said by Chubbysumo:said by PeteC2:Considering the number of both DSL and cable modems that I have owned, I probably have saved little or nothing over simply "renting" their unit.
Lets do some math then, shall we? Lets see, you pay $7 per month for a modem rental fee. If you rent it for 3 years(since most people stay with their ISP for a long time due to contracts), thats $252. Thats about $200 more than just buying your own. Yes, $200 a year might not be a lot to you, but for me, its a car payment, or another months services. Figure, you save on average $80 per year with your own equipment, over the course of 5 years, without factoring the initial purchase, its $420.
said by PeteC2:However, to me (I have Comcast not Charter, but same $7 a month rent), although certainly they make a profit on the equipment rental, it is not all that great when you take into account that they are responsible for those units, including replacing defective units, and upgrading when new technologies render the previous ones obsolete (such as Docsis 3.0).
Actually, im sure they make a boatload on cable modems, since if they get a defective unit, the manufacturer replaces it at no cost to them, and it only takes a few minutes in a truck roll to replace a modem, so, they are definitely making money, and lots of money, since they pay wholesale prices for the modems in the first place(maybe around $30 per modem), and they are raking in $84 per year, per rented modem, and with considerable improvements in quality, and quality control, I'm betting that they rarely have to replace a modem unless it was hit by lightning or damaged by a customer(at which point, they charge full MFG suggested retail prices to replace it, so $125 for a SB6121). Its just a gross ripoff, and always has been. They pay for those modems once, and use them over and over until they dont work, and then get free replacements if its defective, so, saying they "dont make a lot of money on the modem" is outright crap if you look at the numbers.
That whole last paragraph is what this is all about! Easiest money in the world to suck out of people is modem rental, and that paragraph sums it up just about perfectly. Nothing but pure profit.
