BROADBAND TOO PRICEY FOR DIAL-UP USERS, SURVEY SAYS
Most dial-up Internet users with access to broadband services don’t plan to subscribe to high-speed Internet service until prices drop, nationwide survey for Hart Research and The Winston Group said. Study also said 63% of dial-up users believed Bell-friendly bill sponsored by House Commerce Committee Chmn. Tauzin (R-La.) and ranking Democrat Dingell (Mich.) would increase high-speed Internet prices. Survey was sponsored by Voices for Choices, alliance of local carriers and Internet service providers that compete with Bell companies. “The Bells argue that broadband isn’t being deployed in enough places,” said Steve Ricchetti, co-chmn. of Voices for Choices. He said survey showed “prices will remain too high for consumers… People think by remarkable margins that the price is too high, and that Congress should promote competition first in order to bring down prices.”
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Of those surveyed, 36% said they were interested in high-speed Internet access but not at current prices. Almost half of respondents said they expected high-speed marketplace would be more like long distance and cellular phone industries, with decreasing prices, rather than like cable and local phone industries, which had seen prices increase. Survey had margin of error of 3.5%.
The 35% of families who use dial-up access where high- speed Internet is available are most likely to sign up for broadband services, said David Winston, pres. of The Winston Group. Among 47% of dial-up users who expressed “great deal of interest” in specific content that could be downloaded more efficiently with broadband access, such as high- definition videos and CD-quality music, only 20% said they planned to switch soon to high-speed Internet. More than 70% of households in nation have access to high-speed Internet, said Peter Hart, CEO of Hart Research, and “there is a level of interest, but the market doesn’t move up because price has been such an important element.” While 40% said they weren’t interested in high-speed Internet early in survey, 48% said they weren’t interested when fixed prices were included in question.
Survey said 56% of dial-up users opposed Tauzin-Dingell bill, compared with 35% who favored it. However, Hart concentrated more on 29% who strongly opposed the bill vs. 7% who strongly favored it. “These are the people who will end up taking action,” Hart said. “These are the people who really make a difference.” Less than 33% of dial-up users place high priority on ensuring that consumers in all regions have high-speed Internet access, study said. “This survey gives legislators a lot greater latitude,” Hart said: “Americans just don’t feel everyone needs high-speed access.” Bells have been trying to build support in small communities by saying they will lower prices, Hart said, “but I think the public knows this is a wild stretch, if not blatantly inaccurate.”
Verizon spokeswoman said survey’s results on consumer support for Tauzin-Dingell bill were faulty because survey inaccurately explained what bill would do, misleading those who answered questions. For example, survey said bill would result in Bells’ building and maintaining all DSL networks, she said, which wasn’t true. “Under the bill, anybody could build and maintain data networks” and cable companies now had more high speed data customers than did Bells, spokeswoman said. Survey also said that if Tauzin-Dingell passed, any other company wanting to offer alternative DSL services would have to lease Bell DSL facilities at Bell prices. This also isn’t true, spokeswoman said. Bill wouldn’t limit data service only to Bells and, regardless of that, prices Bells charged were regulated by FCC and state commissions, she said.