Study Says Many Dial-Up Users Don't Want Broadband

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As hard to believe as it may seem, a new study released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project suggests that many dial-up customers do not want broadband. Huh? There are people out there happy they are on dial-up? Surely they must be joking!

Only 14 percent of dial-up users say they're stuck with the older, slower connection technology because they can't get broadband in their neighborhoods, Pew reported Wednesday. Thirty-five percent say they're still on dial-up because broadband prices are too high, while another 19 percent say nothing would persuade them to upgrade. The remainder have other reasons or do not know.
 
Surprising, well maybe not. My mother has dial up, though broad band is available in her area, by 4 different providers no less(jealous). But all she does is email. 20-30 minutes tops is what she spends hooked up to the net. She only pays $10 a month for her service. I suppose I could see how a lot of people might be similar to her.
 
Surprisingly I have a lot of clients that don't want to spend the money on it. Mostly older people who just use it very rarely for email or the occasional web page.
 
If they like their telephone land line, the extra expense of dial-up really is not much. For me I use my cell exclusively, so cable internet is actually cheaper than having to get a land line plus the monthly charges or land line plus dsl service.
 
Not surprising whatsoever. There are millions of people that do nothing more then email/banking/etc for a grand total of 40 minutes a week. I sure as hell wouldn't pay for broadband if that's all I was doing.
 
Yeah, not so surprised by this statistic, but I bet a great deal of them wouldn't want to go back to dial up after having used broadband for a few weeks. Even with the extra cost.
 
I can understand that too........some people just dont need it. I know alot of people still on dial up and they dont mind one bit.
 
Wow, that movie is going to be awesome. (When you watch it next week.) ;)

It would take much longer than a week. If it is a blu-ray remux, you are looking at ~25gb which comes out to about 101 days at 3kb/s. At that rate he should be good for 3 a year. :eek:
 
i think there could be a lot of truth to this. my dear old mother has dirty dial - unlimited access at $25/month! i've tried to tell her that she's getting hosed but she won't listen. she can get the ass end cable from rogers for the same price if not less. she won't do it because of the modem rental fee....le sigh....
 
Yeah, 25 bucks for dial-up might be a bit too much these days, but on the other hand, i understand that not everybody is willing to come up with 50 bucks a month for broadband if your internet usage is minimal.
 
I would say people who want dial up either do not know about broadband or cannot afford it.
 
Price is my major concern. Cox charges $80 a month for broadband in my complex.
 
Wow I guess it really depends on where you live for the prices. Some areas you can land a slower DSL (512k? 768k? still technically broadband) for around $15-25/month, about the same as the cost of having an extra landline plus modem service.
 
you know, i use 'dialup' over my cellphone with sprint. i get 45KB/sec download speeds with it, and since its included in my unlimited net usage plan it doesn't cost me extra to do it. and now that i am getting rid of my comcast broadband, this will be my only internet. i can't even get dsl here!

i'm the kind of guy that just wants 3mb down, 1mb up. that's it. $25 a month would be fair.
 
Well I guess there are some people who don't use the internet too frequently I could see why they don't want to upgrade.

I had dialup for 5 years before I upgraded to cable internet in 2005, dialup internet really sucks, but I guess its better than nothing.
 
Price is my major concern. Cox charges $80 a month for broadband in my complex.

that's insane. i was tired of paying $50 a month for cable internet. sure, it's 10mb fast, but how many downloads ever really went over 2mb? 80% of the net seems to be capped at 2-3mb anyway... youre really paying for multitasking when you go to 10mb (which is nice for lots of reasons especially if you have kids.. but i don't.)
 
I'm about to get raped for $124 a month for where I'm moving to. AT&T U-Verse is the only thing available. That price includes TV, but its' only their 200 channel package and not their 320. The Internet I'm going with is the best they offer which is sad compared to the FIOS I enjoy now. I hear good things about the TV service offered by AT&T but I've heard virtually nothing on the internet service and the bandwidth sucks compared to what Verizon FIOS offers. Verizon offers a 30/15 package for 30mpbs down and 15mbps up. :eek:

Verizon FIOS

15mbps down / 15mbps up


AT&T U-Verse

10mbps down / 1.5mbps up -Yuk (We really need the barfing smiley.)
 
