Man's quest for $10 AT&T DSL ends in success... kind of

Mark "Rizzn" Hopkins' internet ordeal is over, and he has detailed all the painful, laborious, and clearly unnecessary steps needed to put yourself into Cashville with AT&T's cheap-o DSL service over on his website. In the end, the poor guy spoke with what appears to be hundreds of the company's employees, had to "pay" $79.99 for a router (although they offer a mail-in rebate reimbursement), and forked over $50 for AT&T's "activation fee", yet still technically doesn't have service. Regardless, when he's paying a measly $10 $18 a month for his phone and DSL service, and you're still Go-Go dancing on weekends just to cover your voicemail charge, who will really have the last laugh? Hit the read link for all the painful details....

[fischju @ Jul 13th 2007 12:29AM]

Does comcast or bellsouth sponsor you guys or something?

[ddaw735 @ Jul 13th 2007 12:38AM]

Are you kidding me?
Shut up.

[fischju @ Jul 13th 2007 12:44AM]

It's hard to get the cheapest services from a company. News? No.

[Adrian Williams @ Jul 13th 2007 12:34AM]

Didnt know they had a activation fee since I signed up when it was Ameritech but on ATT website I put her # in and it did come up with the 10 rate even though we live in Illinois (non-bellsouth state)

[mario @ Aug 4th 2007 11:24AM]

Yes this is news and its great that people are exposing the whole process and ordeal so others can benefit.

[Ghead @ Jul 13th 2007 12:58AM]

Maybe he needs a job, or something to do with his life? Clearly this guy has far more time on his hands than most others.

I can't fathom how someone whould think something like this would be "easy", but, more to the point, why would someone want to go through this to save approx. #100? Maybe he ought to take a class to figure out the present value of that cash flow stream. It might keep him from wasting his time in the future.

[Steve @ Jul 13th 2007 1:10AM]

Worst blog design ever?

[halfazn333 @ Jul 13th 2007 1:19AM]

$10 for dsl??? that seems kinda steep... I know here in Japan im paying around $25 for my fiber optic connection.

[David Wixom @ Jul 13th 2007 2:17AM]

You can get fiber here for about $30, the problem is only one company (Verizon) is installing it, so it's taking a while to roll out. So in the meantime, DSL is the best most people can get, so it still isn't cheap, haha. I'm very envious of you I must say!

[halfazn333 @ Jul 13th 2007 3:39AM]

@David Wixom
are you talking about the FIOS service? I just checked out their service plans and I must say... Those speeds seem low... I'm guessing that there is some way to get a discount or something because, $179.95 for only 30Mbps/5Mbps seems insanely high.

[genkikid @ Jul 13th 2007 6:43PM]

I'm in Japan and I'd like to know how you are getting fiber for $30. Details please!!!!

[Peter Carey @ Jul 13th 2007 9:34AM]

I too envy you very much. Also what are your downstream/upstream speeds for your fiber connection? I'm paying around $50 for Comcast's 16mbps/1mbps service.

[kaztm @ Jul 13th 2007 11:18AM]

Peter,

Fiber-optic service of down/up=100/30Mbps in Japan is now on sale, about $10 per month with annual contract. Otherwise, $40/month.

Similarly, 12/1Mbps DSL is about $3/month, regularly $17.

Recent article on Seattle-PI says that
U.S. median download speed is 1.97 Mbps, while that of Japan is 61 Mbps
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/321336_speed27.html

For Japanese customers, US services must seem like a dial-up...at a hefty price.

[halfazn333 @ Jul 14th 2007 1:26AM]

@genkikid
Just goto http://flets.com/ all the details are there. Just hope you can read japanese

[Grant @ Jul 13th 2007 1:57AM]

i'm not surprised that it was such a hassle.
you simply get what you pay for... and $10 for broadband (albeit crappy broadband) is not going to buy you any customer service.
and it's only for a year.

[Aaron @ Jul 13th 2007 1:14PM]

Actually, this is for however long you have the service. I asked AT&T directly in my one call to their support, which lasted about 15 minutes, 2 of which were hold music.

[majortom @ Jul 13th 2007 2:34AM]

God, I hate sites that start playing fricking music or sound when you start them up!!!

[James @ Jul 16th 2007 9:20AM]

Get the Flashblock extension for Firefox -- it replaces all Flash animations with a big "play" button in a box the same size as the animation, and doesn't load the Flash until you click. It's a lifesaver when e.g. you have a kid sleeping in the same room but can't turn the sound completely off.

Of course, in a perfect world you wouldn't need it, because people who design Flash-heavy websites would be impaled on pikes and mounted on the lawns outside their offices to serve as a warning, but TANJ (There Ain't No Justice).

[Megan @ Jul 13th 2007 3:01AM]

Here in rural Maine, we pay about $35 bucks for crappy broadband. I mean crappy, like 1mbps to 3mbps. And if you want better it'll cost you up to $20 more. And this isn't even including anything but internet.

