12/01/03: I had been looking into getting DSL for some time. Here are the notes including a detailed breakdown of costs associated with DSL, from my own attempt to answer the question "Should I get DSL?". We decided to go with DSL through our phone company, and have some pros and cons from the experience.
Costs from 12/01/03 and 04/01/04 break down into 2 major pieces:
1. Phone company...
12/01/03 | 04/01/04 Description
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9.23 | (hidden now) Dial Tone
1.80 | 11.03 Residential Line
2.10 | 2.10 Extended Calling Area (necessary?)
6.95 | (we cancelled) Caller Identification
21.95 | 15.00 QWEST DSL Basic Month-to-Month (256K)
8.82 | 13.17 Misc Taxes
5.32 | 5.32 DSL Modem rental (AT&T Modem from Qwest)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
56.17 | 46.62 Totals of line items (not really "total")
Phone company related notes:
We pay QWEST apx 80.00 a month for a phone... granted, this
includes long distance and other buried services... but none the less,
this is all part of what we pay monthly to have DSL specifically...
the rest of the "stuff" happens because we have the phone line
in the house for DSL... so I factor these costs in as secondary
effects of DSL. So, while 21.95 of this is what was advertised to
us for DSL, we still pay 80.00 a month with the rest of the crap,
er... I mean "service" piled on since YOU CANNOT GET DSL WITHOUT
ALSO GETTING YOUR LOCAL PHONE SERVICE. Also, this is NOT the total
cost yet...
2. ISP...
12/01/03 | 04/01/04 Description
------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.00 | 19.00 ISP
ISP related notes:
In addition to paying the phone company we pay an ISP
another 19.00 per month for access to the Internet through
our DSL. (Qwest has been offering MSN bundles, but we
have been really unhappy with Qwest and decided to go with
a third party ISP just to NOT pay Qwest even more.)
So, the ACTUAL COSTS associated with 256K DSL here add up to apx $60,
BUT the ACTUAL DOLLARS PER MONTH IN TOTAL HAVE BEEN APX $99 A MONTH.
Other Related Issues
Web hosting and other Internet services related notes:
While the ISP provides some lame web space and email offering,
these costs DO NOT cover web hosting, email access, etc. (They could
if you want to become even more attached to your ISP, but after
having dealt with AOL in the past, becoming reliant on your ISP as
A VERY BAD THING. If you are running (or want to run) a website(s)
here's what we recommend -
Web Hosting - Hosting411
Other Web Related Resources
ESQ Software - lots of help and how-to's.