Thanks to the efforts of the Illinois Citizen’s Utility Board, people all across the Midwest, Southwest California, Nevada and Connecticut, can get AT&T dry loop DSL for only $23.99 (express) or $28.99 (pro), instead of $43.99 or $48.99. But they won’t tell you this through the regular customer service line, because AT&T would really rather you have a landline along with your DSL, and pay more for the privilege. A current AT&T retention rep tells us this is the way to do the discount dry loop dance:

• Call the AT&T Dry Loop department directly at 888-800-4095
• Ask to switch to “DSL direct”
• If they give you a hassle, say it’s a retention offer

Our source this will not work for the Bellsouth region. This tip is untested, but sounds worth the shot.

UPDATE: Reader writes that the speeds are Express 1.5/128-384, Pro 3.0/384-512.

UPDATE: Another AT&T rep writes, “DSL Direct IS available in the BellSouth region (sort of). It is currently only a Save tactic, but it will be offered as a product starting in November, due to the fact that it was part of the FCC’s requirements for approving AT&T-BellSouth deal…to my knowledge, AT&T does not throttle BT traffic in the BellSouth region.”

(Photo: Travis Hornung)

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