Posted on Mon, Jan. 20, 2003

Unlimited Internet access is cheap and reliable

BY JULIO OJEDA-ZAPATA

Pioneer Press

You don't have to pay $20 or $30 a month for dial-up Internet access.

For $10 a month or less, a number of local and national Internet providers will give you unlimited access — that's right, surf-all-you-please Internet accounts without time restrictions.

Free access is harder to find. A one-time surge of providers offering no-cost, advertising-supported access has all but subsided, though a few firms do provide handfuls of free hours per month.

But no-holds-barred surfing for $8 or $10 a month is a heck of a bargain when you consider that top providers such as Earthlink and America Online charge $20 or more for unlimited access.

Such high-priced providers are worthwhile "if you're new to the Net and are looking for a lot of proprietary content," says Allan Keiter, president of MyRatePlan.com, a service-comparison site. "AOL has its own little world."

But those who don't require hand-holding needn't pay through the nose for online access, Keiter says. "A lot of people are paying AOL $24 a month when they could be paying $9 or $10 for (essentially) the same thing."

If you aren't a hardcore Netizen who requires an always-on Internet connection or frills such as domain-name hosting, one of these budget providers may be just right.

But what about speed and reliability? Your Tech tested one local provider, USFamily.net, and found its dial-up connections to be reasonably fast and dependable. For solid Net access on the cheap, this looks like a good bet.

Other low-cost providers offer more features for the dollar than USFamily.net, but not that local presence — handy if you have a hankering to meet your provider face to face.

On the down side, some firms lock you into long-term contracts, though typically with free trial periods or satisfaction guarantees.

They may insist you download software that works only on Windows PCs — Macintosh users beware — or put annoying advertising banners or control docks on your computer screen.

Worst of all, they may go out of business or raise their rates at any time. These aren't deeply entrenched, richly financed national providers such as the Microsoft Network, after all.

At these prices, though, consumers have little to lose in giving one or more of the low-cost providers a whirl.

Great Barrier Reef, which recently launched a Twin Cities ad blitz, looks like one of the best deals, at least on paper.

It charges $9.95 a month without a contract or long-term commitment. Its niceties include home-page hosting, multiple e-mail accounts and free 24-hour telephone-based technical support.

Great Barrier Reef entered the Twin Cities market last August and serves about 90 other major metropolitan areas around the country — great for budget-minded Net users who travel to other large cities — but its outstate-Minnesota presence is nil.

Others, such as GTC Internet and the Juno/NetZero/Bluelight troika (owned by the same company) are better options for Minnesotans outside the Twin Cities.

USFamily.net, which serves St. Cloud and Wisconsin's Hudson and River Falls areas in addition to the Twin Cities, charges $8.99 a month for basic accounts.

Additional features such as multiple e-mail addresses, home-page hosting and national roaming are available for a few extra dollars a month.

Best of all, USFamily.net subscribers aren't likely to contend with busy signals — the longtime bane of dial-users — because of a patented priority-based surfing-session system.

In a nutshell, subscribers may get knocked offline if they've been on the Net for a while to accommodate fresh arrivals. But reconnecting is said rarely to be a problem.

About 80 percent of USFamily.net users never even experience surfing interruptions, partly because they aren't "die-hard" users who go online for hours on end, says Lynn Thoele, USFamily.net director of sales and marketing.

Subscriber Gretchen Novak says she has yet to experience an interruption or busy signal in three years with the provider.

"(I) had dinner with friends who were talking about America Online," the Woodbury retiree says. "They had a very hard time getting on in the evening. And once on, they were booted off frequently. With USFamily, that has never happened."

Novak pays a bit extra per month so she can dial in from Phoenix, where she spends about six months of every year. Even so, she considers USFamily.net a bargain thanks to its reliable technical support.

"If you call with a question, you immediately get a real person on the line," she says. "When you e-mail with a problem, they are back to you the next day. We have turned on many people to this service, and everyone is happy."

If prospective users wonder about USFamily.net's long-term prospects, they can relax, Thoele claims. The Golden Valley-based firm has been profitable for the last two years with growth that has "absolutely exceeded our expectations," she says.

USFamily net has about 25,000 subscribers. Between 200 and 300 people sign up each month for a free month of access, and about half of those stick with the provider for at least six months (the duration of a basic contract), Thoele notes.

USFamily.net had the budget-access market in the Twin Cities largely to itself until recently, sustained by word of mouth along with radio spots and smallish ads in local newspapers.

Then Great Barrier Reef launched an assault, with large ads in the Pioneer Press and other publications, to lure those who might have considered USFamily.net or other low-cost providers.

So far, Thoele doesn't seem worried. She says she's seen little fallout from the Great Barrier Reef offensive. She expects USFamily.net will be increasingly enticing with service improvements such as the possibility of statewide coverage by year's end.

And "we're a buck a month cheaper," she says.

Julio Ojeda-Zapata writes about personal technology. Reach him at jojeda@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5467.