It seems like a pretty good deal.
You are out buying that new computer you’ve always wanted. You can’t wait to get on the Internet and see what its all about. You want to send e-mail to your sister in Los Angeles. You know that you need a computer, and that you also need access to the Internet from a service provider (called an ISP).
At the electronics or computer store, you see lots of computer packages - everything all together, including Internet service. And, best of all, if you take the package you get a huge rebate, perhaps $400, if you use their Internet service. Sounds great. You know you need an Internet service anyhow. You buy the package and take it home.
You assemble the computer, follow the instructions, get on the Internet, and have a merry month learning all that the Internet has to offer. The bubble bursts when you get your first phone bill - perhaps hundreds of dollars!
What happened? I have seen this problem occur many times, all too frequently here in rural areas such as Southport and Oak Island. The problem in a nutshell is this: You are using your home phone to access the Internet. To be inexpensive, you need to access the Internet via a local phone call that does not charge by the minute. Unfortunately, the national ISPs whose service you must use when you bought the computer package do not have local phone numbers. The result is that you pay long distance charges by the minute when on the Internet. Most of the national ISPs that I know of have access phone numbers in Wilmington, but that is a long distance call for us here in the Southport area.
Let’s look at the numbers. 40 hours on the Internet per month = 2400 minutes. If your in-state long distance phone charge is $.15/minute, that comes out to $360 of phone charges for the month. If you are on the Internet for 100 hours and your long distance charge is $.25/minute - that is a bill of $1500 (Intra-state long distance phone charges vary, depending on your long distance plan). Even if you get your local calling extended to Wilmington, the fixed charge per month for that service can cost you about $15 on your phone bill. And that is not counting the $20-$25 charge to the ISP for the Internet service itself!
All of a sudden, that computer package deal doesn’t look so good. You saved perhaps $400, but exposed yourself to monthly Internet phone charges for perhaps three years. Even at $15/month, for three years you would spend $540. The package deal only makes sense if the package ISP has a local phone number.
But, another factor your should consider is that by buying the package you are locked in to slow speed phone line Internet access. There are new types of Internet access soon becoming available, such as the Time Warner RoadRunner(tm) service, which give you high speed Internet access over your TV cable. Even if you switched to RoadRunner, you still have to pay the old package ISP per month for the duration of the contract.
What is the answer? Before buying, look for a better computer deal without the Internet access and use one of the good local ISPs. If you are already stuck in such a deal, consider using an out of state phone number to access the Internet rather than Wilmington (inter-state long distance charges are usually lower than intra-state), or get the extended local area calling plan.
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can see his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).