Some selfish practices are coming to light folks from one of the bigger ISP companies.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,140184-pg,1/article.htmlAT&T will jack up its rates for dial-up Internet access by as much as 60 percent today, going well above the price of faster DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) in many cases.
Customers who are now charged US$9.99 per month will start paying $15.95, and the $15.95 customers will see their bills go up to $22.95, said company representative Dan Callahan. $22.95 is the flat rate for all new customers, up from $21.95. AT&T made the change to be competitive with other dial-up providers, Callahan said. The lower rates are left over from previous carriers that have been absorbed into AT&T, namely BellSouth, he said.
AT&T offers basic DSL for as little as $10 per month for new customers, with some conditions. But the dial-up price hike is bad news for some AT&T customers in areas where DSL isn't available. One user complained about it on the forum BroadbandReports, saying he would have already signed up for DSL if he could have. "For a buck less, I could have service that is 15 times faster," wrote the customer.
This is just plain selfishness folks, many of those going to be hit will be on dialup for financial reasons or due to not being in an area with DSL coverage, these are the same folks who have powered these big companies over the years by using a slow and outmoded service that costs an ISP small beans to operate.
I really think this strategy of hitting those who dont intend to purchase DSL services from AT&T is a cheap and nasty way of cherry picking the most likely profitable group and disregarding the rest without a care, shame on AT&T for penalising the poor.
