problem with high-speed Web service: a lack of customers

[rcjordan]

What's clearly missing from the broadband equation is, simply, a reason to use it. Many consumers find dial-up perfectly acceptable for E-mail and Web browsing.

US News & World Report [usnews.com]

[chiyo]

With respect to all (including me!) this thread has almost been exclusively about what WE use and why broadband is better for us. There has been little focus on the customer of our sites, and a few suggestions that dialup users are mentally deficient! :)

Im assuming, Kaspian, that your comment..

"...I want to incorporate Flash on my site like it's nobody's business, pretty it up with more graphics, but I can't because I'll get a big pile of emails in my inbox complaining that the pages load too slow..."

is sarcastic? :)

[Learning Curve]

rcjordan, Are you Amish?

[serpent star]

<<<<Until sites that people really need cave in and start building heavy pages that cant be accessed sensibly by a phone line, broadband wont take off.>>>>

I see this as "faulty logic". If McDonalds moved it's operation to the middle of a swamp, I doubt that I would buy a hovercraft to run out there and pick up a big mac. I'd probably just go to the easily accessable Burger King for my fast food enjoyment.

It is all about adding value. The average person is only amused with heavy paged flash sites for so long. We need to convince movie studios and record companies to offer a value added service via the web. Perhaps being able to download Starwars for a small fee, and release it to the web before it is released on video or dvd. This would need to be done in conjunction with convincing computer users to integrate their home computers with their entertainment center. Sort of like unlimited pay perveiw. You could have video stores like blockbuster serve their entire video library via the internet. No more late movies just pay a $3.00 fee via credit card, select one of thousands of movies, download and enjoy.

There... a value added service that would help sway me toward purchasing a broadband connection.

But general web surfing could continue using lite pages (40k).

I just think the web is too young to the general public. Not much more than ten years ago we all got along just fine without what we (the consumer) know as the internet.

Just my two cents. (first post here... very cool forums)

[lawman]

>>rcjordan, Are you Amish?

LOL! Good one Learning Curve.

How 'bout this one: To rcjordan, a reasonably priced dial-up involves two dixie cups and a string.

lawman

[Bradley]

Keep in mind - if you have a dedicated phone line SOLELY for your computer you are paying, say, $20/month for the phone line and $20 for your ISP service. You can EASILY put that money towards dedicated cable modem service and get 30 times the speed of a 56K.