[SATLUG] AT&T $10.00 DSL Ordering - Easiest Way

[Bruce Dubbs]

Don Wright wrote:

> OK, let's look at the costs involved in delivering DSL. There's the bandwidth charged by
> the upstream provider, the local equipment (which doesn't last forever), the actual
> copper lines (likewise), and maintenance expenses (the trucks and people) to keep it all
> operating, plus cash reserves to build out service for future clients.
> 
> Most of these items are already bundled into the price of the POTS service, which as a
> regulated[1] monopoly is built into the business plan of the telco. Dry copper pairs,
> with or without DSL, are not the usual case and thus more expensive to supply[2].
> Therefore the cost of DSL without dial tone is almost the same as DSL with dial tone,
> and therefore not a desirable service to offer.
> 
> I hate to be devil's advocate[3], but in this case there really isn't more than a tiny
> amount of evil in this situation.  --Don

This would seem reasonable, but why do we get 1.5Mb asynchronous for the
price that quite a few countries in Europe and Asia get 100Mb synchronous.

The Telcos have gotten some quite substantial tax breaks to deliver DSL,
but their idea of "high speed" is still in the '80s.

http://www.muniwireless.com/article/articleview/5011

  -- Bruce