Most of us have been taught that by cutting out the middle man we can save money, but is that all you save? When it comes to internet access and phone service working with the incumbents or Baby Bells is a mixed bag. Certainly there are competitive companies that can give you the same or better phone service than the Baby Bells which suffer from years of a monopolistic market but is it the same for internet service?

DSL service is actually quite different than phone service. Besides the obvious difference of one being data and one being voice, competitive carriers generally use their own equipment which is kept at the phone company's facilities. In this case, asking your phone company to make changes to your service is dependant on your phone company and depending on how smoothly they run their operations you could have a very pleasant experience. Internet service, however is different. Many baby bells resell their service which is then sold under a different name. You may be buying internet access and not realize that you're really buying BellSouth DSL under another name.

In cases where companies purchase BellSouth DSL and resell it under their own name, many of the advantages of changing carriers disappear. If the carrier does not own their equipment they will need to contact the provider to make any changes and as they are not the provider you have added another layer of complexity to any request you may have. Is it really worth the $5 or $10 you're saving by going with a competitor? Often times it's not. Think about cutting out the middle man when looking for internet service. If you know the company is simply reselling BellSouth DSL, why not just go with the source?

Top 10 Reasons Why We Offer the Best DSL Service in Birmingham
Written by - Patrick Oborn, CTO - ShopforDSL

October 18, 2004 - Shopping for an inexpensive DSL line in Birmingham and determining DSL availability in Birmingham is never easy. You perform a search in your favorite search engine and you see millions of pages, all of which claim to save you money. In reality what your are seeing are a bunch of internet marketing entrepreneurs who know little about dedicated service at all. They create simple HTML forms that look like they have been programmed by a seventh grade student which captures your information, and either sends it to every vendor in the universe or some in-house former used-car salesman who will sell you whatever will pay him the biggest bonus. The internet is littered with this garbage, confusing customers and leaving a sour taste in their collective mouth. What started out as a search for competitively priced dedicated services has turned into a circus!

In 2002 my partner, Adam Edwards, and I decided to take the road less traveled. We realized early on that in order to create an online experience that was worthy of your time, we needed to provide information you can use - not your typical "enter your information here and we'll get back to you" elementary page. In order to do this, we invested a full year researching all of the different DSL providers in order to understand their pricing models, many of which were created long before we were born. Based on information we extracted from this research, we invested heavily in complex programming that would allow us to calculate loop prices, or the cost that the local phone companies pass on to the dedicated service providers for access to their network. This cost varies by mile, by market, and by geographic region of the country. Once we rolled up our sleeves and performed extensive testing, we called our product 'GeoQuote' and released it to the public on this very web site in 2003. We are currently in the process of patenting this unique technology.

Once we began generating large amounts of volume for our suppliers, we were blessed with special rate plans and promotions that we alone could offer you, our customer. Our DSL rates are especially low in Alabama, particularly in Birmingham!

In this year alone, 139,025 unbiased real-time quotes have been created by online shoppers just like you. Instead of waiting for days to even see pricing, we give it to you in just seconds.

Don't be fooled by the imitators! Since we launched our site two years ago, many have attempted to copy our concept, our business model, and even our domain name! It's amazing how in-style real-time shopping has become, especially considering that the reaction we received by our vendors when we divulged our plans to create GeoQuote. Some of the reactions we received include "that can't be done - it's never been done before" and "that is an interesting business model". Now these same vendors have become believers, and our very best partners.

Change has been embraced. Thousands of lines have been sold. The way people shop for broadband services will never be the same.