Diary of a Free DSL User: Loved Speed, Ignored Ads

The speed boost is outstanding, so if you can get used to the ads, you'll love no-fee DSL.

Suddenly, in the upper right corner of my monitor, a blue jeancovered butt appeared. No, I wasn't downloading risque photos from the Web. In return for free high-speed Internet access through a DSL phone line, I had agreed to let a company called Winfire run ads on my desktop--and I was getting an eyeful. The New York Times offered to show me its world on the Web. Another advertiser urged me to "make money in minutes!" Others promised links to the friendliest of doctors or the sharkiest of lawyers. A new ad appeared every 15 to 30 seconds.

Broadband Internet access is hot. And since Winfire began offering it for free earlier this year, more than a million people have signed up.

Many of them will have a long wait. The company started connecting customers in Atlanta and Dallas in April, Los Angeles in May, and New Orleans and Miami in June. Winfire plans to expand its FreeDSL service into 16 other cities, but as of early July only a thousand people actually had the service. Co-CEO Ryan Steelberg's most optimistic prediction calls for no more than 500,000 hookups by the end of the year. A Winfire spokesperson said 95,000 customers have accepted ad-free 56-kbps dial-up service as an alternative while they wait.

Not every observer is convinced that Winfire will be able to stay in business, however. Even with ads paying the way, "the cost at this point is too high," says Fritz McCormick of The Yankee Group.

Even if you're lucky enough to get to the head of the queue, you'll find a few hidden costs. Users must buy a DSL modem and filters for the phone lines to make them usable for voice service. Winfire will sell you both in a kit that costs $199 up front or about $10 a month for 23 months. Customers must also agree to provide the company with demographic information (used to send targeted ads), and must install software that keeps Winfire's toolbar, with its streaming ads, active on their desktops at all times. Your FreeDSL e-mail goes out with a short text ad at the bottom. Winfire promises not to sell your personal information to others. And in line with most standard DSL contracts, if you want to drop out before 13 months have expired, you incur a $200 cancellation fee.

After several tech support calls, I had the inch-high Winfire toolbar (which works with any major browser) docked across the top of my screen. It occasionally obscured a key portion of a game or document, but moving it was easy, if a bit inconvenient. Users say they get used to the flashing ads, which resemble the banners on many Web sites (the toolbar has icons you can use to launch the Web sites of Winfire's business partners). "I'm used to the whole advertising idea. It's not a big deal to me," said Jonathan Poon, 22, a research technician at the Centers for Disease Control. Georgia Tech student Greg Popowitz said the service was slower than the campus network, but it sped up submitting homework from his off-campus apartment.

My teenage sons barely noticed the ads--but they did report a marked improvement in download speeds over what our previous 28.8-kbps dial-up connection delivered. In my tests, the bandwidth proved slightly faster than the promised 144 kbps. Want more speed--or fewer ads? Winfire charges just $10 a month for ad-free basic service; $20 a month for 384 kbps; and $35 a month for 1.54 mbps--still slightly less than the $40 most DSL providers charge.

If you don't mind a long wait or a constant barrage of ads, consider FreeDSL. Business users, however, may prefer the ad-free service, if only to avoid sudden distractions from the bottom line.

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