AT&T dials up monthly cost of old-fashioned Internet access

AT&T DIALS UP MONTHLY COST OF OLD-FASHION INTERNET ACCESS
[SOURCE: Chicago Tribune, AUTHOR: Jon Van jvan@tribune.com]
Internet users who still dial-up with AT&T to go online will find the phone giant is raising its basic monthly rate from $9.95 to $15.95. That rate hike applies to current customers. Newcomers must pay $22.95 to get dial-up service. AT&T, which charges as little as $9.95 a month for a slower version of DSL and $19.95 for regular DSL high-speed Internet connections, may hope that its price hike for dial-up will nudge customers into DSL. But about 10 percent of Chicago-area residents cannot get digital subscriber line service because their homes are located so far from the phone company's central office that the technology doesn't work. Those customers say the rate hike for plain dial-up service adds insult to injury. Customers who want high-speed Internet but aren't offered DSL have the option of mobile high-speed data from AT&T or satellite high-speed, said Chris Comes, a Chicago-based spokesman for AT&T. Each service sells for $60 a month. Dial-up Internet connections send data at up to 56,000 bits per second, which may be fine for simple functions such as e-mail or reading information from Web sites, but is far too slow to support video transmissions, which are becoming a mainstay of Web sites. AT&T's $9.95 DSL offering moves information at up to 768,000 bits per second, and the $19.95 service offers a rate twice that fast.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-tue_dialup_1211dec11,0,733320...