CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XL: AT&T CEO says no one wants $10 DSL
By Nilay Patel 
posted Aug 3rd 2007 8:52PM
posted Aug 3rd 2007 8:52PM
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson apparently subscribes to a different school of marketing and demand than most others -- speaking with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the telecom boss flatly denied that AT&T's $10 DSL plan is hidden on the company's website, and went on to say that "customers haven't been clamoring for it," and that since the 768Kbps "user experience is not what I would consider really state of the art," he doesn't really want to sell it to anyone. Of course, customers don't usually clamor for a product that barely anyone knows is available and that requires absurd hoop-jumping just to get set up, but don't let them pesky facts get in your way, Randy.[Via Techdirt]
My in-laws have this same plan (well, same speed anyway) but pay $24 since they were customers from before it was offered at this price. For this a**hat to say no one wants it, why do they offer it for $24 then?
Because it actually costs AT&T more than $10 / month to provide DSL, even at 768kbps, to a single customer. Yes, they lose money for each subscriber that signs up for this service, but are required to offer this cheap rate to anyone in the former Bell South region who have never had DSL, by law. Last time I took a business class, the idea was to sell products or services for profit. Can you blame them for not plastering the front page of att.com with this rate?
ars
Last time I checked, $10 56k dial up wasn't state of the art either and yet they still provide it.
holy shit, dial-up still exists? geez US, you do suck
Dial up exsists in most parts of the world still, especially in parts of a country were Broadband is still unavaliable (mountain regions, remote locations, etc).
Dial up is also common with business travelers who need to check their corporate email. Geographically smaller nations like Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, etc tend to have higher broadband speeds but larger nations like the USA, Mexico, Russia, Canada, tend to be slower because to their larger size takes them longer to sread wires from one end to the other, so dial up exists to fill in the holes. Also dial up is popular with the senior citizens whom thing broadband is too fancy, unnessesary, too expensive, or confusing.
"But Mr Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine month."
"Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn't exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them, had you? I mean, like actually telling anybody or anything."
"But the plans were on display ..."
"On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them."
"That's the display department."
"With a flashlight."
"Ah, well the lights had probably gone."
"So had the stairs."
"But look, you found the notice didn't you?"
"Yes," said Arthur, "yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'."
That leopards got some cheap DSL, I tell you whut..
nothing like a Douglas Adam humor to prove the ridiculous.
AT&T sure has the EDGE in this argument.
I see what you did there.
In related news, McDonalds has discontinued "free iPhone Fridays", a promotion which allowed customers to receive a free iPhone with any extra value meal purchase. McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner cited poor sales for the decision. "We sold millions of value meals over the lifespan of the promotion, yet we have yet to have one customer claim their iPhone. It is obvious that there is just no demand for free iPhones."
spot on!
If they actually offered it all AT&T markets, not just former BellSouth regions, there might be a reasonable sample size. Not to mention that if you've ever been an AT&T DSL customer, you don't qualify.
Take that out of the equation... I'll have 25 people ready to sign up tomorrow, AT&T...
- Christopher Price
http://www.phonenews.com
It isn't available out of the bellsouth area? Better not tell AT&T.
People in California that have been services by AT&T/SBC/AT&T again for most of their life are able to get $10 DSL if they get to the right place ont eh website. It doesn't actually appear AT&T's automated sign up system is checking geography when it activates the service.
Just when I thought I couldn't hate AT&T any more than I already do...
Wow, just... wow.
I'd like his email address to suggest otherwise. I should pick up the 10$ DSL - I'm youthful and might need a backup when my cable internet (newly comcast - FL) has it's hick-ups.
You do realize that Comcast Broadband is now kicking customers who use the computer too much to the curb. Recently on the news in Georgia. That is why I will not use Comcast for anything other than cable TV.
I torrent a lot. Never have a problem. When I do, I'll leave Comcast.
Just look at that carefully formed, shit-eating grin of his...total bastard.
