Comcast Starts Billing For Digital Adapters > Nasty

Nasty

There's several issues I brought up in the Comcast forum when this first surfaced.

With all of the DTAs purchased, Comcast saved billions of dollars by going the digital migration route instead of upgrading all plants to 1 ghz or more. They also saved money by getting the FCC to give a waiver on the separable security mandate for the DTAs.

Now that they have a huge install base hooked on them, they go for an easy profit stream. After the year or so it will take to break even on the wholesale cost, Comcast will be making 100% on the millions of these deployed in the field every single month.

The worst part is they are so cheap but we have no way to purchase them out right. Customers are going to be paying for them many times over through a DTAs lifetime.

Then they could allow customers who have QAM tuners in their tvs to watch the channels a DTA decrypts without a box but they are eliminating Clear QAM to keep from having to install filters and cut down on theft of service. Another money saving tactic that they are making the customer pay for by having to rent a DTA instead of letting their TV do the work.

Also, Comcast has stated the charge consists of 50 cents for the DTA and $1.49 for a digital outlet. This shows perfectly how much of a scam the whole "digital outlet" charge is. It's clearly been designed as a system to work around the FCC's customer owned equipment rule. Since Comcast has to issue a credit for the equipment part of the charge for these customers.

Oh no customer, we're only charging you $2.50 for the equipment. It doesn't matter if it's an SD, HD or DVR box. The equipment is just $2.50. It's the "outlet" that you are paying $7+ for.

Yet here we see the outlet charge is only $1.49. It's the same outlet and if you have digital starter, the same channels.

Since the difference in price is so minimal between renting an STB and the credit you get for owning, this also incentivises customers to stick with the Comcast leased equipment vs buying their own and using a cablecard. This is certainly not what the FCC intended.

I am particularly irritated because I replaced two televisions in 2011 in guest bedrooms so visitors could watch TV without interfering with our viewing. At that time it was not necessary to use a STB to receive 70 extended basic channels. Then Comcast cut it down to 21 limited basic channels. Now it is 0 channels. In view of the fact that our lawmakers are corrupt do not expect to see any action to resolve this gouging. I am sure that Comcast will continue to raise prices on the DTA's until consumers are paying $5.00 or more per month without being able to view all programming that they are paying for. I cannot justify paying $9.95 plus tax per month for an HD STB that is only used a couple of weeks per year.

I did not just accept the fact that the DBS providers required customers to rent a Satellite Receiver for each television. I did not switch to satellite for just that reason. Back in the 90's consumers went to their local electronics store and purchased as many satellite receivers as they needed. The DBS provider arranged for installation. The customer did not rent their DBS receivers. At one time some television manufactures included satellite receivers in their high end projection television sets.

Then the DBS providers decided to price their service more like digital cable so they rented their DBS receivers. That was the excuse that some cable companies used to justify charging per outlet so they would have parity with the DBS providers.

Since the cable pigs are requiring a DTA for every television, customers no longer have the advantage of installing televisions capable of receiving extended basic cable without a STB at no charge. Before the DTA requirement a customer could receive extended basic channels on infrequently used cable ready television sets at no additional monthly charge. One of the reasons I stuck with cable was that ability. Anyone that is pissed off at their cable service provider should switch to DBS just so the cable pigs can no longer get their money. I am considering switching to DBS even if the cost is a little higher to stop feeding the cable pig.

reply to Zoder
Outlets are free as houses are pre-wired.
Comcast just has to plug into a homes splitter.

