Dial-Up: Dead Or Alive?
from the not-dead-yet! dept
It's always fun when you get two absolutely conflicting headlines to show up on the same day. Broadband Reports picks up on a Nielsen/NetRatings study with the title: Newsflash: Dial-Up is Dying, while Fox retorts: Reports of Death of Dial-Up Internet Greatly Exaggerated. Of course, the details suggest that both may be right. They're actually talking about different studies. The second one is about a Pew study -- and the numbers are slightly different, but relatively close. The Nielsen report notes 28% still using dialup (while also pointing out that's down from 43% last year). The Pew report says 34% -- a slightly higher number. However, the Pew report also asked those dialup users what their intentions for the future were, and 60% said they were perfectly happy with dialup accounts, and saw no reason to move to broadband. So, perhaps dialup is simply shrinking, but there are going to be a core group of holdouts, who just won't let go of the sound of a modem connecting for quite some time.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Personally....
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Re: Personally....
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Re: Re: Personally....
So what If we're posting opinions. Isn't that what the comment feature is for? To share our views and ideas?
My view. Dial up is dying. For those of you who claim it's your only choice....it won't be for long. I know a lot of people who live out in noman's land...but somehow they manage to get broadband. Just wait till broadband over powerlines hits (soon). Then there will be no more "dial up is my only choice" excuses. And for those who say they're happy with dial up. LOL. You seriously don't know what you're missing. I'm with the others. I'd rather have NO Internet than have to suffer with dial-up again. How any ISP can charge more than $1/month for crappy dial-up service is beyond me.
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Re: Re: Re: Personally....
we use dial up for our own reason if that is what we have.
what's next? vote on your favorite boy band? Is Bush doing a good job? this sounds like myspace anymore.
as for you, kevin, FUCK YOU, TOWEL HEAD.
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R U Sure?
The only option in my area--which is very close to major urban area--not way-isolated or anything--is dialup or satellite. And the latter has huge startup costs.
You learn to adjust--For instance, I get my podcasts by chipping away at them for an hour in the morning and an hour at night--so as not to tie up the phone line. MIght take 2-3 days to get a big one, but eventually the job gets done.
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Re: R U Sure?
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to hell with dial-up
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Re: to hell with dial-up
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Re: to hell with dial-up
You mean, you actually disconnected? Three words: second phone line. Would I go back for a million dollars? That depends on how long I'd have to stay there, I guess. I plan on living a loooong time.
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Re: to hell with dial-up
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Re: to hell with dial-up
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Of course, I would still use it for posting on www.callandanswer.com
and for posting on TD :-)
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Re:
So, nowadays with RR and playing ET I get the same kinda ping - under 100. So, what's changed?
In my perspective - nothing much.
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There is no going back...
If this service was readily avaliable to them that is.
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Hardly dead or even close
This is for various reasons such low cost, unavailability of broadband, cost of broadband. While many places have high penetration of brodband services, and in some cases cheap rates, that penetration is by no means as deep as the providers would have us think.
As to site stats those can be influence by many things. One of the most obvious is - does your content cater to material of primary interest to the average broadband user rather than the general user? Is the site media rich or slow and time consuming to use for someone on dial-up (which means they stop visiting and work gets around that it's a slow site so fewer others on dial-up don't visit).
There is a lot of life left in dial-up and it will be around a long time so long as some providers insist on gouging level priice for broadband in some markets. In other regions it's simply a matter of access. Since the cost to provide, or number of customers is too low, some regions are ignored by most providers.
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Do VPN's count?
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southwest area
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If all I ever did was e-mail and occasional web-surfing, I'm not sure i'd bother with broadband.
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it's pretty amazing, but there is still a lot of dial-up out there and those ISPs seem to be doing well.
obviously we only have visibility to the orders that come in and not the country's dial-up base as a whole. but it's more than one would think...
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I hate dialup, but know those that that's it for c
It works because they don't do a "whole lot" on the net, but it makes getting updates a pain in the arse. There are still a lot of people on dialup and there are a lot of people who simply have no other choice (satellite connection is spotty) so my question is why can't people who update their software via the net (namely Microsoft) make it easier for people on slow connections to get the updates?
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What is this dial up you speak of?
But then again living in Canada with the largest broadband penetration does have it's advantages and having been at the bleeding edge of technology throughout the web era has also had it's advantages.
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Dial-up backup
Although I have had FiOS for a couple of months (long enough that I have some confidence that it is more reliable than Comcast cable), I still keep the dialup account because I can use my cellphone to attach to my laptop on the road. Eventually, however, I will drop the dialup, once Wi-fi become sufficiently ubiquitous, or WiMax (or some variant) becomes both inexpensive and widely available.
Comcast is history as far as I'm concerned, but I don't really want them to go out of business -- I don't want Verizon to get complacent. Competition is a Good Thing.
--
Howard Lee Harkness
The Celtic Fidder www.celtic-fiddler.com
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Dial-up is dieing- slowly
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It's still alive, alright...
As long as that fabled "Last Mile" project has not been completed, dialup will remain alive and well.
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Dial up issues
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use other sources!
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Dial-up user
As long as broadband continues to have limited availablility and is overpriced, dialup will still have a customer base. In response to a comment about backup connections, most cable providers have backup dialup access if their cable access goes down. Living in hurricane alley, this is a valuable offering. AFter Hurricane Ivan in 2004, I went 30 days without cable, 11 days without power, but phone lines worked. Once I had my power turned on, I was able to dial in to my Cox cable account. Yes it was slower, but certainly better than nothing.
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300 baud?
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i cant see it
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How about pushing it to 485?
Boy have we come a long way...
And yes, I actually have ran at 110bps, teletype connection... I was hooked on computers from the very first '>' prompt!
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OMG
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The real title should be "Broadband's penetration
This can literally be in the middle of other areas which do have DSL or cable. The penetration of broadband is abysmal compared to what the general public thinks. Even in the Seattle City limits, it was only 12 months ago that 128k/128k DSL became available on my block, although the telco will sure charge ya for faster. Not that the lines support faster but you can pay for it. The cable's surprisingly stable where I am but in other spots it’s hit and miss.
What ticked me off the most was last summer when the City ran fiber past my house but I can’t tap into it because it’s not a public utility line. Apparently it’s just for City Government use. Argh!
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Rural Access and You
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spoiled
my parents only have dial-up because thats all that is available. they cant shell out the big bucks every month for satelite. so, they use the internet more like i used to use it, for updates, email, some surfing.
as long as the isps only offer dial-up in rural areas, they can charge whatever they want. but there is a price point that becomes insane and people stop buying...just like any commodity. as long as they stay well under the satelite cost, they will have customers.
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Dialup has its place.
*Broadband is not available everywhere and if options are few the costs are high.
*Copper phone lines use voltage instead of digital signals (low voltage), the higher voltage is by far more robust and reliable than a digital signal. broadband is more vulnerable to line noise and corruption as a result.
*Phone lines offer more routes to connect physically because of the switching technology already in place. If a segment is severed, you can still connect. Broadband has proprietary lines that if severed, may simply not connect elsewhere because there usually arent redundant routes as in telephone switching.
*In high
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hey black cow :D
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Dial-Up. Mixed Scenario.
Regards
(Siddharth Razdan)
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dial-up pisses me off
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Re: dial-up pisses me off
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Dial-Up: Dead Or Alive?
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Cellphone anyone?
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