What Do You Pay For Internet?

[Mr Light]

What do you pay for internet, and what service do you use?

I have stupid slow ass dial-up AOL and I think I'm finally ready for a lifestyle change I pay $24/month for this, not to mention the $32/month for the land line which we basically only use for the internet. So I'm pretty much paying $56 a month for dial-up!

I've been reluctant to change before now because a) I was unemployed for nine months and had no money, and b) we're probably moving in May so I didn't want to sign up for a service when I was moving in six months. But people tell me that signing up for it isn't tied to your current physical location, and that it wouldn't involve a physical installation of a new cable into my walls it would just come from my cable TV cable?

Every month I get a flier from AOL suggesting I get high speed AOL/Verizon internet but it raises my hackles. It says it's only $20/month... for the first six months. Then it doesn't say what it is after that. Worse of all you have to sign a two year contract with them! Verizon is my phone service but I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. I live in a semi-small town so I dunno how much service variety I actually have to choose from.

 

[SeerSGB]

We pay $45 a month for Comcast Cable internet, and that's with basicTV channels. That said, if money continues to tighten up, we'll probably switch to Netzero for $9.95 a month unlimited/10 free hours a month.

 

[Holdfast]

I can't remember exactly. I think it's somewhere around £25-30 per month in total for the landline and broadband internet. One of BT's packages; again, not sure which one.

 

[Marc]

On Cogeco Cable paying $CA50 a month for a 14Mbps connection and 60GB download (though Cogeco are scum suckers who measure uploads as well). The same connection carries our phone (VOIP) and tv so it's pretty much all 3 bundled for about $CA150 a month.

 

[TheLonelySquire]

$29.99 for Comcast Broadband. They were charging me $63+ but I worked them for a permanent price reduction.

 

[Starbreaker]

Any company is going to be glad to have you business in this economy. You're definitely going to be able to find something cheaper than what you're paying now, and be able to keep that price. Just threaten to go to a competitor after your promotional time is up.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I have AT&T DSL so it uses the phone line, not the cable line (but you can still be on the phone while online). Internet and home phone service combined costs me about $35. About $20 of that is for the actual internet part of it. I actually really like my service and it's never given me any problems.

 

[Amaris]

We have the all in one package with Time Warner (we pay $135 month). It comes out to $45 for each service. We get the Digital HD package, the VoIP service and RoadRunner, which cruises along at a zesty 20mbps.

J.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Canada, $25.99 + $3.00 for modem rental, + tax = $30.66 per month, 500kps download, 2gigs data per month, I never go over the data limit. This is the cheapest ultra-lite cable package from my cable company. I get my tv cable included in my apartment fees whether I watch or not.

I have a land-line phone for emergencies because my daughter is home alone after school and often forgets her cell, otherwise I would cancel that. A net of $56 per month for dial up if you don't really use the land-line is ridiculous.

 

[Jono]

I know I pay my household pays too much for what we get. It's AUD$100 for broadband and phone and only 21GB. Back when we got it this was a fairly competitive deal, now years later this is not enough for too much $. I know I can get 80-100GB and home phone for cheaper but the hassle and possibly down time of service of changing phone company and internet provider keeps me from doing so. I'd probably be more concerned if I were paying for the entire bill and not just part.

 

[Pingfah]

£24 a month for an 8MB connection, I get 30GB a month between 8am and 10pm Mon - Fri and unlimited at all other times.

I decided to go with a limited service, but one that promises that it employs no traffic shaping across the network and provides my full line rate at all times. After moving from a £40/month very high quality connection and trying out a few of the major providers I found that just about every major player in the UK employs restrictive traffic shaping for p2p traffic and newsgroups, or harrasses their customers for going over the fair usage policy on their "unlimited" packages. What a joke that description is in the UK.

I had a running firefight with O2 about the quality of their service and managed to get myself released from the years contract after 2 months. Fortunately I was still in the 3 months free period, so in the end I had a free router and 2 months internet off them and never paid them a penny. But they deserved it, they made a big hoopla about how they do not traffic shape and then precisely 1 week after I joined they imposed a traffic shaping system and cut p2p traffic to 5kb/s all day long, and I STILL only achieved 1MB connection at peak times.

 

[Shazam!]

I give SKY like £50 or something and they give me loads of stuff in return including internets, TV and phone line. I don't know the specifics.

 

[Marc]

I know I pay my household pays too much for what we get. It's AUD$100 for broadband and phone and only 21GB. Back when we got it this was a fairly competitive deal, now years later this is not enough for too much $. I know I can get 80-100GB and home phone for cheaper but the hassle and possibly down time of service of changing phone company and internet provider keeps me from doing so. I'd probably be more concerned if I were paying for the entire bill and not just part.

Sorry but to continue to pay those prices is bloody stupid.

At the very least check to see if your ISP has changed prices and plans but hasn't changed yours.

Unless your phone line is with optus then won't need to change phone companies.

Moving your ADSL connection can be done with a fast churn that means zip down time (unless you current ISP doesn't support it).

Head to www.whirlpool.net.au look through the broadband choices there and read the forums.

 

[Bloodwhiner]

Brighthouse Networks for Cable internet at $46.95/month, Voicepulse voip for $15 month. I could get my telephone via Brighthouse as well at $15/month but Voicepulse offers a better calling plan for our particular needs.

 

[JoeZhang]

I pay Be* Unlimited £6 a month for unlimited, uncapped internet (8mps) - very very fast, no real contention issues. Iplayer and anything else starts instantly, torrenting is very fast etc.

 

[RoJoHen]

I have AT&T DSL so it uses the phone line, not the cable line (but you can still be on the phone while online). Internet and home phone service combined costs me about $35. About $20 of that is for the actual internet part of it. I actually really like my service and it's never given me any problems.

This is what I use, minus the phone service. I have a cell; I don't need a landline.

I've learned that AT&T has a hard time when it snows.

I also have no idea what I'm actually paying. When I signed up, it was supposed to be $30/month, but my last bill was $65, with no indication of where the extra $35 came from...so I need to figure out what that's all about.

 

[Count Zero]

I have a DSL 16.000 (but it's not faster as 12.000 in reality) flatrate and a phone flatrate (only national calls, no mobiles) for 30 € a month. There are cheaper packages available, but I wanted to have reasonably good service and I can terminate the contract each month.

 

[Spot's Meow]

I have AT&T DSL so it uses the phone line, not the cable line (but you can still be on the phone while online). Internet and home phone service combined costs me about $35. About $20 of that is for the actual internet part of it. I actually really like my service and it's never given me any problems.

This is what I use, minus the phone service. I have a cell; I don't need a landline.

I've learned that AT&T has a hard time when it snows.

I also have no idea what I'm actually paying. When I signed up, it was supposed to be $30/month, but my last bill was $65, with no indication of where the extra $35 came from...so I need to figure out what that's all about.

I wouldn't know about snow issues where I'm located.

I don't have full phone service, I actually have the plan where you pay for all calls, even local ones. And the call rates are really cheap (especially since my conversations rarely last more than a minute or two) and we hardly ever use the phone so it's nice to have.

 

[Shikarnov]

I have AT&T UVERSE, and while the service is great, the price is a rip off. Here's my breakdown:

$65 / 18Mbps downstream Internet
$65 / 200 TV Channels (95% of of which I never watch, but the 100 channel option has crap)
$30 / For my "landline" which isn't even a landline since it's all VOIP based, but I keep it for my alarm system and so I can call 911.

I tolerate the Internet price because the stability is really excellent, and the 1.5Mbps upstream is great because I do a lot of work-related uploading. I hate AT&T, but I gush about UVERSE Internet. They finally got something right (except the price).

I'm debating whether or not to keep the TV service. I love the DVR, and watching commercials is kinda cool (I work in advertising, so it's neat to see what other people do), but for the shows my wife and I watch, I'm thinking just buying my favorite shows on iTunes or catching them on Netflix will be cheaper overall.

The phone absolutely chaps my ass though. $30 for unlimited US/Canada calling over the Internet. What a crock. I get the same deal through Skype for $3 (and with a shit-load more benefits, like managing my contact list, providing video options, and more). My mother's fine with $30 for her UVERSE phone (she thinks she's getting a deal over her landline + long distance), but those of us in the know understand when we're being raped. $30/month for emergency connectivity. It's valuable, but doesn't seem right.

 

[Trekker4747]

I pay for my internet along with my cable bill. Which... isn't cheap. I've basic digital cable (no premium channels) with two DVRs and the standard cable internet package. My cable bill is $180 a month!