Efficiency Tip #28 – High Speed

Do you still use a dial-up connection to access the Internet? If you value your time, you could be spending way too much to access the Internet.

I like to use the $2 per hour rate with my students. Most educated people will not work for $2 an hour. Let’s do some math.

Dial-up access costs $10 per month for 50kbs speed.
High-speed (cable modem or DSL) costs $50 per month for 1000kbs (1 Mb) speed.

Your actual costs may be more or less, but these numbers are good averages. Plus the 1:5 ratio in cost makes the math easier.

Assumptions: You will view 100 different pages each day. The average web page is 1500kb (188kB)

Dial-up: (100 pages/day x 30 days x 1500kb/page)/50kbs = 90000 seconds = 25 hours
High-Speed: (100 pages/day x 30 days x 1500kb/page)/1000kbs = 4500 seconds = 1.25 hours

Your Time Cost
Hours Dial-Up – Hour High-Speed = 25 hours – 1.25 hours = 23.75 extra hours via dial-up

How much is your time worth? Is it worth $2 an hour? If so, you are losing money by using dial-up.

Dial-up cost: $10 per month + 25 hours x $2/hour = $60 per month
High-Speed cost: $50 per month = 1.25 hour x $2/hour = $52.50 per month

 …and that’s if your time is only worth $2 an hour.

TSPY=288.96