Fergie's Tech Blog

AT&T's Naked DSL Won't Save Subscribers Much

Ryan Kim writes in The San Francisco Chronicle:

AT&T quietly rolled out standalone DSL broadband service for the first time this week, giving consumers the choice to drop their home phone land lines.

But before you get rid of your home phone line, be warned: The savings are only about $1 a month.

Some customer advocates had hoped that unbundling DSL and phone service might save many households at least $15 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 if subscribers just use Internet service and forgo a phone line, which is appealing to many who rely on a cell phone, they might be able to realize some significant savings. That is, if AT&T continued to price its DSL at $29.99 a month.

posted by Fergie @ 6/17/2006 01:53:00 PM