
Price War Erupts For High-Speed Internet Service - ksvs
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122031009737388555.html
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mdasen
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 DSL is simply outdated technology that's being sold for cheap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.

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.

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.

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vaksel
yeah when Verizon came out with FIOS, their rates were cheaper than 1.5MB DSL
I had before

