Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com>: Oct 05 10:03AM -0700
On Tue, 05 Oct 2021 00:01:18 -0400, Michael Trew
>What region is this? I've heard several people tell me, especially out
>west, that AT&T simply shut down the old ADSL out there, and resellers
>and all couldn't sell it. I live in Ohio, former Ameritech region.
USA, left coast, California, Santa Cruz county. I have not bothered
to investigate the extent of the "legacy DSL" shutdown. I think it's
national. Note the headline here:
<https://www.att.com/internet/dsl/>
"AT&T no longer offers DSL service"
Clicking further down the page, it offers me up to 5 Mbit/sec service
for $45/month plus taxes, equipment fees, hidden charges, and
installation if needed. Why am I not thrilled?
>> ADSL. In my case, it wasn't an option.
>I like my POTS line.. if it ever become unreliable, or the price keeps
>creeping up to an unreasonable level, I'll probably drop it.
I also like POTS phone lines, mostly because they're far more reliable
than anything that goes via the internet or cellular data. However,
my latest AT&T POTS bill was $41.25 for flat rate, no long distance. I
originate or receive perhaps 50 fairly short, non-telemarketting,
phone calls per month making my cost about $0.80 per valid call.
Meanwhile, I'm also paying $75/year for my former office VoIP phone
from:
<https://www.future-nine.com/plans.html> (Bare Essentials plan)
with 2000 incoming minutes and 250 outgoing minutes included. That's
a net savings of about $420/year. I can also switch to all cellular
(cutting the cord) for which I alread pay $28/month.
>moment.. as I was told, I can't move, change speed, etc.. but it still
>works as of now.
>https://www.dslreports.com/forum/r32848850-DSL-is-officially-grandfathered-Get-orders-in-BEFORE-October
Yep. That's not what I received from my ISP. AT&T will continue to
service legacy accounts for their AT&T customers, but not for the
CLEC's, who have equipment located in their central offices and are
leasing AT&T copper phone lines.
>"Real speed" is about 2 down on any given test. It seems to work OK on
>one device, streaming, browsing on one or two others. I doubt it could
>do much more.
Higher speeds (bandwidth) to have their advantages. For me, it was
the ability to do more than one thing online at a time. I can now
download a bloated Microsoft update, stream a movie (in 720p because I
have a small TV and 1080p would be a waste of bandwidth), check my
email, talk on VoIP or Zoom, etc all at the same time. 56Mbits/sec
download, 6Mbits/sec upload. I've tried to overload the bandwidth and
found it somewhat difficult because most (not all) of the streaming
and video programs have some form of adaptive bandwidth management.
Also, I use my routers QoS (quality of service also known as bandwidth
management) settings to all the real-time stuff (mostly VoIP) to have
priority. If you only do one thing at a time online, 2Mbits/sec might
be adequate. 1.5Mbits/sec was adequate for me for about 20 years.
However, if you're into multitasking your life, more bandwidth is a
necessity.
--
Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272 http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
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