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AT&T Will Give Poor People 1.5 Mbps DSL for $10 if US Allows DirecTV Merger

posted by cmn32480 on Wednesday July 08 2015, @11:57PM   
from the too-big-to-fail dept.

AnonTechie writes:

AT&T is promising to offer cheaper Internet service to poor people if it's allowed to buy DirecTV. This is similar to a promise that helped Comcast gain government approval of its 2011 acquisition of NBCUniversal.

Qualifying residents in areas where AT&T's top speeds are below 5 Mbps (that's not a typo) will be offered DSL service of "up to 1.5 Mbps, where available" for $10 a month, AT&T said in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission last week. It'll be $5 a month for the first year before rising to $10 for the next three years. AT&T is proposing a four-year commitment in total.

In areas where AT&T's top speeds are higher, the company said it "will offer a broadband wireline DSL service at speeds up to 5 Mbps to households in AT&T's wireline footprint for $10 per month for the first 12 months of service (rising to $20 per month for the remainder of the term of the commitment)."

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/07/att-will-give-poor-people-1-5mbps-dsl-for-10-if-us-allows-directv-merger/

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Original Submission

• tip for selecting a new residence tip for selecting a new residence (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday July 09 2015, @12:48AM

  by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday July 09 2015, @12:48AM (#206695) Homepage Journal

  whether you buy or rent:

  Determine whether fast internet is available. Not aftordably or with great justice; whether you can get it at all.

  Some guy from RCN encouraged my interest in frame relay when I bought a house in owl's head maine. I expect frame relay would have been just dandy but then I was unable to obtain an actual quote from the service; the RCN employee was a kernel coder who had no clue hiw to actually order the service iffered by his own employer.

  No worties, well just get a cable modem but no, the cable company had no routers in our neighborhood, just TV service.

  Next up was wireless, some kid made bank by operating an ISP out if his mothers basement but we did not have libe of sight.

  I looked into hughes satellite internet which was available but was advisedvagainst it as there is poor reception during driving snowstorms.

  I actually did OK with dialup and IP masquerading but that was back in the day when only websites of ill repute employed javascript.

  --
  Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]

  Starting Score:	1		point
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• Mesh Networking (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2015, @07:07AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2015, @07:07AM (#206835)

  strong communities (meaning people who actually TALK to each other) and MESH NETWORKING is the future.

  Parent