Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | Not a good deal
That's expensive and there is no way they can justify that. |
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DaSneaky1D
one wall to block them all
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou | said by article :
Comcast has more than 200,000 VoIP customers
I beg to differ
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:: my trivial ramblings :: |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Anonymous
Mediacom, for the record, isn't all cheery either you know. Their bundled price requires "family" cable (a term that should be looked at anyway) to get the bundle price. At least comcast, on THIS one, only requires a video service.
Comcast offers voip on three price ranges:
$54: unbundled
$45: with cable or HSI
$39: with both cable and HSI
Many customers already have two services.
Nothing personal, but I've used MC phone at several locations, and I wasn't impressed one bit. I have vonage and it sound better.
My point about this post is that it's about what you are getting for that money. Yes, indie sells voip service less expensive than even does MC-CC, Comcast and TWC are up there in their price. But as the story shows, cable voip service is still dominating the market. Wonder why?
It still boils down to a few things:
- Trust in reliability. If something goes wrong, with a provider based voip, you can call for repair and they fix it. Indie, you fix it yourself. It may be for some, but not for all.
- value for the money. Is the quality there to justify the price?
- Ongoing customer. People are more likely to buy from a provider they alreayd do business with. Yes, there are people here that live here to bitch, moan, and complain about their cable service (same with phone) but you know, in the end, it's a VERY SMALL minority that does. Many people are happy with their services and if not happy, they are at least satisfied. Not everyone has issues with their cable or phone providers.
If you want the real answers, you need to look out side your own worlds to see why cable can sell their voip at the prices they are and survive.
There's also one other point. Many people for years, like myself, are used to $300.00 per month telephone bills with all the long distance calling that gets made. $39.99 or even $54.99 IS A DEAL compared to that price point. Sadly too, for Vonage, their price points can actually hurt them in areas where they don't realize. Some people look at phone service for $24.99 and wonder what the catch is... or the old "it's too cheap, there's got to be something wrong with this - no one can sell service that inexpensive and provide something good"... and quite honestly, that group is correct. It's not the same and it's not as good as traditional phone and it has a long way to becoming that. Since indie voip is only as good as the broadband connection it runs on, there is no way they can claim quality on their service.
It was said best in another post right around this one...
with over 51% of the market and the growth they are seeing (200,000 since launch) ... yes, they can justify it.. and are. |
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G_Poobah
join:2004-01-17
Schenectady, NY
| #1: "People are more likely to buy from a provider they alreayd do business with."
#2: "Many people are happy with their services and if not happy, they are at least satisfied."
#3: "see why cable can sell their voip at the prices they are and survive."
#4: "used to $300.00 per month telephone bills with all the long distance calling that gets made. $39.99 or even $54.99 IS A DEAL compared to that price point."
#5: "Since indie voip is only as good as the broadband connection it runs on, there is no way they can claim quality on their service."
#6: "with over 51% of the market and the growth they are seeing"
In response:
#1: I only have 1 cable provider, so I have to do business with them if I want certain services (broadband)
#2: See #1. Even if I'm unhappy, see #1
#3: Because I have to go through my cable provider for IP Access. (too far for DSL)
#4: Your telephone company was a monopoly too. See #1, replace cable with telco provider.
#5: See #1. If comcast wants Vonage to suck, the will make it suck. If comcast looses too many people to Vonage, vonage will begin to suck.
#6: See #1.
So, the REASON comcast can charge that much, and get away.. drum roll please... MONOPOLY ! And it will only get worse as comcast actively degrades everyone else to ensure their dominance.
Solution: Net Neutrality.
--
Flabby? pastey-skinned? riddled with phlebitis? Then you've got a good Republican body! So compare your lives to mine, and then kill yourself. |
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Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA
 ·Mediacom
| reply to fiberguy
I know that. I know that some of the smaller companies are just crap. But that's not my point
Here we go
Comcast
$54: unbundled
$45: with cable or HSI
$39: with both cable and HSI
Mediacom
$49.99 by itself
$39.99 with Cable TV OR HSI
$29.99 with Cable TV AND HSI
All of the cable companies have more expensive service but far more reliable, however there is absolutely NO reason why Comcast should charge more than other cable companies.
I'd like to see their explanation why is their VoIP service $10 more. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to G_Poobah
Pooh... I am comparing the CHOICE against the current option. For many, still, with the exception of indie voip, there is pots services.
SOME parts of the country have good reliable phone service. Ask many of the US West / Qwest customers about their nightmares. Yes, this company is notorious for horrible service.
In california, however, Pacific Bell was an incredible and reliable service for landline service. Their prices, however, were horrible.
My post, in context, is related to the options available to them at the time. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
1 edit | reply to Anonymous
Anon,
for the record, the MCCC phone that I have used was in Ames and in Des Moines.
But moving on, if you look at your voip prices vs the others, it's mediacom that is underselling as compared to the other two giants. TWC and CC is $39.99 bundled.
However, on the FLIP side of things...  you have to also compare what Medicacom is selling their other products for.
In turn, why is medicom selling their high def service for $9.95 on top of the equipment rental AND the "digital gateway" fee. With Comcast, you rent a box for $5.00 and get the services within the tier you are already in.
Why does mediacom rend a box for additional outlets for $6.95 and THEN make you pay a $4.00 "gateway fee" on top of it?
Truth be known, medicom is not cheaper on it's service when it comes to phone. The way I see it, MC can afford to sell their phone service cheaper at a bundled price because their cable is more expensive. The unbundled price is only $5 different at that price point.