So if they said $1.50 per outlet and they did not install your outlet then they should take the $1.50 off per converter and you should only have to pay the $.50.
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reply to Mr Matt
Mr. Matt wrong very wrong. People were hacking the boxes at a huge rate there was a whole industry going on, the boxes weren't hacked but the cards were. The sat companies charged you $4.95 for ever extra receiver you had if I remember right, they were not free. Of course if you had a hacked card you used your good cam number for the other cards oh wait a minute, never mine how all that worked. You did by the boxes but they had to program the cards for you for ever receiver unless you wanted to run off of one receiver and only watch one channel at a time.

reply to Mr Matt

reply to swintec

reply to Corehhi
The cable service I subscribe to started to gouge customers before I subscribed to service. They originally included one digital STB in the price of digital service. If the subscriber added a DVR they paid for the DVR and still were entitled to a no charge STB. My cable service provider started gouging by eliminating the no charge STB and charging full price for the DVR, no credit for the STB if a subscriber added a DVR. If you subscribed to two DVR's you were charged for two DVR's you did not get a no charge STB or a credit for the one that was not supplied. Just another way to gouge customers.

You mention that the first receiver a DBS provider is included in the cost of basic service. Additional receivers incur additional charges. At least the DBS service providers provide one receiver in the cost of programming.

reply to alexintexas
REGULATION is the answer. Up until last year I could receive up to around 70 channels without additional equipment on a cable ready television set. That was fine for guests that wanted to catch up on the news or cartoons for the kids. We are back to the pre Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992.

There was an article about why the act was made law. Some congressmen and senators were pissed off because they could purchase a cable ready television and not use the remote control because they had to rent a descrambling converter to watch programming on each television. That was the main reason that the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 was passed. The lawmakers got tired of being screwed by the cable industry. The cable companies were only allowed to scramble premium and pay per view programming.

One solution would be to regulate the price of equipment to descramble an encrypted signal. The cable company could charge a one time right to use fee and no monthly fee. Ownership and maintenance cost would be the responsibility of the cable company. An incentive to keep the equipment in good condition would be to return part of the right to use fee if the customer cancelled service. The DTA's should be provided at a low cost say $25.00 with no monthly charge. Ownership would be retained by the cable company. The DTA would have to be returned when service was discontinued. Cable companies should be prohibited from charging for each outlet.

I would be satisfied if I could purchase a STB at best buy or any other store, that accommodated one cable card and did not require that I paid a monthly fee for that outlet. Do not expect to have any relief on this gouging since the cable industry is paying off our corrupt lawmakers to screw their constituents.

reply to r81984
Review section 17 of the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 here:

»en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cable_Tel···_of_1992

Don't expect relief on cost as the cable industry has lobbied up.

reply to Mr Matt
in canada you can buy the box with out the outlet or mirroring fees. Some systems even have rent to own as well.

reply to r81984
Comcast has been charging $7.50 "outlet fees" for people who use their own equipment (i.e. cableCards) simply because they can.

Comcast originally rented cable boxes for $10 a month, but then lost this revenue when people switched to using their own equipment. So Comcast decided to rent cable boxes for $2.50 with a $7.50 outlet fee. People who rent from Comcast see no change in price, but people using their own equipment are suddenly socked with a $7.50 per device surcharge.

Basically Comcast is finding ways of implementing fees when there's no real reason to do so. For example the $10 "HD Technology Fee" which Comcast charges if you want HD channels. That fee applies whether or not you actually rent an HD box from Comcast (even if you have an SD TV) so it's simply a money grab.
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The Comcast Disney Avatar has been retired.

reply to Corehhi
The charging per receiver when you owned them was a scam to begin with.

It took $0 more dollars for them to deliver you signal to 1 TV or 10.

Just like the HD fee used and the fact that Dish charges $10 (at the time I was with them) just so you can have the component connection on the STB enabled.

Bottom line is that these people make up fees that have no relation to cost and they know we have to pay it because we dont have a much of a choice.

reply to Mr Matt

reply to AVD

reply to Skippy25

reply to Morac
Before the Cable Television Consumer Protection and Competition Act of 1992 was implemented our cable company charged an outlet fee, a converter descrambler fee and a remote control fee. Only local channels were not scrambled for lifeline service. When will the gateway that has been discussed become available and will the FCC prohibit the cable service provider from charging for each outlet (television)? The FCC should use the telephone company model forcing the cable and DBS industry to allow the customer to own their own equipment.

reply to Mr Matt