DSL gets naked in St Louis

Well hang up that POTS phone! Lucky St Louis residents can now have their DSL without th ephone line and associated charges. With pervasive wireless and cheap to free VOIP who needs it? I’ve long resented havoing to pay AT&T fro a phone line that is not used in order to have access to DSL service.

quoting STL Today: AT&T calls its new naked service “DSL Direct.” The company says consumers in Missouri and Illinois can sign up now. The price for the “Express” plan is $23.99 per month (it’s $19.99 if you also subscribe to an AT&T landline). The monthly price for the faster “Pro” plan is $28.99 (compared to $24.99 with a landline).

AT&T offered “naked” in Chicago and two other markets this summer. Customers liked it, and the company says it’s rolling it out in all its 22 states.

But you should know two things:

First, if you wait until January, you can get the $23.99 service for less than $20.

That’s because AT&T reluctantly agreed to offer that price to win approval from the Federal Communications Commission earlier this year to buy BellSouth.

“The merger conditions say that we will offer stand-alone (service) for $20 or less — and we will,” AT&T spokesman Andy Shaw says.

The cheaper rate coming next month, he adds, will even carry the same DSL Direct name.

Second, Shaw says that if you want DSL Direct, go to one of the company’s numerous retail stores. “They’ll hook you up,” he says. “They are knowledgeable.”