Verizon raising my DSL from $20 to $25/month

[AViking]

1meg download/384k upload. I don't need much internet at home and I don't watch cable TV. (rabbit ears FTW!)

used to be $9.99/month then every year since they've raised it $5/yr.

on top of that, I pay $19/month for a barebones landline phone service cause that's needed for DSL service nowadays. (no dry loops)

cheaper alternatives?

Wow I thought my parents had it bad. To me that's stealing.

If you have mobile phone reception at your house then get rid of the land line. My family has a landline since the mobile phone reception at their house is very unreliable. That makes DSL a decent option for them but at your prices you really should think about any alternative you might find. Might want to just use your mobiles data plan since you don't use much internet.

 

[AViking]

and what to do about my home phone #?
I want to keep it. had it for years

Why? The only home phone number I even have is for my parents. Everyone else has mobile phones. Unless you have no reception at home there really is no reason to have it.

 

[Doppel]

Call and say you need a reduction and it's too expensive. I haven't paid sticker price on my cable internet in years. There is just no reason to. Hopefully your DSL provider is the same.

 

[JEDI]

Why? The only home phone number I even have is for my parents. Everyone else has mobile phones. Unless you have no reception at home there really is no reason to have it.

I gave my home # for credit cards (ie: they have called me for fraud alert), doctors, utilities, etc.

changing all of them is a pain.

also, I don't want to give out my cell #. I don't want to get spam calls (at minimum from charities and politians).

 

[bruceb]

I am also on Verizon DSL with 3MBS Down and about 784Kbs Up ... also paying around $29 or so per month for it, plus just local phone service, bill comes to around $75 per month. I can switch to Cablevision internet, but it would cost about $40 per month and then my brother, who has email on verizon.net, would not be able to use that after the move to Cablevision. My email is web based, so I do not need to worry about migrating it when I change ISPs

 

[Engineer]

It's not a big increase.

It's a 25% increase. If all of your bills (everything - food, gas, utilities, etc) went up by 25%, would you be saying 'It's not a big increase.'?

 

[TXHokie]

What the hell? That's damn cheap!
I'm paying 75 for cable 30/5 and that's the minimum I can get away with. We stream Netflix and play online gaming at the same time and a riot would start when we had 20MB.

 

[ch33zw1z]

$25 for DSL, $19 for phone, $45/month? for 1mbit/384kbps, start looking for other options.

Edit: I pay $60/month for 50mbit/5mbit, own my own modem, $50 two years ago. I also have basic cable, that's another 17/month

 

[lxskllr]

I gave my home # for credit cards (ie: they have called me for fraud alert), doctors, utilities, etc.

changing all of them is a pain.

also, I don't want to give out my cell #. I don't want to get spam calls (at minimum from charities and politians).

Setup a Google Voice number. You can have a number for spam, and one for everything else. Even better, use caution in giving out your number. Nobody /needs/ it. It's up to you to decide who gets it.

Sometimes you have to change a number. That's life, but if you insist on keeping your number, you can probably have it ported. It isn't worth all that trouble imo.

 

[Leyawiin]

Welcome to America where internet is more expensive than everywhere else in the first world.

Don't forget generally slower as well. In my neighborhood (with its copper wires) its three options - ATT @ 3 Mbps DSL, satellite @ 4 Mbps or Comcast for anything faster. All are overpriced for what you get. Since I refuse to have anything to do with Comcast I'm stuck with pokey DSL.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I don't really get what all the fuss is about. I was paying about $60/mo for ADSL + phone. It was 8/1 which is as high as it would go and was actually surprising for my area. We actually got fibre here though, and I still can't believe this day has come but it did. Paying 160/mo but that includes TV too, and at those speeds it's worth it. I now get 50/30. The upload makes the world of a difference too especially for uploading pics and stuff like that.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I don't really get what all the fuss is about. I was paying about $60/mo for ADSL + phone. It was 8/1 which is as high as it would go and was actually surprising for my area. We actually got fibre here though, and I still can't believe this day has come but it did. Paying 160/mo but that includes TV too, and at those speeds it's worth it. I now get 50/30. The upload makes the world of a difference too especially for uploading pics and stuff like that.

sounds like you know exactly what the fuss is about.

 

[Red Squirrel]

But he's only paying $15/mo for ADSL. Or is it less? In his post he said it went up by 5 per YEAR. I assumed it was per month but reread it. That's pretty cheap either way. So the fact that it "went up" is not really a huge deal imo. Everything goes up. Hydro, Gas, taxes...everything except salary. Sucks but it's the way it is.

 

[nickbits]

Setup a Google Voice number. You can have a number for spam, and one for everything else. Even better, use caution in giving out your number. Nobody /needs/ it. It's up to you to decide who gets it.

Sometimes you have to change a number. That's life, but if you insist on keeping your number, you can probably have it ported. It isn't worth all that trouble imo.

You have to port the landline to a mobile provider before you can port to google voice. I used a prepaid tmobile phone to do the transfer.

 

[JEDI]

But he's only paying $15/mo for ADSL. Or is it less? In his post he said it went up by 5 per YEAR. I assumed it was per month but reread it. That's pretty cheap either way. So the fact that it "went up" is not really a huge deal imo. Everything goes up. Hydro, Gas, taxes...everything except salary. Sucks but it's the way it is.

doh.. it is $5/month. fixed

thx!

 

[JEDI]

You have to port the landline to a mobile provider before you can port to google voice. I used a prepaid tmobile phone to do the transfer.

wow.. sounds like a lot of trouble.
if I sign up w/google voice w/o porting, will they give me a new # for free?

 

[lxskllr]

if I sign up w/google voice w/o porting, will they give me a new # for free?

Yes, and that's the ideal way if you use it as a spam number. Unless they've changed things, you can swap out numbers any time.

 

[ch33zw1z]

doh.. it is $5/month. fixed

thx!

So what's your total per month then?

 

[JEDI]

So what's your total per month then?

now $25/month ($300/yr) 🙁
plus $19/month for landline

google voice sounds good.
now I just need to find dryloop dsl since i'm canceling the landline.

or switch to fios just for internet?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Wait, you can get fios? That's a no brainer then, get that!

I signed up as soon as I saw them running the lines behind my house. Heck, once I saw the equipment go in the CO it felt like it was Christmas. 😛 I feel bad for all the new subdivisions that have underground cable plant, because they'll never get it. If it was up to me everything would be fibre to the house now. I don't know why they keep copper around for new subdivisions.

 

[ch33zw1z]

FIOS if you can afford.

It's not available in my area. In fact, My choice is Comcast or dialup. DSL doesn't reach my house from the central office, and I live on the East side of a mountain filled with very tall oaks so anything satellite is out of hte question.

 

[marvdmartian]

Had AT&T dry loop DSL, but was getting tired of 6 megabit service and bandwidth limits, for $60/month. Switched to Time Warner Roadrunner 20 megabit service, no bandwidth limits, and $10 more a month. :thumbsup: