There’s no denying that DSL sales took a beating last quarter. AT&T might be trying to do something about it. They announced a new promotion that locks in DSL pricing for two years without the need for signing a contract. They’re also taking direct aim at cable companies, who’ve been known to promote a term contract or two, albeit less so lately. In a company statement, AT&T says the new pricing promotion offers “a guaranteed monthly rate for two years without the hassle of a term commitment like those of cable companies.” The guaranteed monthly pricing applies to residential AT&T High Speed Internet products, including the company’s standalone and AT&T U-verse DSL packages, although some of their lower tier DSL packages don’t qualify.
At first glance, you kind of walk away somewhat unimpressed with this promotion. You can’t knock AT&T for offering promotions of any kind. But if the objective of this campaign is to significantly boost new DSL additions, I’m not sure this will be enough. I’m hoping AT&T is doing some market research to find out exactly why new broadband purchasers have been more likely to choose cable modem over DSL lately (by the way AT&T and others, our sister company, Pivot Group, is happy to oblige if said consumer research services are needed). Maybe some research revealed this issue to be a flashpoint. But it seems to me, more tangible issues also need to be addressed, including better throughput speeds (in both directions) and other value added applications. Giving free access to AT&T’s Wi-Fi network is a great start.
