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More Americans are dropping their landlines, according to reports in Ars Technica and USA Today. One in every six US households have no landline service:

Even among households that had both landlines and mobile phones, 22.3 percent received “all or almost all” calls on mobile phones. So-called “wireless-mostly” account for 13.1 percent of all households.

This is just more bad news for the ILECs and RBOCs, as well as Hawaiian Telcom.

It’s possible to use DSL or a cable modem to keep a landline number at home, of course. Eat Our Brains wrote an article on this back in 2006. Ars Technica mentioned naked DSL, which helps smart consumers reduce their telecom costs by getting DSL service without a landline voice number.

Meanwhile, a recent survey indicates that 20% of Americans have never sent an email message. Half of these respondents were over 65. Also, 56 percent had no schooling beyond high school.

The poll indicated that 18% of American households do not have Internet access in the homes.

See this PC World article for more details.

Related posts on billso.com

• 22 February 2008: Customer lock-in
• 18 August 2007: HawTel to offer naked DSL and faster downloads

One strategy that telecommunications companies have adopted is bundling, or selling a combination of services at a reduced price. The goal is customer lock-in, a situation in which the buyer is more or less trapped in their purchase. In many cases, lock-in happens when the customer satisfices or compromises to gain value or convenience. Customers might grow dissatisfied over time, but they are unlikely to leave because alternative services are not available, or their perceived switching costs are too high.

A variety of US cable television and telecommunication companies have offered bundling programs. The usual items include television service and broadband Internet.

Companies that offer cable modems usually offer these services through the same “pipe” or connection – the coaxial cable drop found in many homes.

Local exchange carriers (LECs) offer POTS (traditional or “plain old telephone service”), and the final connection to the home is the familiar RJ-11 modular phone jack found in most US homes. Some LECs also offer mobile phone plans in their bundles.

Landline connections may be offered through VoIP or POTS, depending upon the carrier’s technology.

Agonizing over savings

Alina Tugend of the New York Times provided a great example of this decision-making process in her article last week. Customers sometimes obsess over lock-in when their friends brag about how much they saved by switching. Yes, lock-in also works well for insurance companies, too!

In Honolulu, Oceanic Time Warner, Clearwire and Hawaiian Telcom each offer bundles. Oceanic has a standard cable television package that includes cable modem service, long distance calling and VoIP calling plans. Oceanic staff can connect the customer’s RJ-11 telephone jacks to the company’s network, so customers can continue to use their existing landline handsets and equipment.

Clearwire offers broadband Internet service, long distance calling and VoIP telephone numbers through its WiMax network. Customers can hook their landline phone into Clearwire’s modem. The Clearwire service does not require an installation visit, but the coverage areas are somewhat limited. This article at DailyWireless.org has several interesting diagrams of business telephone systems.

Hawaiian Telcom keeps struggling

The HawTel package includes a POTS landline, long distance calling and DSL. HawTel is still working on its IPTV offering, which has been delayed by implementation problems. IPTV would let HawTel offer television service through the same RJ-11 telephone drop used by its landline and DSL offerings.

As a side note, I hated HawTel’s obnoxious “Savers Unite” advertising campaign, and am glad that it has been replaced. Was the tagline a call to action or an insult? It was hard for me to tell. The radio and television ads reinforced a stereotype of the “thrifty local” who clips coupons, hoards travel-size toiletries and wears old clothes to pay the “price of paradise”. Then again, telecom marketing campaigns usually strive for the “common touch”, in an effort to hold the average customer.

Telecom bundles are subject to a host of Federal, state and local regulations. Pricing is often controlled by government agencies and franchise agreements. On 18 August 2007, I discussed HawTel’s naked DSL option, which let consumers order DSL service without a voice landline. HawTel was late to act, as thousands of subscribers adopted mobile phones and dropped their landlines. These customers switched to Oceanic, Clearwire, or other broadband Internet services.

Customer lock-in is difficult to achieve when companies fail to implement their industries’ key success factors well. On 16 November 2006, I discussed HawTel’s billing problems after the company was purchased from Verizon. Mike Ruley never overcame these earlier issues and lost his post as HawTel’s CEO earlier this month, as I mentioned on 5 February 2008.

In today’s Honolulu Advertiser, a story revealed Hawaiian Telcom’s plans to sell DSL accounts without a traditional voice landline. In the industry, this is called naked DSL, and it has been available from HawTel since July.

It’s another attempt to recapture former HawTel customers while the company’s upcoming IPTV service languishes in testing. Many households have switched off their HawTel landlines, eliminating them from HawTel’s current DSL service.

These residential customers rely on cell phones for their voice service. Oceanic Time Warner has captured many of the residential Internet customers statewide, while Clearwire is making some gains in Honolulu.

