Internet

Historically, people have complained that AOL is slow and expensive. Now they have formed a partnership with Verizon [disclosure: Verizon is a financial contributor to Mouse Print’s parent, Consumer World] to offer a combination package including Verizon DSL and AOL for $25.90 a month. That price is marginally more than AOL charges for dial-up service. (Unbundling that price, $17.99 is the Verizon DSL charge, and $7.91 goes to AOL. That is a real bargain for unlimited AOL.)

AOL also promises “high speed” and “true broadband” with this package, but what they consider “high speed” may not be what you consider fast.

*MOUSE PRINT: “Fast high-speed DSL: Up to 768 Kbps connection speed.” [Insert in SuperCoups envelope, newspaper supplement, April 2006.]

Standard dial-up speed is 56Kbps, so 768Kbps is about 14 times faster. But that is not a fast broadband connection compared to other DSL speeds offered by Verizon, competitors, and by cable companies. It is actually one of the slowest broadband speeds offered to home consumers. Verizon’s “regular” speed is 3000Kbps (or 3Mbps), by comparison, for $29.95.  AT&T just announced it was raising its DSL Internet speed to 6000Kbps (or 6Mbps), and Comcast is already at that speed. RCN (a regional provider) even offers 20000Kbps (or 20Mbps).

So, what you consider fast, what competitors consider fast, and what AOL considers fast may be very different things.