[Logboy @ Jul 13th 2007 4:08AM]

You're wrong about FIOS. I have FIOS and only pay 49.99 a month...thats 49.99 not 49.99* like Comcast, who tacked on 7 bucks in taxes and "modem rental". The service I have is 15m/2mb. They have a cheaper version that is 39.99 for IIRC 5mb/1.5mb. Get this service if you can. I've had it for 4 months and have not had 1 problem. Get the cheaper version though. You won't notice the difference in speed, browsing, unless you are a big heavy downloader.

[halfazn333 @ Jul 13th 2007 4:15AM]

@Logboy
$49.99 seems like a really high price for only 15Mbps/2Mbps... but maybe thats just me
Sucks that you can't get nice cheap internet in the US.
Oh well, at least the cost of living is a lot cheaper in the US compared to Japan

[PEZ @ Jul 13th 2007 6:54AM]

The news just said more people are getting less and less pregnate. So, who really cares about DSL?

Used to be a good blog, now you just post stories about your personal problems with other peoples issues no one else cares about. Slow news year, I guess.

[FSU @ Jul 13th 2007 7:12AM]

I just set it up for a friend. Didn't have any problems other then the fact he had to buy a modem, I got him a third party one for $30. Also had to wait a week for AT&T to mail us his username and password. They called the service DSL lite.

[KenHooray @ Jul 13th 2007 7:33AM]

Mike,

I work for InterviewTheBlogInterviewer.com . We interview blog interviewers. We are working a deal with InterviewTheInterviwerOfBlogInterviewers.com but that has not quite gone through yet. Let me know if you are interested.

Ken "Asshat" Hooray

[vb @ Jul 13th 2007 8:16AM]

To halfazn: yes, it's just you and it's because you're in Japan. Pretty much the only two countries in the world where you get insanely fast and insanely cheap Internet access are Japan and Sweden. Everywhere else you gotta pay way too much for crappy service.

The followin is the info I know about in the US (don't know about all the markets, so if anyone knows that something's wrong, correct me)

The only company now that is actually rolling out fiber to the home is Verizon with their FIOS service. It's taking them a while to do though, since they have to put down new wiring everywhere. I guess technically it can be faster than what they're offering, but since they have no competition whatsoever, they can just offer you 15mpbs for $50 and people will still get it since that's the best that you can get. I think the only other company offering these speeds for the price is Cablevision in NY/NJ, which is a cable company, and they also give you 15mpbs for $50 or 30mpbs for $65.

Most everywhere else you're stuck with either DSL (up to 3mpbs, but in many places 1.5mpbs), or cable (which aside from Cablevision, usually offer only 3 or 5mpbs).

[andy @ Jul 13th 2007 9:26AM]

When you're paying 60/mo for 3mbps from Charter Cable, and it's only on for 2 or 3 days out of the week, 10 dollar DSL looks pretty good.


And as an aside, this customer service is way better than /indian accent/ "we now please your reset cable modem." /off indian accent/

[andy @ Jul 13th 2007 9:29AM]

I know of a small community in KY that is about to get fiber to the doorstep with 100mbps speeds within the community.

The local electric company is going to use their easements to destroy the cable horrible cable company there because the owners of the electric company are tired of the expensive, unreliable cable service.

[andrew @ Jul 13th 2007 9:52AM]

If you live in Illinois and want AT&T's $10 DSL, check this out (these people are a non-for-profit utility watchdog group)

Sorry in in advance for the PDF link:
http://www.citizensutilityboard.org/pdfs/ConsumerInfo/20070629_ATT10deal.pdf

[Aaron @ Jul 13th 2007 10:16AM]

I set up this DSL deal for two of my professors. They simply went to the AT&T website and signed up. THey were sent a package with the modem and all required cables and the setup took about 15 minutes.

This person HAS to be doing something wrong. My two professors are not tech savvy, and didn't have a single problem with this deal. I don't understand how someone could possibly have this much difficulty.

[Joseph @ Jul 13th 2007 11:28AM]

I think the requirement of phone service is the biggest problem.

[James @ Jul 16th 2007 9:25AM]

Wasn't it only like a year ago that we were first introduced to the term "naked DSL"? I always *assumed* that you needed phone service to get DSL, since they have to run the phone line anyway.

Anyway, I'm happy with my 40 dollar FiOS. It beats the crap out of paying the cable co 45 + modem + cable TV. I hope I never have to give Comcast another cent -- and as much as I hate Verizon, that's saying something.

[High Speed Internet Guy @ Aug 24th 2007 7:10AM]

I know how Mark feels after his quest, if it wasn't for http://www.DSLfor10.com's guide I might not have figured out how to find $10 DSL from AT&T. Anyone who is still trying to find out exactly how to order $10 should check out http://www.DSLatTenDollars.com.