A baffling enrollment process

Customers who don’t have a landline will have to call Hawaiian Tel to get their naked DSL, as the current signup page asks users to enter their landline phone number. Wouldn’t HawTel want to make the signup process as easy as possible for customers who don’t have a landline, especially after HawTel’s poor performance in answering customer service calls during 2006?

Based on CEO Mike Ruley’s comments in today’s article, HawTel management wants to take advantage of recent reports that rated HawTel’s DSL at a faster speed than Oceanic Time Warner’s Road Runner service. HawTel plans to increase its download speeds to peaks of 7 t0 11 mbps next month, with upload speeds of up to 1 mbps. This is assymetric DSL, which is suitable for home service. it’s not a good choice for businesses. These are faster speeds than Oceanic Time Warner’s current residential service. However, Time Warner offers a turbo option for some mainland customers that offers comparable speeds to HawTel’s new levels.

TV through your landline

HawTel’s IPTV service will need the faster connections, especially as consumers demand more HDTV channels. HawTel could sell customers a bundle that includes DSL, TV and voice services. Oceanic Time Warner has been selling a similar bundle in Hawaii for the last 2 years. Customer lock-in is easier to achieve with bundled services.

Pacific LightNet has been testing a symmetric DSL service that offers 2 mbps speeds for uploads and downloads. At US$150 per month, PLN’s SDSL is expensive, but it can support a small or home office.

You may want to print this post and save the hard copy for later use. If your computer does become infected by a virus, you might not be able to retrieve this information.

On one of the hobby web sites that I visit, I noticed a forum thread this morning. Several users complained that a web ad posted on that site gave their computers a virus infection - specifically, Trojan.Ducky.B or Bloodhound.Exploit.56. (Yes, there are several groups that name the same viruses, and it can be confusing.)

Web ad brokers such as ValueClick are supposed to provide clean, free web ads to sites. Web sites that display the ads earn commissions when users click through the ads. Unfortunately, these ad distribution networks are a sneaky way to infect Windows machines and turn them into zombies.

I don’t offer repair services for my students, but I can point you towards other reliable reosurces. So here’s some advice, no warranty expressed or implied, for home and personal Windows users.

Always consult your organization’s or company’s IT department if it’s their computer, because they already have software and procedures in place for you. Those policies and agreements are usually considered part of your employment contract. Also, their software may be part of a corporate or enterprise system.

I have talked to Windows users who refuse to run a virus program or use Windows Update. I try not to laugh or scold, but their behavior is like walking on the freeway. Sooner or later, if you have a cable modem, DSL, or WiFi connection, you will get hit, and your computer will receive a virus.

My computer’s security systems block several virus attempts every day. I didn’t do anything wrong. These viruses are out “in the wild”, attached to incoming e-mail and hidden on web sites.

Unless you paid for premium service that specifically includes virus infections, your warranty or service plan does not cover virus removal and data recovery. Your computer’s manufacturer and Microsoft won’t provide much help if you call them, especially if you haven’t taken steps to secure your computer.

Check with your Internet Service Provider

A few large Internet Service Providers (ISPs), including EarthLink, Road Runner, Hawaiian Telcom and AOL, provide free antivirus programs and limited support for subscribers. It’s worth checking out before you have a problem.

Why do ISPs give away software that you could buy in a local store? It’s in an ISP’s best interests to do so, as a major virus outbreak can compromise their connection quality and create a spike in call center volume.

Some ISPs and companies use network appliances that scan and clean incoming and outgoing network traffic. These are excellent tools, but they are expensive. Also, it is generally assumed that the final sender or recipient of a message is responsible for scanning it.

If there are viruses in the wild, then why don’t we scan the Internet itself? It makes little sense to scan traffic as it goes through the Internet. If the packets are encrypted, they probably cannot be scanned at all. Also, in the United States, there are regulations and privacy restrictions that prevent the casual snooping of data, except in the interests of national security.

The most compelling argument against a perpetual virus scan of the Internet is the cost. It’s more effective and efficient to place the traps at the points of entry and delivery.

In the end, if it’s your own computer, then it’s your data. This is why organizations and businesses have IT departments - to protect hardware, software and data before something bad happens. See our discussion of disaster recovery for more information.

If your Windows computer is already infected

If your computer is already infected by a virus, and you’re in Honolulu, disconnect the computer from the Internet and shut it down. You don’t want to spread the virus, and restarting the computer might make the situation worse.

If this is your own computer, consider calling a local computer reapir service such as CompUSA or Personal Touch Computers. SuperGeeks has stores on Honolulu, Kailua-Kona and Maui. They will remove the virus infection for a fee.