In the end, the bundled prices for each service doesn't matter because you MUST bundle to get that price. What matters most to the MSO is what the total amount due on your bill at the end of the month says.
MC realises that their triple play price will attract more people since it's $29.99 a month. What people DON'T see is that to get that bundled price of $29.99 you have to purchase many other expensive services to get it.
I am not bashing MC, well I am not happy about their video offerings in IA especially, I am mostly talking about why MC APPEARS to be a "better deal" over the others. |
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Fatal Vector
join:2005-11-26
| reply to fiberguy
Ehhh...
"Some people look at phone service for $24.99 and wonder what the catch is... or the old "it's too cheap, there's got to be something wrong with this - no one can sell service that inexpensive and provide something good"... and quite honestly, that group is correct."
This is not entirely true either, since you can still get a basic no frills DEPENDABLE POTS line from at&t for $15. It's the taxes and fees that jack the proce up, but, even then, my basic line is about $32 a month, add $13 for DSL and it's STILL less than Comcast BEFORE the taxes/fees, let alone HSI.
Fact is, packages are for the clueless and lazy and that's how they can charge so much and get away with it, plain and simple. |
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Cheese
Premium
join:2003-10-26
Naples, FL
clubs:
| said by Fatal Vector  :"Some people look at phone service for $24.99 and wonder what the catch is... or the old "it's too cheap, there's got to be something wrong with this - no one can sell service that inexpensive and provide something good"... and quite honestly, that group is correct." This is not entirely true either, since you can still get a basic no frills DEPENDABLE POTS line from at&t for $15. It's the taxes and fees that jack the proce up, but, even then, my basic line is about $32 a month, add $13 for DSL and it's STILL less than Comcast BEFORE the taxes/fees, let alone HSI. Fact is, packages are for the clueless and lazy and that's how they can charge so much and get away with it, plain and simple. Not everyone can get AT&T though. Hell, if Sprint did this, I would jump on it. |
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Anonymous
Premium
join:2004-06-01
IA | reply to fiberguy
Re: Not a good deal
Well I guess other cable companies are charging $40 bundled. That's way too expensive. In fact I was hoping that Mediacom would match Vonage. |
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Fatal Vector
join:2005-11-26 | reply to Cheese
Re: Ehhh...
True...for the moment. But Ma Bell is putting herself back together now and, soon, very soon, your wish may come true. Of course it will soon be true for most of the country once they swallow Bellsouth. |
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MacLeech
The one and only
Premium
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
| reply to G_Poobah
Re: Not a good deal
how does net neutrality fix the monopoly?
I thought encouraging competition fixed monopolies... in other words reducing regulations and allowing corporations to profit from their provided products so they will expand the markets they serve in hopes of making more profits.
--
For official Adelphia support, contact Adelphia. I'm just here for advice... |
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TheSaint
join:2002-01-25
Hanover Park, IL
clubs: | reply to Anonymous
No say "no" to mal-wart. Thank you. |
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Big V
@68.87.x.x
| reply to Anonymous
Think about this...
Vonage (and any other low cost service providers) does not provide any kind of service to your home, they just have a data center which translates your IP signal then routes it onto the phone switch. They could care less about your quality across the publicly switched internet (once you leave your ISPs network).
In this sense, the service that Mediacom and Comcast are providing is superior (assuming that it is working with the same level or reliability) as they can actually control the amount of lost packets and routing of your IP packets to guarantee QoS (quality of service).
This to me is worth the extra money as I tried Vonage and for some reason my call quality was extremely poor. After weeks of troubleshooting, I determined that it had to be the public internet component of my connection to their data center. I now use the cable company's service and the call quality is 100% better...for $15/month more.
As for the cable company de-prioritizing packets for these other phone providers, my friends at the cable company tell me that they have enough problems dealing with their own internal routing to keep it up to date and could not possibly manage to de-prioritize packets for specific services. Can you imagine the amount of administration it would take to maintain that amongst their other routing rules? Not realistic...especially since it would leave an obvious trail for anti-competitive law suits. This argument is so ridiculous I cannot believe that people even bring it up. |
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fiberguy
My views are my own.
Premium
join:2005-05-20
| reply to Fatal Vector
Re: Ehhh...
FV,
I hate to tell you this, but your thinking is old thinking and you aren't getting the point of my post either.
POTS IS dependable.. that's the point. However, for the low cost dial tone line, local only, you are getting just that.. and no ld. People with measured service and use long distance will look at Vonage at $24.99 and say "what's the catch"... what part of that don't you understand?
Try this experoment... take two cars and place them in a parkinglot near each other with a sign in one that says "free, take me" and the other one you put a sign in the window for about $3000 less than retail" and I guarantee you more people will look at the car with a price on it. More people, and this is proven, are skepticle of something that is given away for free. Reduced price is the same thing.
All you can chew phone service for $24.95 is going to get a loony toons triple look at the service.
Also, packages are NOT for the clueless and lazy.. that's just plain absurd! Packaged service, if you do the simple match, are cheaper than when you purchase the service ala cart. For SOME people, the package may be more than they need, but don't discount people as stupid. I've been on the other end of a call center listening to customers who will say no to a package because they know it's more than they need. Consumers aren't stupid. Again.. what part of that don't you get?
It's not plain and simple.. sorry. |
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rachelsfx
join:2004-09-27
Pensacola, FL | reply to Anonymous
Cable VOIP to the home is Regulated
Vonage isn't, yet. A PSC can't really touch Vonage except maybe on 911 service. However, if a Comcast customer complains, they can fine them for providing lousy service with lots of outages. Cable VOIP ISN'T Net based either. |
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