OT:Rogers announces death blow to dial-up Internet

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Full press release is at www.rogers.com. (http://www.newswire.ca.>http://www.newswire.ca.</a>)

[peternm22]

That is really going to hurt the dial-up ISP's. Twice the speed and unlimited access!

Peter

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Both Rogers and Bell were supposed to have opened their networks to independent ISPs long ago. From what I know about it, the ISPs say they can't make a profit on what Bell will charge them for access.

For sure, if Bell matches this (and I have no reason to think they won't, and quickly) it will be the death knell for most dial-up ISPs in areas they cover.

Allowing Bell and Rogers (or Telus and Shaw) a duopoly on high-speed internet access may on the surface seem to stifle competition, but I don't think anyone can argue the customer has suffered. We pay less for internet access than anyone in the world.

By the way, I now realize that we have an off-topic forum where off-topic subjects can go. However, it does (or will soon) involve pretty much the same players as DTH service, and we all have at least some interest in internet access by virtue of us being here. If you want to lock it, moderators, we can take it to off-topic.

[peternm22]

Newbie, I agree with you about the competition aspect. Our local cable co (independant) dropped internet prices when they heard Telus was coming to town.

Peter

[JCL]

What will happen to service formerly known as "Rogers @Home"? This press release did not address that question. Will Rogers raise the prices for the regular High Speed Internet Service?

[HammerJoe]

Buaaaa I want cable Internet speed.

All I have available is dial up...

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Rogers and Sympatico high-speed both raised the price by five dollars recently, for new customers only.

I suppose there'll be an increase for old high-speed users once the dial-ups are out of business.

[Ross]

Dial up internet access will never totally die for us rural folks located where cable will never appear. If I lived in a cabled area, I would sure look at this service.

My only future hope is wireless highspeed internet access. That may be down the road quite a way.

[I_M_Norm_Al]

The technology is available now at a decent price for small ISP's to do this in rural areas close to suburbia. I have heard of one small ISP in Stratford,Ontario doing this quite successfully

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Bell Simpatico High speed (ADSL) has a pretty good promotion on now where you pay 24.95/month for 5 months (modem included) and if you susbscribe online you get the 6th month free. Regular price is $44.95 incl. modem rental. You also get free installation and no contract required.

After your 6 months are up, you can switch to a promotion they have called High speed + long distance bundle which also includes 120 minutes of free long distance every month for the same price (44.95).

Hope this helps anyone out there that is thinking about getting something faster than dialup.

I will be subscribing today.

Dom

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<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr>

Dial up internet access will never totally die for us rural folks located where cable will never appear.

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For sure. However the era of big companies like Bell and AOL operating national or regional dial-up ISPs that concentrate on urban areas is likely now at an end. The small-town mom-and-pops will survive, at least until such time as 2-way satellite internet is widely available and affordable.

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This is great news. I will wait and see what Bell comes up with but $25 is pretty reasonable. I pay $15/mo for dial-up now so $10 more for cable or DSL works for me.

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Funny you should mention that Norm.

The service is ORC, and it works very well. Unfortunately they don't have a tower in my corner of Stratford (and I do live *in* Stratford, as opposed to somewhere in the boonies).

I have a friend who has the service, and so far it has always been very fast for him. Up front costs are a bit on the high side, since you pretty much have to buy the hardware (or at least pay the cost of the install, which is about $169).

OTOH, if you don't like Rogers *and* you don't like Bell
(anybody here fit that description?) it is an excellent alternative.

[tayls97]

I also read that Look might be making a comeback. I'll have to put this in the 'I will believe it when I see it' category but if its true it will definately be an alternative for high speed internet, not to mention television.

[snoman]

If Look comes back with all of Rogers channels and offers pick n pay for everything like they used to I will definitely give them a try. The tower is less than 3km from my house so reception should be excellent.

[tayls97]

Try as I might I couldn't get a link to this forum about Look to work here but I can tell you how to get there.
It is in the Canadian Broadband forum at www.dslreports.com (http://www.dslreports.com) in a thread titled Look Communications. Right on dslreports home page you will see a canadian flag there and it will take you to the right forum.

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Shaw has now announced a similar service, available immediately