I’m currently on BellSouth‘s slowest and cheapest flavor of DSL — “DSL Lite,” with speeds of up to 256 Kbps for $24.95 per month. Compared to my old dial-up account, it’s heaven.

It’s all over the news today that AT&T has agreed to concessions which are expected to pave the way for its controversial merger with BellSouth. Note that one of those concessions is providing high-speed Internet access for $19.95.

After checking online, I note that in San Francisco, AT&T is already offering a three-tiered price structure for DSL starting at $19.95 for speeds up to 1.5 Mbps. (One’s actual speed is a function of how close one is to the nearest telephone exchange, but I’m quite close to the exchange here in Shelbyville, so that would not be a problem here.) If this is the structure that AT&T wants to put in place after the merger, does this mean I will be getting a connection five times as fast and paying $5 less per month?

I have not researched the merger well enough to give you a political opinion on whether or not it’s a good thing. I’ve heard compelling arguments on both sides. But since the merger seems to be falling into place with or without my approval, I can at least hope for some benefit from it as an individual consumer.