Now That We're Faster… Speed Does Matter

Say That Again

from the oh,-come-on... dept

Apparently, telcos and cable companies have no sense of history. In late 2003, telcos started positioning DSL as the low cost option, while cable providers insisted that their marginally higher speeds would help keep people using cable modems, even at a premium. Of course, the fact that people flocked to DSL instead suggests that perhaps they were wrong — and the telcos played up the fact that cheaper service was more important to users than speed. Then, as the telcos improved their networks to make them faster, suddenly the cable companies were saying that speed isn’t that important. So, just to complete this circle, the telcos, who said price was more important than speed when they were slower, are now suddenly claiming that speedy connections sell well. In other words… whatever we have right now is what sells better. If we’re the cheaper offering, that’s more important than speed. If we’re the faster offering, that’s more important than price.