Low cost High Speed internet for low income families

[beerman]

I pay $79.95 a month. I think internet is way to high priced but I don't think there should be any program for low income people. Internet is not a necessity its a luxury.
Did they end up passing that internet tax?

 

[Leta]

What state are you in, beerman?

They have been talking about an internet tax here for a couple of years. The taxes here on landline phones are out of control- they are like $15 per month, it's crazy. But our internet service isn't taxed at all. As soon as we had the option, we signed up for internet only ($19.95/mo) high speed DSL, and spent $80 on a VOIP device for our home phone (it costs $30/yr or $2.50/mo, so very cheap and again, untaxed).

Honestly, I wouldn't mind an internet tax if it meant we could get reasonably priced broadband to every county in the state. If they went with wireless, there's no real reason that they couldn't reach everyone. The towns here have access, but many people out in the townships only can get dial up. It's problematic for people because we also live in a place with no 3G cell service and no libraries outside of towns.

I agree that internet is a luxury (because really everything above food and shelter is) but having it available solves a lot of problems that otherwise would take a whole lot more energy and infrastructure.

What I don't understand is this: assuming you have or at least can get a landline phone, why don't phone companies just uniformly offer DSL? Almost everyone has or can get a phone, so that would solve this to a huge extent. A heckuva lot more people have a copper phone hookup than have a cable hookup.

 

[beerman]

I was told if I was 1 mile more down the road I could get DSL but sorry not in the area. mediacom has some deal here where they have it blocked where I cant even get satellite. damm near a monopoly.

 

[Leta]

Can't get a satellite? What the what?

 

[Marianne]

I was told if I was 1 mile more down the road I could get DSL but sorry not in the area. mediacom has some deal here where they have it blocked where I cant even get satellite. damm near a monopoly.

I hear ya. We built in the Twilight Zone. Half mile from everything.

 

[lorihadams]

My mom can't get high speed either....she can't get satellite for her computer but she can get directv, which I don't understand. She is stuck with dial up. She tried hughes net and they told her that she couldn't get signal because she was in between two mountains. DSL hasn't come to her area either.

 

[Laureli]

I pay $79.95 a month. I think internet is way to high priced but I don't think there should be any program for low income people. Internet is not a necessity its a luxury.
Did they end up passing that internet tax?

I disagree with internet to be a luxury... and do not completely agree that internet is NOT a necessity. Paying bills is a necessity~ as I am sure you will agree. Family and friends are necessary as we don't live on an island and I hope you agree with that. Two things that can save on gas, time, money and energy are paying bills online and communicating with friends and family via skype and email. If I did not have the "luxury" of paying bills online, I would use countless hours in time and dollars in gasoline to pay them another way. While I have checks that can be written I would be paying latefees because there is no way I am going to be able to pay the bills until I know the direct deposit is in the checking account. This would inevitably result in my car being repossessed, my landlord evicting us and me checking into the funny farm because I would drive myself nuts. Oh and one more thing... my daughter has some medical diagnosis as a result of an inuterine stroke and hydracephalus... I make appointments and communicate with doctor's and therapists online as opposed to phone calls because I need to keep a watchful eye on my minutes for a cell phone. BTW I don't have a landline.


Suffice it to say~ while I do agree that the internet can be seen as a luxury if you spend all day on games and forums, it is to each his own as to what other choices that they would have to make in order to have what they do.

 

[Marianne]

On that same note, a friend of mine who's raising her grandson, lost her job, etc etc - Her church was helping to pay her bills for a time, but they wouldn't pay her phone+ computer bill as they considered that a luxury, too. She appreciated the financial help, but asked me how they expected her to be able to get a job without a phone.

Other friends who are debt free and have money, refused internet connection until just a couple months ago. She flat battled with the IRS because they wanted her to file taxes online and she couldn't unless she went to the library or a friend's house - and that she wouldn't do. They are self employed, have a CPA buddy do their taxes. In the end, they were able to mail the tax forms, but it took several heated phone calls.

