Re: No pain, no pair gain?

Hello Keith,


The TV part of my bill (all the channels) is about $130/month. ...


Ouch! We have an antenna and the cost is, well, zilch.


My cell phone is $40/month (two for $60 with taxes and...) for 700 minutes (of which in a normal month I may use 10;) with unlimited nights and weekends. I wouldn't consider an Internet connection via cell though.


With that low usage I'd look into Virgin Mobile. That is what I am using. 25c/min the first 10 minutes per day, then 10c. Or 35c/day and it's 10c for all minutes. Plus they let you switch.


Why roaming charges? I get no roaming charges unless I leave the country (or get too close to Canuckistan).


Some carriers (like Virgin and yours) don't charge them. Others do and it often comes as a surprise out of the blue to people.


Ok, we have choices:
Phone (last mile): Missy Bell
Cell
Cable/Vonage


Ours: Missy Bell
Cell (but not a lot)


Long Distance: Missy Bell
Mom
Cell
10s of 1010 companies
1000s of pay-per cards
Cable/Vonage


LD is never a problem. Thanks to MCI cards at Costco it's 3c/min here, or everywhere for that matter. International is another issue but now MCI has a card for that, too. Wish they had a combo card with decent rates.


TV: Cable Satellite


Same here, but both expensive. Once they really turn off the analog TV stations it'll lock many people in because the standard that has been picked is supposedly not very tolerant for multi-path (which is a really serious problem out here). Not us, we'd just quit TV altogether.


Internet: 100s of ISPs
DSL (often several choices)
Cable
Satellite (downlink)
Satellite (bi-di)


The dial-up ISPs aren't too useful for biz. Too slow. We have DSL and acble but cable isn't competivive for folks like us who don't use TV much. Satellite is much more expensive out here, only used when there is absolutely no chance to get anything else.


Sorry, I don't see any monopoly here.


It's crumbling but there are quite a few people here who are de-facto stuck with DSL and with their phone line. Unless they are willing to subscribe to other services they don't really need and end up with a grand total that was higher than before.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
.

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