Does No ONE Use Phone Company Internet? (Cable Only?)

[heydude]

So, I get my internet through my telephone company. It is DSL and high speed. I also have my one and only phone (a landline) connected through it.

After five years, my modem died. I went to buy one at Target. They had wireless routers galore! And, they had a few cable modems.
BUT NO phone company modems. What?

Radio Shack didn't have it either.

A tech support local company didn't have it either.

A second computer local store didn't have it either.

Walmart, had ONE spot on the shelf. It was marked discontinued and sold out.

BEST BUY had THREE! They had two that were wireless (for 100 bucks) and one that was just normal for 40. I bought that one.

They also had a huge selection of cable modems.

Does no one use the telelphone company anymore?

Do people all have cable, and thus go with internet, and maybe a land line if they want, cause they can bundle it all?

Is it because I don't have cable? I hate the cable companies. They are nasty. I always have such good customer service with my phone company.

You can rent the telephone companies modem for 6 bucks a month. I would rather buy one.

Where do you get your internet and why is wireless so imporant? Do people really carry around their laptops all over their house????

[Tiam]

Golly gosh. I don't know. I have a cable combo pack. TV/phone/internet. I haven't used a phone line for internet in years and years.

[Alan]

DSL through telephone lines is technologically limited to specific speeds and is only available within short distances from a telephone switching station. Cable has neither of these limitations and has subsequently dominated the market.

It's sort of like the old battle between VHS and BetaMax. Beta was a superior product but used more tape, limiting tapes to about 2.5 hours vs VHS's 6 hours. The market chose quantity over quality.

[frugalone]

I use DSL through my landline, through Verizon. We don't even have cable.

[Sad Eyed Lady]

I also have internet through my phone company. It is DSL lite - not bad and I get it at a good price, so I stick with it. However, I did buy a wireless router because I do have a laptop, (no desktop at all), and I am not tied to sitting in one place. I still have to go through the modem but the router allows wireless usage.

[freein05]

I have used DSL in the past and now use cable. Cable is the only thing available in the mountains were we live now. It cost a whole lot more than DSL. We paid $20 a month for DSL and now pay $50 for cable. DSL is just as good as cable but a lot cheaper.

[Tradd]

I get DSL through AT&T. But because I have a laptop, I have a wireless router hooked into my DSL modem. I pay $25 a month. It's slow enough that it's not very good for streaming video. I stream a fair bit of audio, though.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Maybe they don't sell them because most people usually get them through their DSL providers (although not always free or anything!).

I have DSL, it costs me $16 a month. I'll believe cable is superior if they can beat the price of $16 a month (I don't buy cable t.v.). It's definitely not super fast, however it's basically NEVER down, so it is reliable.

[Float On]

DSL through Centurytel (phone company) and they've replaced my modem. In fact, they told me to call once a year to check on upgrades (they were suprised my modem has lasted as long as it did) or to see if my bill could be lowered. Last time my bill was lowered and I got faster speed.

[creaker]

I'm surprised your phone company doesn't provide it - or at least a list of models they've "blessed" to work with their equipment. Ebay can be a good source for used ones - people move or change providers and often no longer have a use for their old equipment. I got my current cable modem this way.

I have cable internet, no cable TV, and Vonage (internet) phone. I did DSL very early on (late 90's), with poor results so we switched to cable internet when we moved.

Wireless is important if you're going to run more than one device on the internet or anywhere not near your modem - and it's so cheap now! Just replaced my router for $25 - when I moved back in 2001, I had to consider whether it would have been cheaper paying someone to run wires and wireless was just a bit less expensive.

[Miss Cellane]

The brick and mortar stores stock things that are in high demand. DSL routers are most likely not in as high demand as cable routers. Go to Amazon and search on "DSL router" and over 2,000 results pop up. So the DSL routers are out there, but they seem to be more of a specialty item. (More and more, the things I want to buy aren't in the stores, but only available on-line.)

