J D McDorce
Premium
join:2001-12-29
Westland, MI
| Why is this suddenly a problem?
Where were Senator Boxer, the Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America a year ago when Comcast was in the process of standardizing their non-CATV subscriber fees for what Comcast refers to as their historical systems? This policy was in place within Comcast before they took over AT&T Broadband. The only thing different now is that the higher rate is being applied to a percentage of 3.6 million customers versus a percentage of 1.5 million customers (unless maybe a few of the new customers have more political clout than the old ones).
This is not anything new - it is a case of Comcast applying an existing rate policy to their newly acquired customer base. |
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todays
@pacbell.n
| My ping with Comcast was 300-500 when gaming also. I started having lots of connectivity issues also. I called and tried to cancel and was hung up on 3 times. My friend was hung up on 5 times. I, along with 3 of my friends dropped and moved over to DSL. Just vote with your $$$ |
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jasqid
Fiber In Your Diet?
join:2002-04-02
East Palestine, OH
| It's almost been a year for me.... I signed up April 23 2002 for HSD. I've had 2 price increases inside that year. I have my own modem and it was $35.96/month until January when it went to $42.95. Feb 03 it went to $58!
The only thing that has changed is my down stream went from 1500 to 1800. Thats not enough to justify the 70% rate increase. (Where's the stick guy beating the horse??)
This is America. Broadband should be cheap. (Here we go...) Plasma TV's were $40,000 5 years ago and RoadRunner was $30 bucks. Now those plasmas are $3,000 and HSD is almost twice what it was! |
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Combat Chuck
Too Many Cannibals
Premium
join:2001-11-29
Erie, PA
| reply to J D McDorce
said by J D McDorce  :
Where were Senator Boxer, the Consumers Union, and the Consumer Federation of America a year ago when Comcast was in the process of standardizing their non-CATV subscriber fees for what Comcast refers to as their historical systems? This policy was in place within Comcast before they took over AT&T Broadband. The only thing different now is that the higher rate is being applied to a percentage of 3.6 million customers versus a percentage of 1.5 million customers (unless maybe a few of the new customers have more political clout than the old ones).
This is not anything new - it is a case of Comcast applying an existing rate policy to their newly acquired customer base.
a timeline of events:
1. somebody at Comcast decided to institute a price increase and bundled services at the same time rather than raising the price and waiting 2 months before instituting the discount.
2. somebody in the media somewhere called the multiservice discount "extortion".
3. people like feeling like they're being screwed/oppressed by someone/something else.
4. said people latch onto the article(s) as God ordained fact simply because "someone wrote it" and "it was published"
5. politicians and media publishers give people what they want to further their own motives.
6. people now see politicians and news publications reporting on their story, thus giving them more creedence to their ideas.
7. repeat from step 4 until the only affordable service you can get is publically offered 1500/512 for $10.00 out of pocket, and everyone is happy except for the people that realize the the actual cost is well over $100 when you factor in the tax increases caused by it. Oh and you pay this (except for the $10 out of pocket) whether or not you actually use the service.
8. advance 10 years and everybody's complaining that we can only get 1500/512 and that the government needs to get off their asses and upgrade the equipment to support higher speeds, higher speeds that private companies have been offering for years except the price is out of reach for all but the rich because the government(s) are able to undercut the fair market price.
9. I, having archived this thread, post it to Broadband Reports 20X6 followed by followed by the phrase "told ya so".
--
So it begins. |
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J D McDorce
Premium
join:2001-12-29
Westland, MI
| The timeline that I am referring to is as follows:
1Q02 - Comcast completes transition of internet users from @Home to Comcast High Speed Internet. In some locations, Comcast charges more for internet service for non-CATV subscribers. The amount varies from location to location, as well as the qualifying level of CATV service.
2Q02 - Comcast starts to implement a separate non-CATV subscriber internet rate for all of their systems and standardizes qualifying level of CATV service.
3Q02 - Comcast has posted on their website specific, separate rates for internet service for Comcast Cable Customers and Non-Comcast Cable Customers.
4Q02 - Comcast's purchase of AT&T Broadband is completed.
1Q03 - Comcast starts charging newly acquired internet customers that do not have CATV through Comcast the higher Non-Comcast Cable Customers rate. |
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2farfromCO7
join:2000-10-14
Farmington, MI | Of course during that same timeline, "the winners of life's lottery"(You and all WOW customers) had your rates fall for virtually all services. |
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J D McDorce
Premium
join:2001-12-29
Westland, MI | For someone in a community with three different Cable Internet options (RoadRunner, AOL, and EarthLink), there seems to be a lot of hostility in some of your posts. |
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