Hey, that shit-eating grin of his is state-of-the-art.
As is his 'hands down' gesture signifying control.
What complete bullshit. I know many people that want faster than dialup and $10 a month would suit them as well. 768Kbps which is much faster than 56Kbps for the same price (if not less) than most dialup providers.
AT&T just wants people to spend more...
I could use cheap DSL. I know people that would buy this service. How do I go about jumping through these hoops to get this service?
I like the AT&T $19.99 plan be under the article. I don't see the point of having a plan u don't promote at all.
I got the $10 AT&T DSL plan. Here's a little secret for you. AT&T can't throttle back their DSL in most locations. When the tech came to set up my DSL connection, and he checked my system once it was hooked up, he said "OK, you're getting 1.5mbps down and 384kbp up". I told him (being the honest schmuck that I am) that I had the $10/month 768k plan, and he said "we don't have any way to throttle back the connection, so you'll get the extra speed at the $10 price". Nice.
Now, I don't know if this is true in all locations, but it was in mine (I also can't get anything faster than 1.5mbps down, due to my location). Of course, AT&T could suddenly figure out how to slow down my connection, at which point I'd have a pretty crappy connection. But for 1.5mbps down, and $10/month, I'm happy.
All I know is that this $10 DSL plan finally got my dad off dial-up. He couldn't argue against nearly 14 times the speed for less then $2 more then what he was paying per month for dial-up. This plan is not for everyone (I'm happy with my 20Mbps/20Mbps symmetrical connection) but it is one hell of a deal for people still on 56k.
He loses money when he sells it - what would you say if you were the CEO of the company. They offer it because they're required to by law (anti-trust agreement in place for the Bellsouth merger). Sucks they don't put it front and center, but I wouldn't if I were them either :)
how does he lose money? He's not selling anything to you but an existing connection. There is no tangible product that is manufactured.
He just doesn't make AS MUCH money as he would if he sold it for $20. Make sure you define Greed for what it is.
DSL loops cost so much to be installed. I don't know the exact rate, but I've heard an upwards of $75 in labor to install the loop itself. Again, I claim to be no expert - but I know that the activation of the service with labor has a pricetag involved.
Sorry James, but you are wrong. ISPs such as AT&T in this case have to pay for the bandwidth they sell, not to mention installation costs, equipment costs, support costs, etc... Do some research before spouting off next time.
I would love 10$ dsl!! right now im getting like 27kbps!!!
Meh.. When you transfer kilobytes over mobile phones and get charged whole dollars.. or when the PS3 makes a big $100 stink over having a paltry extra 20GB.. Is it really any different? Storage and Transfer are always massively inflated compared to their real worth.. That doesn't seem to stop much of anyone from paying for it, though. $10 DSL seems like the price broadband should be, but when they've got ludicrous fiber optic speeds that you'll never fully utilize, why bother? It's like selling a smart car.. For most purposes it's all you'd need, but social scrutiny and the occasional need to carry people and objects rule it out.
Hey, at least it's better than the 24Kbps dial-up my friend in Bumfuck gets.
He's an ass!
Actual message from ATT yesterday after 4 times before leaving I verified and was told my phone would work in Europe this week.
"It should be working. Please power your phone off and back on. To place a call, press and hold the 0 key to get the + symbol. Then dial the country code and number. If this doesn't work call ATT International Customer care at 800-335-4685"
Besides the hilarity of how can I call the US-based 800# if my phone can't call the States; the number provided was not toll-free from Europe!