All three of our adult kids used computers to obtain their current jobs. DD would have had to drive over 20 miles to use a library computer, or 30 miles to use ours. Anymore, it's just 'assumed' that everyone has access to a computer. :/

 

[Leta]

I have a friend, he's 66 now. He recently retired. It's a long story, but he had to claim unemployment for a couple of months, go back to work, and then retire. He could not do unemployment stuff at the library computers, because their browser stores passwords and our state's MARVIN system wouldn't communicate with a shared/public computer. He ended up telling them that our neighbor's ISP address was his computer, and just using hers so he could collect two months of unemployment before his pension kicked in.

I lived without any sort of phone, internet access, or TV (no OTA even) when I was in my early 20s. (No, I didn't have a DVD player or video games, either.) It was actually nice- home was very relaxing. HOWEVER, I could bike to my parents to use their phone, and leave and receive messages, which is what made the whole situation workable. And I'm certain I drove more than I otherwise would have, which certainly is less desirable than just using the phone.

Also, if you have a good cheap internet connection, like the one offered by Comcast for $10/mo, or the mid level DSL that I have for $20/mo, you can drop other things. We have VOIP service for our home phone. We bought the device for $80, which included the first year of service with unlimited long distance, and just reupped for another year for $30, or $2.50 per month. If you have just a basic, $20/mo local calling land line, you can get online and use Google Voice to call your home phone and make unlimited free long distance calls- we set our neighbor up with this and she was tickled. If you have high speed internet, the cost of entertainment drops extremely low- YouTube is free, basic Hulu is free, Amazon Prime includes video streaming now, Netflix is $8/mo, and Amazon VOD means you never have to set foot in a video store, buy a DVD, or stop by a Redbox again, which, of course, saves a bunch of gas. There are many streaming music services that are free and excellent- it's been over a year since I even spent 99c on music. You can listen to the news online. You can read or research almost anything.

With a good internet connection, you can shop online, pay bills, and if you are lucky, work from home. Our credit union has free online bill pay. When we first moved here, we didn't get a bank account for about two months. I picked up DH's paycheck and deposited it, which took 20 minutes and a gallon of gas. Then we bought stamps, envelopes, and money orders- I costed it out once, and it worked out to $1.50 per bill- so it cost us almost $10/mo to pay our bills, plus about $5 in gas since we did this twice a month. That $15/mo would cover 2/3 of the cost of our internet service and all the internet service, plus $5, in the case of this Comcast plan. Even if you don't have or can't get a bank account, if you have good internet, you can get a Mango card or something similar so that you can buy things and pay bills online.

Plus, if you qualify for this Comcast plan, the chance that you also qualify for discounted phone service through LifeLine is pretty good. If you have a good internet connection with VOIP, you could drop the home phone and use the LifeLine discount on a cell phone, which, if you are smart about it, will be completely free. So you can have something for emergencies, and do your everyday chatting on the super-cheap-to-free home phone VOIP service.

So while I do think internet is luxury, because I also think sleeping indoors and eating food that tastes good is a luxury, I think affordable, high quality internet access is an excellent thing, and a very good use of resources to help everyone by not squandering gas, and to help the poorest among us use what resources they have in a judicious way.

 

[lorihadams]

DSL is not the same thing as satellite. Someone could get DSL if is is available in their area even if they cannot get satellite signal. Digital Subscriber Line works via phone lines. The problem with DSL is that the older phone lines that were installed years ago do not work on the same frequency. The technology to provide DSL service has to be on updated phone lines, usually run underground. My husband works for verizon so I know a little bit about this.

DSL is like dial up in that you need a phone line, but where DSL differs is that it uses different frequencies provided with the newer technology (some higher and some lower) to provide a more constant and thus, faster service. So when you hear someone say that they have been told that they can't get DSL it is because their phone lines are still the older ones and have not been switched over to the new lines that will provide access to the newer technology that will provide access to those different frequencies. It is very plausible that DSL can be offered on a main highway but not inside a neighborhood because the newer lines have only been updated on a main road to provide access to businesses and not to private homes yet. This is also why DSL is usually lumped in with your phone bill.

We do not have DSL on our road so we have a wireless "hot spot" card. We have cell phones only and have our wireless card, which provides our satellite internet signal for up to 5 devices, lumped in with our cell phone bill. Our bill is $155 per month for 2 cell phones with 1400 minutes, texting, and our hot spot.

I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.