL.
I figure that in this region, they’d rather sell a little naked DSL than loose all the business to the cable modem folks who, btw, are now selling telephone service!
Phone companies are now behind the 8-ball. The cable folks can now offer television, telephone, and data. The telephone folks are missing one…
June 18th, 2006 at 7:39 pm
ed3 says:
Might as well get the landline for a $1 more. Can’t always rely on cell phones in emergencies. Can’t dial-up on cell phones (at least not on a standard voice plan). You need a landline for the satellite TV box to phone-home with, and AFAIK you can’t run that over cell phone.
Someone remind me again what is the point of getting DSL without a bundled land line??
PS - Dave #4, Bellsouth is a DirecTV reseller, with rumours of setting up their own TV service. AT&T is a Dish Network reseller, which may or may not change when the AT&T/Bellsouth merger completes.
June 19th, 2006 at 4:40 am
TipsDr Blog says:
Naked DSL
Have read quite a few articles on Naked DSL lately, which is what phone companies are supposed to provide users who do not want all of their services, which just means, just DSL service. Most companies do provide this, although some look for the looph…
June 19th, 2006 at 9:53 am
Ran Kailie says:
This is why Speakeasy (http://www.speakeasy.net/) and other providers who offer the naked DSL service for about the same price but offer speed upgrades or static IP addresses and better customer service will always be a better choice for me over the Bell companies.
I haven’t had a landline in years.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:20 am
Bill M says:
I use a local ISP who resells DSL from BellSouth. I pay a few bucks more a month than for bundled DSL with my landline, but: the terms of service are much better (not bound to Microsoft-only OS, runa server if I want, set up a home network, etc.) and when I call the ISP a technician answers the phone. BTW, I have only had to call twice in six years, and both times they talked me through my problem. The telcos and cable cos have NO FREAKING CLUE about value add or customer service. Once the VOIP services and cell phones get enhanced 911 working right, the POTS landline goes.
June 21st, 2006 at 7:32 am
翻译公司 says:
除湿机
May 18th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
katie mcdonald says:
how can i get standalonedsl try to get it on line but couldnt
June 18th, 2008 at 9:09 pm