Broadband Service Specials And Swindles: Assessing Both Standalones And Bundles

My friend’s broadband Internet aspirations unfortunately haven’t been solved by the booster recently installed at her residence. Although she now has a solid signal throughout the house, her router still regularly experiences dropped cellular data connections that I’m convinced originate at Verizon’s tower. Supporting this conclusion are her in-parallel problems with cellular voice service; dropped calls, un-reported incoming calls, substantially delayed voicemail notifications and SMS deliveries, etc.

All of these woes point, in my mind, to an over-subscribed service area. And although Verizon hopes to build another cell tower in the area, it’s currently mired in land and permit application processes and best-case won’t be up and running until around a year from now. So yesterday I began researching ‘true’ broadband alternatives, i.e. cable, DSL and fiber, on her behalf. Fiber to the premises was quickly eliminated, since Verizon’s FIOS isn’t offered in her neighborhood.

Next, we considered cable Internet service. The house is already wired for cable service, and Cox is running a promotion right now that at first glance looks pretty promising. For less than $48/month, on an ongoing basis (i.e. not a limited-time introductory rate that later balloons higher) you get a bundle of Limited Basic Cable Service, High Speed Internet Economy Service, and Digital Telephone Service. But then I started diving into the details, and my enthusiasm faded.

For one thing, you also have to pay a one-time $75 activation fee. Plus, you have to either buy or rent a cable TV set-top box ($5.25/month rental fee) and a cable modem ($10/month). ‘Economy’ cable Internet also translates to some pretty atypical cable Internet speeds; only 768 kbps best-case downstream bandwidth and 256 kbps upstream rates (with neither guaranteed). And bottom line, she doesn’t watch television, and she already has telephony service through her cell phone. So off I went to see what AT&T alternatively had to offer.

The following DSL packages are available at her location:

• Basic (up to 768 kbps down, up to 384 kbps up)
• Express (up to 1.5 Mbps down, up to 384 kbps up)
• Pro (up to 3 Mbps down, up to 512 kbps up), and
• Elite (up to 6 Mbps down, up to 768 kbps up)

Curiously, she’s able to get DSL not only bundled with POTS service, as is the only case with my residence setup, but also ‘naked’ (i.e in unbundled and differentiated by the Direct moniker), although Direct Basic requires a one-year term. All of the other service options, both bundled and standalone, are month-to-month.

The next question: bundled or not? Here’s the comparative pricing:

When you consider that limited-minute local-only telephone service only costs $8/month, the $10 differential between bundled and ‘naked’ service tier options makes the bundled option the fiscally obvious choice. But there are other reasons to also go with a bundled POTS plan. You end up with another phone line, one that continues to work when premises power goes down (note: only if you don’t use an AC-powered phone!) and one that isn’t affected by cellular overload and other service problems. And the bundled plans, unlike their ‘naked’ counterparts, offer additional promotions:

All plans, both bundled and ‘naked’, include free access to AT&T’s nationwide Wi-Fi network.

She ended up going with the exact same package I have; DSL Pro plus a limited-minute local-only POTS line. She went with a modem ($62.05) instead of a gateway ($87.05), even though both are free after rebate, because the latter is restricted to 802.11g speeds and only integrates one Ethernet LAN port. Instead, I’m donating a second-generation 802.11n-capable Apple Time Capsule to the project.

The self-installation is scheduled for next Monday, and the DSL filters and modem should be in-hand by then. It’s unclear whether or not AT&T will need to send out a truck to connect the phone service ‘box’ on the back wall of the house to the line at the street. Once she’s told that she should have dial tone, the next step will be to determine if the phone plugs in the house are wired to that same service ‘box’ or instead route to the Cox Communications box also attached to the house. Apparently Cox is now building VoIP capabilities directly into these boxes versus re-wiring the cabling inside the house by connecting it to a SIP adapter, and I don’t know how the previous occupants obtained landline telephone service (or if they had it at all).

After she placed the DSL order, I stumbled across AT&T’s U-verse (fiber to the curb, copper to the premises) pages and compared the Internet services here to the ones she had en route:

She can’t get the Max 18 plan (up to 18 Mbps down, up to 1.5 Mbps up, starting at $65) at her location. Note, too, that the pricing is exactly the same as DSL through the comparable downstream bandwidth options. The only feature difference is with respect to peak upstream bandwidth. U-verse Internet also isn’t available standalone; it must be bundled at minimum with U-verse Television service (AT&T also offers triple-play packages with VoIP). And note, too, the lack of rebates and other promotions with U-verse as compared to DSL. All in all, I’ve got no regrets about the broadband advice I gave her. Now to see how straightforward (or not) the installation will be…