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Price War Erupts For High-Speed Internet Service

3 pointsby ksvsover 16 years ago

2 comments

mdasenover 16 years ago
I don't see it. DSL is simply outdated technology that's being sold for cheap because some people don't care if their connection is only 1Mbps rather than 6Mbps. So, they hope to get those customers by being cheaper.<p>Part of the reason we haven't seen changes in price is because of how technology works and partially because of how American businesses work. For example, upping speed is often easier than lowering price because as technology gets better, you can provide more efficient technology based off those ideas, but the materials and work involved remain decently constant by comparison. So, they can't give me the 1.5Mbps connection I got when I signed up for cable for $20 as easily as they can up that to 10Mbps for the same $40 I had always paid. In terms of business, American businesses like offering the idea that consumers don't have to think. So, even if prices spike for a while, consumers shouldn't see them rise and as prices go down, consumers should keep paying the same. This leads to companies pricing products to sell them at a loss for a while to regain it on the other end. This happens in a lot of places, but Americans seem particularly fond of sticky prices.<p>DSL just sticks out because it's an end-of-the-road technology that the telcos can't make better. So, they package it as the "value" alternative and sell it. Cable internet has seen constant pricing because it's just become faster. There isn't really a price war so much as different options for different people now.
vakselover 16 years ago
yeah when Verizon came out with FIOS, their rates were cheaper than 1.5MB DSL I had before