in search of cheap broadband; phone, TV optional

[Randy Cole]

Verizon's website says 19.99 for 1Mb/384kb, or $29.99 for 3Mb/768kb,
with 1yr agreement and no phone service.
http://www22.verizon.com/Residential/HighSpeedInternet/Plans/Plans.htm

Galaxy Internet Service will sell you DSL for $19.95/mo.

The RCN prices someone mentioned are promotional "1 year" prices. I'm
getting reamed by RCN for my double-play and they won't offer me their
promotional prices, so I will have to go to Verizon or someone like
Galaxy. Comcast's promotional prices seem to all require you take their
cable (in small print, or even no print), so I'm not interested in them.
I assume Galaxy just resells Verizon. They also supposedly offer fiber
optic which I assume is actually FIOS.

When I check Verizon DSL online availability it always tells me no or
switches to FIOS, even though I am within the distance to the central
office. I assume this is because my Verizon line is inactive, and that I
could order DSL from them if I insisted. Does Verizon offer DSL in FIOS
areas? If I order FIOS, could I get them to run it through the existing
underground electrical conduit? (I assume the answer is "no").

Seth Gordon wrote:
> After my wife and I got a cellphone plan with enough minutes to handle 
> all the calls we make (which is not many), we figured we could drop our 
> local phone service entirely.  Except, umm, we want to keep that 
> Internet thing.
>
> So I called Verizon and said: "Hi, I'd like to cancel local phone 
> service but keep DSL.  Is that possible?"
>
> And the CSR said: "Sure!  We call that 'dry loop DSL' and it costs 
> $40/month."
>
> ...which is what we're paying now for DSL *and* local phone service. 
> (If we cancelled our voice mail, we'd basically be paying $20/month for 
> DSL, $10/month for the pay-by-the-minute local calling plan, and 
> $10/month in taxes.)
>
> I checked out RCN and Comcast, but as far as I can tell, even their 
> cheapest plans involve Internet access bundled with either landline 
> phone service (plus doodads that we would never use) or cable TV (which 
> we don't want badly enough to pay for).
>
> Are there any other options, or is $40/month really the lowest that we 
> can go?
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