Taking the DSL Plunge

Today, my line qualification for DSL came in positive. Finally, it took Qwest forever to actually get it right. Shortly after the tech arrived to validate it, I could order DSL on qwest.com, but I opted to call in due to the fact that I wanted something other than their standard residential offering.

I’m going to take the plunge into the DSL waters. For what I need (basically 1.5 with static IPs), DSL is comparable to my current connection with Wave Broadband, which is on an out-of-date rate plan where I am paying about $200 a month and locked into a contract until June.

Wave’s current commercial offering of 1.5/1.5 is $52.95 + $3 modem rental. $14.95 for a static IP, $39.95 for 4 static IPs. I need more than one static IP, so that works out to $92.90 plus a few bucks in tax. That is the price with a two year contract, add $20 a month for a one-year contract.

The DSL package I ordered is their “Internet Basic,” (1.5 downstream, 896k upstream) which is $37.99. This doesn’t include web space or email addresses, which is fine because I already have that somewhere else. A block of 5 (usable) Static IP addresses costs $14.95. Buying the DSL modem in this case (which is $60), otherwise it’s $5 a month rental. This means my montly cost is $52.94 plus whatever tax they throw on it (which will be more than Wave charges I’m sure). Yes, I know this doesn’t include the phone line it runs on, but I pay for that anyway, so it’s not any extra cost.

Qwest DSL is almost half the price. I’ll have one less bill to pay, Qwest auto-charges to an American Express, which is another bonus, and NO CONTRACT. Why not give it a try? We’ll see at the end of next week when I receive my modem and it is supposedly turned up.

Of course, I’ll be paying for Wave for another couple of months since my contract is still in force until June. I should know by then if Qwest DSL will work for me. And it might artificially restrict me in the future since I can get faster service from Wave (they offer 4 mb down over 1.5 mb up), but they charge about $120 a month for it, not including the IPs.