AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Will the last one on AOL turn out the lights - DSL Closes the gap again: SBC-Yahoo DSL minireview

Twelve years ago, when I moved into my (then) new home. I signed up for America Online. At that time, it was the best on-line service. The pre-loaded graphics and sounds added some pizzazz to the interface, and download time was acceptable for text even with my (gasp) 2400 baud modem. At 9600 baud, it was actually zippy. Through the special interest groups message boards, I met folks on line and enjoyed numerous discussions about esoteric things like the six degrees of Kevin Bacon and the mythical(?) Aurora spaceplane. I even got involved with "the Battle of Freedom Ridge" protesting the closing of public access to hills several miles from the Air Force base that didn't exist in Groom Lake Nevada, a base that became famous as "Area 51". But that's another story from another decade . . .

I just changed residences and I am changing on-line providers. I'm saying adios to AOL and aloha to SBC-Yahoo dsl. I never cared much for Ameritech, one of SBC's subsids. SBC did mess up my initial order, but so far the performance of the connection has been zippy. The Yahoo-enhanced interface does seem to add some value.

The kicker is the cost. I think AOL is now up to $23.99. I'm paying $29.99 for the SBC dsl. In addition to the difference in speed between the 50k (at best) aol connection and the 1250k (real world) speed of the SBC-Yahoo dsl, I don't tie up a phone line with the DSL. In addition to however many people I have connected over DSL, I can have up to two of my screennames (read - relatives) hooked up via dial-up from remote sites. You can't have more than one person online at a time per account with aol.

Here's the kicker, SBC-Yahoo just lowered the cost of their DSL to $26.99 per month. Unless you need the higher speed of cable modems (3megabits per second vs up to 1.5megabits per secondfor dsl), I urge you to take a look at the SBC-Yahoo dsl.

If you have AOL stock, why?

broadband » News » Dirt Cheap DSL? - SBC takes intro-offer lower still