In the US, flat-rate internet (What was it, $35 a month?) was introduced 1994-1995. What is it like nowadays, are there still pay by the minute bullcrap contracts? Anywhere in the world?

I did that until April 2001 when they finally pushed out some ADSL at a flat rate in my area. Then I started gaining weight and becoming healthy, since most of my money no longer went towards dialup bills.
 
When I was stuck with dial-up, broadband was a complete ripoff. Pay money for a small improvement. Ended up making the jump to cable.
 
Fine with me, as long as they aren't on my team, lagging out in the middle of the game.
 
my friend is so damn stubborn hes a gamer, who stays on dialup, he's like " i dont need it". Im asking dont it get you pissed off playing CS:S with 600 ping? He's like its not so bad you get used to the delay. GRR Frustrating.
 
I don't get it. Verizon offers base DSL for $19.99/month. Other carriers do the same.

Sure you can get really cheap dial-up, but I wonder if the folks who CAN get the low end DSL but refuse to even know what they are missing? My mother in law was skeptical (we dragged her kicking and screaming on the net via dial up) but she took my word for it, got the bog standard slow-ass DSL and was really supprised wiht the difference 768k makes over 56k.
 
my friend is so damn stubborn hes a gamer, who stays on dialup, he's like " i dont need it". Im asking dont it get you pissed off playing CS:S with 600 ping? He's like its not so bad you get used to the delay. GRR Frustrating.

I bet his teamamtes really love that. Or does he like to get pwn3d 24/7?
 
I glanced over the article, and I would have liked to see them mention the price range people are paying for dial up. I understand how many users would not want to pay $30 - 50 for something they use maybe an hour a week, but faster-than-56K internet can be had for around $15/month (like Verizon's 768/128 plan) and if I didn't use the internet much, I'd still get at least that.

Or perhaps everyone has free dial up since companies like AOL love to keep giving you free access. :p
 
Over the years, I had both dial-up and broadband. Here is what I found:

Virus signature download time (dial-up) - Hours to complete. :mad:

Virus signature download time (basic broadband DSL) - Couple of minutes. :D

This situation alone conviced me broadband is worth it. Of course there are other benefits of broadband besides faster virus signature download times, like no disconnects and better ping times. The choice is up to the buyer.
 
This situation alone conviced me broadband is worth it. Of course there are other benefits of broadband besides faster virus signature download times, like no disconnects and better ping times. The choice is up to the buyer.

Not to mention it does not tie up your phone line, if that is actually significant to you (was in my household when I used dial up 8 years ago). I know some people out there who got a second phone line solely for internet access, and I was like "Why?" because they could have just had some form of broadband for cheaper than price of the second line + dial up access combined.
 
I like how 19% say nothing could persuade them - as in, if it were free, they hook it up for you, and provide free support?
Dialup Codger said:
Nope, I like tying up my voice line. Besides, it makes that sound when it connects - that's how I know the internet is on. The best part is when a call kicks me offline - on the rare occasions one of my friends who's still alive calls me, it would be rude to stay on the internet while we talk.
How about if they throw in a wireless cable modem and a MacBook Air? If you change your mind about free broadband, you get to keep the gear.
Dialup Codger said:
Well shucks, I already have a Packard Bell - why would I need two computers?
 
Lets see how many of these users will remain on dial-up if web sites like ESPN start putting up 500kb+ of Flash on their front page.
 
Hell, i'd happily pay 59.95 a month for a true land line base broadband connection.. How do I know? I"m paying that for wireless right now and its not that stable.. And I call bullshit on this survey.. What did they survey in all honesty? A nursing home? Theres tons of peeps here that would love a broadband option but are forced to use either satellite or a cell data connection... Neither is cheap... Nor reliable..
 
New business idea.... to appeal to these people.

Dial "1-800-STOOOOPID" for the best in dialup internet action!!!! :eek::rolleyes::p
 
Dial up is fine if all you want to do is pay some bills online and check e-mails for 10-15 minutes a day. If you do anything more serious, especially anything involving gaming or downloads larger than a few megabytes, broadband is worth it in just the time saving aspect alone.

Also, dial-up is only worth it if you get it dirt chea ($5-10 a month). Anything more than $15-20 and its better to just switch to adsl/cable/fiber.
 
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