Come On AT&T, Get Naked
Still waiting on territory wide dry loop DSL
05:18PM Monday Aug 13 2007
In order to gain government approval for its acquisition of BellSouth, AT&T conveniently authored their own merger conditions (pdf). Among them was the promise that they'd offer $10 DSL and "naked" (aka standalone, no landline) DSL service territory-wide.
While AT&T does now offer $10 768kbps DSL to comply, they neither announced or advertised the price point in the hopes that nobody would notice. AT&T's new CEO says they don't advertise it because nobody wants it.
As for dry loop DSL, the company had twelve months from the date of merger approval to offer it, so before year's end they will unveil 768kbps dry loop DSL for $20. Some naked DSL is offered now, but the deals aren't consistent across service regions.
For instance in May, users in BellSouth territory were told they could order naked DSL if they bundled AT&T wireless service. As of this month it appears that users on Ultra or faster tiers can now get naked DSL (click for prices) if they call up and ask for "bundle 96."
AT&T already has to offer naked DSL in some markets to comply with conditions of the SBC acquisition of AT&T, but charges customers a dollar more for it than they charge for their DSL & landline bundle. AT&T at the time said setting that price was "a way to let customers know that buying several services at the same time is always the best value."
The company tells the Chicago Tribune that they're trialing another naked DSL variant aimed at college students in Austin, Chicago and Jacksonville. Users in those markets can get 1.5Mbps naked DSL for $23.99 a month, or $19.99 a month if you bundle wireless service. AT&T tells the paper the same thing they told USAToday last January: territory-wide $20 naked DSL is coming:
"AT&T will launch a stand-alone DSL service for under $20 a month later this year to comply with that pledge, said Cara Birch, a company spokeswoman. That service will feature speeds of 768 kilobits a second, which is half as fast as the 1.5-megabit-per-second speed offered now. But AT&T says it is investigating stand-alone DSL service as a marketing strategy."
MORE:
http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Come-On-ATT-Get-Naked-86596*********************************************
Have any DUers been able to get naked DSL through Bellsouth/ATT? If you're a current customer, have you tried? According to the federal merger agreement, ATT was supposed to start offering stand-alone DSL for $19.99, for 30 months after beginning to offer it. If you call ATT to ask about it, though, they tell you that only "Ultra" DSL is available in your market, for $33 + $5 access fee + taxes and other fees. Which means they haven't cut the price of DSL at all. Or they tell you, yes, you can get DSL for $19.99, but only if you also purchase Cingular wireless.
So, in other words, they aren't standing up to their end of the merger agreement. Really, who ever thought they would.