Light and moderate users of Net might stick with dial-up modems

Over time, using broadband - either DSL or cable - to get online will probably be as cheap as dialing a modem is today - somewhere in the $20-a-month range.<br><br>In fact, it may not even be necessary

Monday, April 3rd 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Over time, using broadband - either DSL or cable - to get online will probably be as cheap as dialing a modem is today - somewhere in the $20-a-month range.

In fact, it may not even be necessary to pay for DSL service at all - if you're willing to watch ads in your browser or convert your phone service to a DSL-based carrier in the future.
Free DSL service providers have begun sprouting up across the country.

Most of Tulsa, however, still cannot receive DSL service because local-telephone companies have not upgraded equipment to allow the fast connections. Experts suggest checking first with your local-phone carrier to make sure DSL can be carried on your lines.

Until the prices come down, or disappear altogether, some consumers might want to think twice before they jump on the high-speed Internet bandwagon.

It might not be for them - yet.

"If you use the Internet a lot or you have more than one user in the household, broadband - either DSL or cable - makes a lot of sense," said Patrick Callinan, an analyst for Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. "If you're a light user of the Internet, you might want to wait."

He has found that the people who pony up, in many cases, three times more for broadband than they would pay for the much-slower dial-up service are folks who love technology and don't mind the expense.

They use the Internet to download heavy multimedia files that contain music or video, for instance, and hate waiting hours for their dial-up modem to do the job.

Take the 3-hour, 14-minute movie The Titanic, for instance. Using a 28.8 Kbps dial-up modem, downloading the Oscar-winning picture would take 42.5 hours. Using DSL, or digital subscriber line, it would take 12 minutes, 8 seconds. A cable modem could do it in 7 minutes, 23 seconds.

But most of us still don't use our computers that way.

"If you're just going online to check your e-mails and Web sites on an infrequent basis, I wouldn't buy broadband yet," said Igor Brezac, president of Raleigh, N.C.-based iPass, which sells DSL and other Internet services. "It depends on your usage."

His prediction: Most residential customers will eventually get their high Internet speeds from their cable company. Businesses, which generally aren't hooked up to the cable system, will go for DSL.

Consumers who still opt for DSL have a lot of homework to do as they enter a world that's full of confusing acronyms and technical terms that make little sense to an average surfer.

Some things to keep in mind:

Chances are you might not get the service you first set out to get. Depending on where you live and what shape the phone network in your neighborhood is in, you might be directed to a DSL service that is slower or perhaps more expensive than what you first wanted. Either way, shop around.

You might have to deal with two or even three companies before your line is installed and everything works right.

Some Internet service providers expect you to call your local-phone company to arrange installment of your line.

You also might get two separate bills in the mail every month.

Do you want one-stop shopping or do you want to do some of the legwork yourself?

Some ISPs don't include the modem in their packages or charge more than a retailer would.

That means you might want to buy it yourself.

The same goes for the Ethernet card, which is installed in the computer to allow it to talk to the ISP's network and typically costs between $10 and $25.

Double-check the fees. Don't be blinded by a low monthly cost; high installation and equipment prices can increase your overall costs.

Think about what you're using the Internet for. If you want to send big files, perhaps from a home office, the upstream speed is important.
If you go online mainly to download information, it's the downstream speed that matters.

Staff writer Doug Bedell contibuted to this report.