I had a similar issue. I had the 1.5 mb download and for years it was fast, then I started noticing it slowed down. I called SBC/ATT they came out multiple times, to fix it. They really bent over backwards to fix this (I was amazed as it was the phone company) They replaced the wire from the pole to the house, swapped the filter box on the wall, swapped the wire pair I was on that went back to the CO (twice). This went on for a couple of weeks to no avail, they got the speed back up to 768kb but it was still half of what I had for a long time. Then one of them mentioned there was a new "Fiber" Dslam right up the street and that I should ask to move onto that. Since I was one of the first in my area to move to DSL from cable back in the late 1990's I was still on a copper pair of wires running all the way back to the CO (central office). I tried but the managers couldn't move me. So I upgraded my service to their next highest speed (3mb) and in order to do that they had to put me on that Fiber box. The bad part of that was I had to cancel my service and wait to go to the new service, so I was dialup (for the first time in 10 years) for about two weeks. Ugh, that was painful, the whole family was on my case over it. Anyway to get back to the story, once we were put on the fast network things were looking up, but I was still not at 3mb but was over 1.5mb so everyone was happy. A few months later I found a place in the wiring in my house that had had been "stapled" through. I replaced that phone line from the box and we were up to 3mb downloads. So it wasn't all the phone companys fault.
I was told by the Phone techs that after the one year was up I should just ask to be downgraded to the 1.5mb plan and they wouldn't move me off the fiber Dslam. But I am used to the 3mb speed and won't go back unless I have to for money reasons. As for your $35+ that seems extreme. You have to call them every year and ask for the newest/cheapest plan, otherwise they bump you back up to their highest cost plan. You can check the pricing out on the web. I am paying $24.99 for the 3mb plan. I think the rate is around $19 for the 1.5mb plan right now. Call them and ask for it. One other thing, the farther away your house is from the Dslam the slower the speed, its how ADSL works but I am pretty sure they won't sell you DSL unless you can get 768kb download speed. Use this like to find out your download/upload speed. http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/ The fastest speed you will see from any website is determined by the speed of the server at the other end, that is normally where the slowness is. Also, cable might be better as you can usually get higher speeds since it doesn't have the distance problems ADSL has but you are still limited by the speed of the web server you are surfing. -Bill

I had a very similar situation last year. I had had a wirepro contract with the "phone company" for almost 20 years and had only used it once early on. No sooner had I decided to eliminate all the nickel and dime charges of all my expenses then the phone went out within months. I practically knew down to the hour of when it went out due to the recorded time of a phone message "telemarketer". I called the "phone company" and was given the Old Run Around. Basically they said: We don't know if it is your problem or our problem but you will have to pay to find out. The helpful CSA told me to go outside and plug my phone into a box outside and if.....etc. then it was or wasn't this or that. Well, I live in apartments and after I took a deep deep breath I went to the manager's office. I just barely made it in before closing and explained and put it in their hands ( due to the plug it in the box trick). It was their box basically. They got immediate response by phone and a date for them to come out. Which made me feel even more insignificant as an private individual customer as opposed to a corporate customer's provided service.

As it turned out, it wasn't our problem. They tracked back to a fiber optic line going back about a mile away. I was in contact with repair technician by my cellphone, as they rerouted my home phone to a new line,givinig feed back in process which continued once the connection was made for the call quality.

I had already been playing with the idea of modifying my budget by strategizing all of my home utilities and combining/upgrading services. I hardly used my phone but kept it for my landline PC modem. I did more checking and by the end of last year decided to try out the package special of my local cable company. So far it is the best thing I've ever done. Not only has it improved my budget but the quality of the utility services is definitely and up grade. I have never appreciated being made to feel being taken advantage. I'll do this for awhile until something better comes along. That's also the beauty of technology.

By the way, at the time I was having to deal with both SBC and lousey internet AT&T service. Can service get better when you merge two lousey providers ? Save yourself future frustrations and reconsider other options.
Best Regards,
Ena K