Options Expand For High-Speed Internet

OPTIONS EXPAND FOR HIGH-SPEED INTERNET
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Shawn Young shawn.young@wsj.com and Dionne Searcey dionne.searcey@wsj.com]
The race between phone and cable companies to offer faster Internet service is giving consumers a wider variety of options. Cable companies until recently had the upper hand in delivering faster connections, leaving phone companies to compete in the broadband business by offering lower prices. But as companies such as AT&T and Verizon have upgraded their networks, they've made speeds available to consumers that they previously sold mainly to business customers. Cable companies have had to pick up their own speeds to stay ahead. Some operators are offering as many as 50 megabits, or 50 million bits, per second. AT&T, whose fastest speed was 1.5 megabits per second three years ago, raised it to three megabits in 2004 and six megabits in April. Comcast, the country's largest cable operator with more than 21 million subscribers, has increased speeds four times in the past three years and now offers most customers six megabits. Broadband speeds are picking up especially in regions with fierce competition. In parts of the New York area, where Verizon and Cablevision Systems Corp. are in a head-to-head battle, Verizon last week cranked up its fastest connections to 50 megabits per second. The move came just weeks after Cablevision gave its customers in the region a free bump to 15 megabits from 10 megabits and also came out with a 30-megabit offer. But the higher speeds typically cost extra. Verizon's charges for its 50-megabit service range from $90 in New York to $140 a month in New Jersey and Connecticut. Cablevision charges $40 to $60 for its 30-megabit service and close to $200 for a 50-megabit service, which it doesn't heavily advertise. Most major cable companies' standard Internet packages have download speeds of up to seven megabits per second for about $42 a month. Telephone companies, which offer "digital subscriber line," or DSL service, typically offer speeds of 1.5 to six megabits for $20 to $30 a month. Some slower DSL service sells for as little as $13 a month, with AT&T currently offering a 384 kilobit to 1.5 megabit connection for that price. BellSouth Corp. offers four speed options ranging from $25 for a 256 kilobit link to $47 for up to six megabits.
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