But you know what? No one cares and we'll all just keep using ATT as they all (Verizon, Orange, etc. too) suck rubber donkey lungs equally well.
what a prick...
they don't loose any money on those plans. are you kidding? the only money they are loosing is the extra $10 or $20 they would rather have. they make up plenty of the money with their contracts, "billing mistakes", flat out lies by CSRs, etc. I had to monitor my online account every month to see what they were trying to add to my account. sometimes it was a few cents, other times it was $10s or $100s of dollars. And any mistake they made that you did not correct right away is sent express over to collections. I don't think people want or really like AT&T services, they just don't have the cash for cable or simply don't have any other choices. It's really sad that the FCC and FTC are looking the other way while history undoes itself. AT&T couldn't be trusted the first time around. Now they are another company all together but with the AT&T name and sprinting down the monopoly path again. My household is now 100% AT&T (and related) product free.
Loops cost money, sir. You think a unionized tech is going to volunteer free time to go and install a loop just because it's discounted? When this schmuck sells a $10 dsl line, he makes nothing unless the customer keeps it through something stupid like the year 2012. I'm not saying they're losing their shirt, but how could they make money off that...
Crikey. We'd kill for that is Australia. One company is about to release a $60/month 512Kb deal that comes with a whopping 4gb bandwidth and it'll be hugely successful. A $10 plan would be nuts.
Really, u don't feel much differents if you don't UPLOAD or PLAY ONLINE GAME... I'm using this $10 plan now for regular web browsing and emails, download speed at 86kbps and fast to me. great plan to me. I had $19.99 and $24.99 plan before... all I see is I had been charge more for the same( I feel on speed )
Ask few qestions to youself:
Do you really see the speed? sometime?
NO! you don't see that or the house line condition if not good and you don't get the speed either (which you paid for)
Did you notice that?
NO. But you still get charge for that (speed) you did not get.
Damn right, reading Engadget on a 768Kbps line just isn't state of the art anymore.
on the one hand he sort of has a point about 768 not being state of the art, but the average internet consumer has no use for "state of the art".
I wrote in a blog on this that I wonder if enough high ranking execs got in a room together, they could convince themselves that the world is flat. Morons.
I don't get the anger here. Is the $10 DSL plan going away? Well if its not, the best way to give em the BIG FU is to (do the dig, same as any bargain hunter or coupon clipper does) and sign up for it! You get $10 DSL and AT&T gets "heartburn" for having to give it to you, I guess?
I remember a few years ago when I paid $30 for AT&T 768 DSL. I'm a little tired of paying COX $42.00 a month for a suposed 5mb cable line that seems to be slower than dialup at times.
It is true that you can get the 1.5 mb line even if you order the $10 service. Depending on how close you are to the junction box and how new it is. They just installed fiber boxes next to all of the houses and apartments in my area. I'm not spending $100 a month on interent access but the DSL just might be faster.
Oh to live in Europe or Japan where you don't get it up the ass from companies selling internet service. $30 a month for 50mbps or $10 for 20 in Japan. Hell many areas in Japan have free broadband and you just pay for an upgraded connection.
In the USA our telco monopolies are just to busy ripping us off for crappy service.
Didn't anyone else wonder why the CEO of AT&T couldn't get his brother a better job in the company? That has to be an awkward family picnic.
And I love when the upper management types spend a day on a ride out with the line employees. I'm sure they get a realistic picture of a typical tech's day after 8 hours per year.
This is garbage, they also make you switch your phone service to get the 10 dollar dsl. They won't let you have it if your with an alternate provider. Even if you have at&t cell service, they won't give you the 10 dollar dsl.
Comcast and ATT/BellSouth/Cingular are the worst companies I've ever seen, raping their customers. It should be against the law to require a customer to sign up for one service to use another service or charge more for one service if not signed up for the other than it would cost for buying both services. NakedDSL and cable internet without the added useless landline and cable TV should be available to everybody!
Well... I have to say I am wanting the 10$ DSL. I have been trying for over 1 month to get my billing straightened out. When I called to ask about the 10DSL they talked to me like I am stupid the after talking 4 or 5 different people they finally signed me up for it. Everything was installed and seemed to be funning fine... then the bill comes. DSL 42.95$ since then I have spent 5 days and talked to 15 different people and I still have not gotten this corrected. I am at the point where I do not know what to do and don't have the time to keep calling them over and over again.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Post your experience on consumerist.com!
