Netzero Ad Preys on the Stupid
Would you like to save $300/year?
In this economy, who wouldn’t?
Over the Holiday weekend I saw a rather novel Netzero advertisement: Switch from your broadband internet provider to Netzero Dialup and save $300/year.
I’m paying approximately $53/month for my broadband internet through Comcast, and the appeal of dropping that down to $10/month with another ISP is tempting, to say the least!
Let’s see if it’s really worth it
To use Netzero dialup as my ISP I’d need to switch from T-Mobile @Home VoIP ($10/month) for my home phone back to POTS, and I’d have to get a second line to cover how much time is spent on the innerwebs, so that’s $29.95 for basic phone service, plus $6 for Caller-ID, plus another $9.95 for another phone line, plus about $10 in long-distance per month.
I wouldn’t be able to stream Netflix to my XBOX360, so I’d have to drop my 1-out-at-a-time-unlimited plan for $10 and upgrade that to at least a 3-out plan, so we’re up to $30.
I wouldn’t be able to play XBOX Live games over dialup, so I’d be losing that entirely (save about $5/month).
| Service vs. $/month | Broadband | Netzero |
|---|---|---|
| ISP | $53 | $10 |
| Phone | $10 | $55.90 |
| Netflix | $10 | $30 |
| XBOX Live | $5 | n/a: ($5) |
| Time wasted due to slow speeds | None | Hideously Grotesque Amounts |
| Total | $78/month | $90.90/month (& no XBOX Live) |
Conclusion
So, not being able to calculate how much money (aka “time”) is wasted by reverting to dialup, nor how much money (in lost entertainment value) is lost by not having XBOX Live, just running the raw numbers, Netzero costs $12.90/month MORE than Comcast broadband does!
They say I’ll save $300/year, but when I do the math it will cost me at least $154.80/year more, not to mention the hours upon hours of my life wasted just waiting for pages to load.
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