Free ISPs Not Worth It
from the you-get-what-you-pay-for dept
IDC has released a study saying free ISPs aren't worth the hassle. Of course, the "study" was really just based on the experiences of one guy as he tested out a bunch of the free ISPs. This is really just a segmentation issue. Of course the free ISPs aren't as good as the pay-for ones, and of course the ads can be annoying: that's why they're free. Personally, I signed up with a free ISP which I only use on the very rare occasions when my ISP is down. Otherwise I never use it. The one point that does make sense, though, is that the high cost of customer acquisition for the free ISPs may make it more difficult to survive in the long term. My guess is that companies that only act as free ISPs will have a hard time staying alive, and will be folded up with other services or ISPs as an additional offering.
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