SBC Communications yesterday announced it cut the price of its fastest SBC Yahoo! DSL plan - but with a caveat - you have to sign up for SBC's All Distance local and long-distance calling plan, which costs $48.95. So that's $78.94 for unlimited voice and data. They're not using VoIP by the way in this "All Distance" package as far as I know, so you do get the QoS advantage of PSTN calls, but I'm not sure it's worth the price premium, which I will analyze in a moment.
SBC Yahoo DSL Pro will cost $29.99 a month for customers who subscribe to it for one year along with SBC's All Distance local and long-distance calling plan, which costs $48.95, the company said.
Previously the DSL connection (with download speeds of up to 3mbps) was priced at $36.99 when ordered online or as part of a bundle under a one-year agreement.
According to ZDNet, SBC also said customers can access FreedomLink Wi-Fi hot spots for free from April 15 through May 31. After that, SBC DSL customers will be charged $1.99 a month. Service for users who aren't also SBC DSL subscribers costs $19.95 a month or $7.95 for 24 hours, it said.
"We're urging consumers to do the math," said Scott Helbing, senior vice president of SBC consumer marketing, citing both the hot-spot deal and the usually higher cost of cable broadband services. "We believe there's no better value in the market for Internet users who crave greater online speeds and want to stay connected with friends and family."
SBC's price cut follows a recent rise in DSL prices announced by rival Verizon, citing tax costs.
Let's compare, shall we? It's just $59.90 for Cablevision's Optimum Online and Optimum Voice DoublePlay package ($29.95 each).
Time Warner is $44.95 for broadband + $39.95 ($5 discount) for voice which is $84.90 Ok, Time Warner is more expensive than SBC, but it's based in New York, isn't it? So it's expected to be more expensive.
Charter is $39.99 for both broadband and voice, so they are $79.98. They may discount is you also have TV service, but I can't seem to find any package deals involving voice/video or voice/video/data on their website.
But overall, SBC's DSL voice/data combo is more expensive than most cable broadband offerings.
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The interesting part is with SBC is that now other company can provide for what one can get through SBC. People always compare Cable to a Dish television service. You must compare apples to apples. Yeah, the pricing is a bit more, but my cable company couldn't give me the WIFI nor the dailup that automatically is applied with DSL. I love it and wouldn't switch back.
I pay less than $12 a month for phone service through SBC and am getting DSL for less than $15 a month. So...I would have to say $27 for phone service AND DSL is a great deal. A friend of mine can't even get DSL in our area because she doesn't go through SBC for her phone service, so she doesn't even get to TRY to complain about pricing.
SBC was taken over by ATT and theres no way its a monopoly. Over the last 3 years their prices have jumped considerably. They added the"elite" service and jacked the price on pro. Really bs considering they do nothing that jhustifies the increase just that they contorol it all. none of the other services offer 3mb sec. But onece again theres no monopoly. Looks like ATT paid there graft bill.