I would guess that you have never experienced broadband. After getting it in January, I would sooner give up food before going back to dial-up. It is a complete life-changing experience. My television hasn't even been on (other than football) all year. I can get all my news and information right here. Streaming video, radio stations around the world, it's incredible. Don't know how I lived without it.
Since I already had AT&T for phone lines (which comes through a cable) I was told they'd set up Broadband for service without any installation fee. And while I was guranateed 19.95 for 6 months when I asked they told me there were no plans to raise the rate.
Too good to be true? Well, in a way. I WAS a pain when @home collapsed. Took about a month to get things back to normal. THen again they creditied my account for that and more.
The BIG trouble came when I had a fire in my electrical service box. It was in April-May and I figured with the power out it would be a good time for me to rewire the house and put in a "fancy, newfangled CIRCUIT BREAKER" box. I had 8 circuits with screw in fuses before.
Anyway, I wasn't in a hurry so I did the job myself in my spare time. Took me about three weeks working on and off.
I forgot to notify AT&T and they turned the service off. No biggie I figured. Just pay 'em the back balance and get back to surfing. Sadly it wasn't that easy.
Basically what I had to do was set up the service again in a different account. I had to turn my old cable box back in and have the service man bring me out a new one. He came to the door, looked at me puzzlingly and handed it over. He couldn't figure out why I needed a different box either.
Bottom line is I think they wanted to get rid of all the folks who were paying only 20 bucks a month. The bill has jumped to $50!
A similar thing happened to several friends who also have had the rate skyrocket.
Despite that none of us has cancelled! The cable line is WAY faster than the SDSL line at work the engineer is so proud of. And just like you TV time is WAY down. Wife and Kidz are incredibly good at finding and downloading shows they want to see.
The only problem is now I am being told to hurry up and get the house wired for a LAN so everyone can be on at the same time.
I forsee in the very near future family meetings taking place online, even though were only rooms apart!
prisoner6