No one signs up because it's fake. At lease in our area. I tried to sign my parents up for this option, they qualified on both counts. However the web site then went on to ask their phone number to check to see if DSL was available in their area. It said, sorry no DSL available in your area. I then tried to sign up for the more expensive plans, same question, what's your phone number. Low and behold DSL was available now!!!!
They live the middle on a large city. The reason I had to try to set them up was because the web site does not work at all on Mac with Safari. ATT is just a bunch of liars and cheats reneging on their promises
Be happy with the service that you guys are getting. We folk that live out in rural areas are stuck with (not even) 56K dialup, and a message saying that we have yet to get coverage out of your part of town. Here I sit, watching the smaller towns or townships get DSL coverage while they ignore our pleas. Cable? Forget it. Last mile and it's ugly. Wireless? too many oaks around muffle and screw up the signal.
Just give us our frickin DSL and be done with it.
Bellsouth(well AT&T) DSL sucks anyways........I hated it cause it kept resetting.......they said I could get a static IP for like $15 more per month and that would keep my connection from doing that...........damn that I killed my DSL and went with Road Runner........I have faster upspeeds(4.5Mbs/s) and downspeeds(9Mbs/s).........and for less than what I was paying for that crappy DSL
You guys are VERY cheap and quite honestly don't know what you are talking about. A tech needs to come out to install the local loop at the NID. When you order, more techs have to setup the connection. Techs earn about $35 an hour. This includes driving time dumb dumbs. Then of course since many of the people who sign up for this service would be switching from dial-up. These people tend to use tech support services more than other subscribers. Trust me I know I work for an ISP. Ex dialup users will call their ISP for just about any reason. Because they get a virus, because their modem light blinked... Quite rediculous honestly. Plus do you think wires are free? Ever try running a line on poles 10 miles. Hummmmm??? I guess all those telephone poles are free too right? BTW AT&T does not own its bandwidth in all parts of the country and must pay up to $800 or more a month for up to 1Mbps 95th Percentile raw bandwidth. Don't believe me? Go try and buy raw fiber bandwidth then. You should all quite your bitching. AT&T after all with its Bell labs did invent most of the telecommunications technology that you are using right now at this moment.
Hate to tell you but Your way Off. I am a Field Tech for a fiber optics company provideing FTTH.(fiber to the home) using ONT's. I am corning single mode fiber Certfifed. several of the techs in my company used to work for brighthouse, comcast and AT&T. Installers EVEN FIELD TECHS DO NO GET PAID 35 an hour. Starting pay is $12 an hour and pay cap is $25 an hour. Bright house in florida Pays Peace work. between 50 - 75 per job completed. The people who get paid ok money are the Network techs in the NOC. or if your a regional manager. so just to put it this way. that installer going to your house is more then likey getting paid peace work. 50 dollars per install. or between 15-18 dollars an hour. DSL is easy I can have a DSL connection done within a half hour. that includes installing a NID if the customer has a old or damaged one. i've seen the price list for equipment. it's between 35-50 dollars for a DSL NID. copper wire $2. and sure they are paying for the company truck and gas. what maybe another 10-20 per job? and then the modem. about 50. and dsl filters. another $2. so they are paying around $130 per install. which means the $10 service that person has to be a customer for about 1.5 to 2 years for them to turn over a profit on them. Bandwidth costs AT&T basically nothing but the electric bill once the infrastructure is built. lets not forget AT&T owns most of the upramps to the internet. they are not paying 20k for each OC-3 line they have. so they lose a litle bit of money on each job. but It's not going to break them.
and if you intrested about who i work for I work for this company.
http://www.cnxntech.com
I looked on their site as a noncustomer and couldn't find it at all
Can you believe I live in downtown San Diego, CA and AT&T does NOT offer DSL for my area?