We can't get DSL where we live. Our choices are either dial-up or cable. And we live in the 7th largest city in the state, so I imagine that cable is the only option for a lot of people.

Wireless is handy if you have a laptop or iPad--you can use it in any room of the house that the wireless signal reaches. I know people who check their email and send messages while watching TV, for example. Or a mom can set a kid up playing on-line games in the same room that she's working in, which allows her to keep an eye on the kid and where the kid is surfing on the net.

Also, the phone jacks in older houses can be in odd places--like stuck in a corner--and might not have any electrical outlets near them. That's why I first went wireless, when I still had dial-up. The two phone jacks in my apartment were both in odd corners where you could not fit a desk or any piece of furniture large enough to hold a desktop computer. After a few months of having 25 feet of phone line stretched across the living room every time I wanted to go on-line, I opted for wireless.

Wireless also allows you to have fewer cables/cords. My printer is wireless. I can have it across the room from the desk where the computer is--there's more room there, and more electrical outlets, so it works better. And if there's more than one computer in the house, wireless will let them all share the same printer, without needing to be close together. And if there is more than one computer in the house, you can set them up in different rooms, or even opposite sides of the same room, without having to run yards and yards of cable all over the place.

Wireless is by no means *necessary*, but it does make certain things a lot more convenient.

[Alan]

....Wireless is by no means *necessary*, but it does make certain things a lot more convenient.
I agree.

When we built our house, 16 years ago, and being an amateur geek, I took advantage of the opportunity to install Cat 5 networking cable and jacks in multiple locations in every room of the house. All cabling was terminated in a basement utility room which, upon moving in, was outfitted with two 16 port switches, a DSL modem and a network router. I also had the phone company install a POTS splitter at the outside demarcation point which effectively split the data from the voice signals at that point and ran a dedicated data line from there to the utility room (this gave me the ability to forego placing a filter at each phone location to eliminate data hum on the phone lines).

This was a very handy arrangement for me as I enjoyed experimenting with things. At one time I had 9 desktop computers around the house. One each for myself, my wife and daughter, as well as 6 others where I set up file servers, web servers, mail servers, etc., and played with different operating systems (a man's gotta have a hobby).

After about 5 years of that, I decided to go wireless and replace old worn out machines (excepting servers) with laptops. Today, I'm down to 4 desktops, all using ethernet, three laptops and an iPad, one XBox 360 and a Wii using the wireless network. The convenience of wireless cannot be overstated. I'll never go back to ethernet on my primary machine.

[jania]

I get my internet service through the landline. While I have the option of going wireless I just don't as I really only use the laptop at home when I'm sitting at a table.

[freein05]

Be sure to check if you are renting your DSL or Cable modem. I just found out I have been paying $7 a month to rent my modem from Comcast for the last 5 years. I bought a very good cable modem from Tiger.Com for $70. Tiger also has DSL modems. I have a 10 month pay back on my purchase. I had paid over $400 over the years to rent the cable modem.

Live and learn

[heydude]

Yes, do not rent your modem from your company! You can go buy one for less. My phone company wanted me to pay 6 bucks a month to rent theirs. In just 6 months, it pays for one.

[jennipurrr]

We got our DSL modem free after rebate from the phone company when we signed up...maybe that is why there aren't many for sale. I would check the thrift store! After that I would go to ebay.

[rosarugosa]

We have always had Verizon DSL. They were giving us modems for free, but we went with wireless a few years ago and we really like the flexibility. Like some others here, we just have laptops, and it's nice to be able to use them anywhere there's an electrical outlet (defunct batteries which we have no intention of replacing). We have lots more electrical outlets than phone jacks in the house.

[Tradd]

With my AT&T DSL modem, I recently had to replace it. I was able to find one at Walmart for about $50!

[Jemima]

I wish I could get Internet service through the phone company, but my neighborhood is too far from the phone company and apparently too underpopulated for Verizon to make enough money here with FiOS. We're stuck with Comcast, and I detest them.