If this is your company’s computer, report the problem immediately to your IT staff. They will help you remove the virus.

If this is not a corporate computer, and you want to try cleaning it yourself, go to a clean computer, and visit your antivirus vendor’s web site. Here’s an example from Symantec. Some antivirus vendors post free cleaning programs that will disinfect some viruses. Son’t buy and install a new antivirus program on an infected computer. You can download the cleaner to a USB memory stick or other external media. Be sure that media is clean and free of viruses first!

If your antivitus program came with a CD, check the manual. That CD may also be a bootable disk that can be used to clean an infected computer. You may need to read your computer’s manual to change your BIOS settings first.

Windows Update vs Microsoft Update

One way to keep your Windows system secure is to run Windows Update and apply the patches regularly. Microsoft issues a set of patches on the second Tuesday of each month. Check your settings in the Control Panel’s Security Center, if you use Windows XP.

Better yet, do the free upgrade to Microsoft Update. Go to Windows Update, and if you see the Microsoft Update invitation, click on the link. Microsoft Update adds Microsoft Office updates to the patches. You may need your Office installation CDs if you installed that suite from disk.

You do need a legal copy of Windows and Office to qualify - pirated or cracked copies might not receive automatic updates.

Other security tools

I’ve seen one download that might prevent these ad-based infections. It’s called GreenBorder, and it works on Windows to protect Interenet Explorer from exploits. It’s not an antivirus program, so you can use it with your current antivirus setup.

My father tried GreenBorder after reading Walt Mossberg’s recommendation in the WSJ, and dad likes it a lot. I tried it, but I have been using Firefox as my web browser for a couple of years. Its extensions, like GreaseMonkey, give me a lot of control in blocking browser ads.

Another tool that I like is SpywareBlaster. It’s a free download for Windows, but it’s not an “always-on” scanner. This software finds and closes known holes in Internet Explorer and Firefox. I would install, update and run it once a month.

Free antivirus programs

I do meet students who say they can’t afford an antivirus program, or they let their update subscription lapse because it was too expensive.

If you need a free antivirus scanner and subscription, and you subscribe to Earthlink, HawTel, Road Runner, or AOL, see my recommendations above.

If you want to use something else, I can recommend two programs. They are free for home or personal use, and I like them better than McAfee or Norton.

Both programs will automagically update themselves if you set the preferences correctly, and have an always-on connection to the Internet.

freeav.com
avast.com

Only one at a time

Always, always UNINSTALL your previous antivirus before installing a new one, even if you are only “trying out” a new antivirus like avase or FreeeAV.

NEVER, EVER RUN TWO ANTIVIRUS PROGRAMS AT THE SAME TIME ON THE SAME COMPUTER.

I’ve heard users say that two antivirus programs must be better than one. It doesn’t work that way. If you install and run two antivirus scanners on the same computer, they will each act as if the other scanner is a virus. Every antivirus scanning program assumes that it is the only one scanning your computer.

An antivirus scanner works at a privileged level in your operating system, so that it can intercept, access and scan files before other applications can do so. That’s what these scanners are designed to do.

If a second scanner is monitoring the activity, the first scanner’s behavior will appears to be viral. Your files will be caught in the middle, and your computer might not restart properly.

Be aware that some “Interent security” suites like McAfee and Norton include antivirus protection along with software firewalls and other features. You may have to open your security suite and permanently disable its antivirus feature before installing another antivirus program.

Frankly, I would not run a security suite and a separate antivirus program. The risk to my data is too great.

Installing a new antivirus program safely

Download your new antivirus program and save it to your desktop, or to external media such as a USB memory stick.

Don’t run the new antivirus right away. Disable or unplug your Internet connection on the computer that requires the new antivirus program.

I recommend removing your old antivirus program. Disabling it not may not be enough - the new antivirus might recognize the old antivirus, even when the old program is disabled.

Go to the Control Panel and Add/Remove Programs to uninstall your old antivirus program. Restart your computer, then install the new antivirus.

Tech: Brian’s Buzz renamed Windows Secrets Newsletter: Windows XP Service Pack 2 is coming, including a new Windows Firewall program. Any cable modem or DSL user should also have a good hardware firewall. “The basic problem with Windows Firewall is that it’s only half a solution. Unlike most third party firewalls - and unlike Microsoft’s enterprise-ready solution, Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server - Windows Firewall only protects against inbound network traffic. That means it does nothing to prevent adware or spyware that’s gotten into your system from ‘phoning home’ or initiating communications with remote Internet services and Web sites. You might think this isn’t a problem. Think again: Even though Windows Firewall can prevent many types of network-based attacks, it can’t protect you against that most basic of security problems, the human being sitting in front of the PC.”