Google’s April Fools’ joke on dial-up connection
This could be one of the most bizarre news today. If you have been using the Internet ever since it was introduced, you might remember the classic dial-up tune when you are trying to connect to the web. Turns out, more than two million people in the US are still using the very slow Internet connection.
To put things into perspective, a dial-up connection only offers speed up to 56Kbps, whereas many would argue that a 1Mbps connection is the bare minimum for a pleasant Internet surfing experience. We have tried to live on a marginally faster 64Kbps connection for a week, but even then we were having a very hard time going through with it.
Living on a 64Kbps connection..
Even more surprising is the fact that these users are paying around US$20 (about RM71) per month for the service. Even a typical data plan from a telco – such as the excellent value for money First Basic 38 plan by Celcom – doesn’t charge users that much.
That being said, things might be different over in the US. Based on the comments posted on our sources’ article, many are saying that high speed Internet is simply non-existent for people living in rural areas. Perhaps the two million dial-up users are made up of these very people, which just shows how fortunate some of us are.
