AT&T launches family Internet plan

AT&T today announced the Internet Family Plan, through which residential and long-distance customers can receive one dial-up account with unlimited access, plus two “guest” accounts, for $23.99 per month--which is about the same cost as a single AOL account.

Members of the same household can use the guest accounts, as can be used friends and family anywhere in the U.S. The service is billed to the AT&T subscriber, so guests do not receive a monthly bill.

AT&T said it launched the service to take advantage of the growing number of multi-computer households. Citing data from Forrester Research, AT&T said 19% of households nationwide have more than one computer, and 71% of households with one personal computer intend to purchase another.

“Personal computers are becoming as commonplace as televisions in U.S. homes,” said Ray Solnik, AT&T Consumer’s vice president of data services, in a statement.

The carrier also offers a single unlimited access account for $16.95, which it said was 20% to 30% lower than the fees charged by AOL, MSN and Earthlink for similar services.

In other news, AT&T also announced today it would enter the local market in Washington, D.C. The carrier said the move was prompted by an order handed down last month by the District of Columbia Public Service Commission that required Verizon Communications to reduce the rates it charged for unbundled network elements. According to AT&T, it currently is serving about 2 million local customers, primarily via UNE-P.

A Verizon spokesman said in a statement that AT&T was playing a game of "regulatory extortion" by threatening that it will enter the market only if the PSC keeps the "radically low" wholesale rates it set last month. He added that Verizon has asked the PSC to reconsider "these fire-sale rates," which would make it "economically foolish" for any CLEC to build its own network in the city.

"This would in turn bring to a halt the robust network investment being made by telecom companies, particularly Verizon, and harm real competition in Washington," he said.