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Mediacom Forces All Users On to Metered Plans

Last summer, Mediacom started imposing usage caps ranging from 150 GB to 999 GB while charging users $10 per each additional 50 GB consumed. Initially, these metered plans were only forced on new users or users migrating to new plans. Now, according to a notice being sent to all Mediacom customers, all grandfathered unlimited Mediacom users are being forced onto these metered plans starting September 7.

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Though pricing varies by local competition (which is why Mediacom and so many ISPs hide prices behind prequalification walls), these are your current options with Mediacom:

•Mediacom Launch 150GB (3 Mbps, $28)

•Mediacom Prime 250GB (12-15 Mbps, $46)

•Mediacom Prime Plus 350GB (20 Mbps, $55)

•Mediacom Ultra 999GB (50 Mbps, $95)

•Mediacom Ultra Plus 999GB (105 Mbps, $145)

While it still doesn't justify the use of caps to raise rates in uncompetitive markets, the options here are at least more varied than seen from other carriers. Users can track their usage online, and the company says users will be alerted via both in-browser banner message and an e-mail when they've consumed 75%, 85% and 95% of their monthly allotment. Letters notifying users of this change are being mailed out now, and will be included in bills printed after August 7th.

A big reason Mediacom can get away with usage caps (as opposed to say FiOS or Cablevision) is courtesy of limited competition in most of their markets. The companies biggest competitors are Frontier, CenturyLink and AT&T, all of whom are lucky to be able to offer customers 3 Mbps across huge swaths of territory. AT&T now caps its DSL users at 150 GB, making the competitive repercussions of this rate hike largely nonexistent.

As with all companies trying to impose metered billing, Mediacom is trying to convince customers in our forums the move won't impact them, even though this is effectively a price hike that will force them toward more expensive pricing for the same service. Mediacom is also trying to fool customers into believing this move is about congestion, even though the cable industry itself now admits that congestion has nothing to do with why they're implementing caps.

"We have a small subset of customers that are using a very large portion of the available bandwidth, which can have a negative impact on the other internet users in the surrounding area," says a Mediacom employee in our forums reading from a script. "By curbing this behavior, other customers can benefit with faster speeds."

Except (once again, with feeling!) usage caps are, and have always been about the cable industry imposing price hikes on broadband to offset expected declines in TV subscribers (due to Internet video) and Internet phone customers (courtesy of wireless). They're not about congestion, or helping grandmothers, or "improving the customer experience." They're about predatory mono/duopolists in uncompetitive markets raising your prices because you don't have a choice.
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Klarth
join:2005-09-16
Joplin, MO

1 recommendation

Klarth

Member

Mediacom

I think you're giving them too much credit. Shortly after the e-mail notifications started rolling in, the thread popped up here and numerous on Mediacom's support forums. It took a while for their social media team to have their talking points regurgitated to them, but they now include the "This doesn't affect 97% of users" line, showing they went with the approach of claiming if you happen to use Netflix, Hulu, etc instead of Mediacom's content, you're the anomaly.

Additionally, since Mediacom's infrastructure is so underdeveloped in areas, if you can't get their Ultra tier, you are stuck with a much more restrictive cap.

The final gem on the top of this change is that you have to sign up for a separate e-mail address with Mediacom to even view your usage, and so far even know they are making this change (though they have stated they will send snail mail letters at some point). The account that you use to view/pay your bill online is not connected to viewing the meter.
GLIMMER
join:2004-01-17
Fisher, IL

GLIMMER

Member

Re: Mediacom

and att is not there biggest rival. its frontier in most areas
Chubbysumo
join:2009-12-01
Duluth, MN
Ubee E31U2V1
(Software) pfSense
Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo

Member

Re: Mediacom

said by GLIMMER:

its frontier in most areas

In most areas, it depends on whos there. Here, they have 2 areas of service, and one of them has CenturyLink, and the other has Centurylink(labeled Qwest). No one has even heard of AT&T or Verizon DSL up here, and is only familiar with their Wireless services. everyone has heard about how mediacom is the shittiest company around tho.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

Karl Bode to Klarth

News Guy

to Klarth

I think you're giving them too much credit. Shortly after the e-mail notifications started rolling in, the thread popped up here and numerous on Mediacom's support forums. It took a while for their social media team to have their talking points regurgitated to them, but they now include the "This doesn't affect 97% of users" line, showing they went with the approach of claiming if you happen to use Netflix, Hulu, etc instead of Mediacom's content, you're the anomaly.

Don't get me wrong, I still think their justifications are crap, they're just slightly less crap than other justifications I've seen, where the carrier insists that paying more "improves your customer experience," or trots out the congestion bogeyman even though the industry itself has admitted congestion isn't an issue and isn't why they're doing this.
Klarth
join:2005-09-16
Joplin, MO

Klarth

Member

Re: Mediacom

I'm afraid it looks like they have that spell in their deck as well...

»Re: 250gb limit

I really hope we can at least expose them for this behavior, like I said in the other thread, I doubt they even feel shame at this point. Around here someone that actually utilizes a broadband connection has to deal with the realities of rural cable companies. Even companies like CableOne and Cox have backed off on these caps, but now Mediacom is going the wrong direction.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

1 recommendation

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: Mediacom

Too bad. Never mind then, I'll edit the piece, thanks. Socking customers with these hikes is one thing, but insulting customer intelligence just adds insult to injury.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

1 edit

34764170 (banned)

Member

Re: Mediacom

Their own customer service reps and customers don't even know what the word bandwidth means and use it improperly. No wonder there is so much confusion. They're saying to their customers we've sold you a connection but you're not allowed to actually use it.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx to Karl Bode

Member

to Karl Bode
...and their tier caps actually scale up with price in a reasonable fashion. You may have to upgrade a tier if you use a lot of data and aren't paying a lot per month, but after 999GB you really want a business class connection anyway, and I'll bet Mediacom would be happy to sell you one.

Any way you slice it, these caps are more sensible than Comcast's various trials, Suddenlink's caps, or TWC's attempts.
Klarth
join:2005-09-16
Joplin, MO

Klarth

Member

Re: Mediacom

I agree, for what it's worth. Personally, I don't really need a 50mbps line (but respect people who do), but like you say it's the cost you pay for the cap that you do need. I also personally think that 1TB is a reasonable cap (again, your mileage may vary). That part is OK, but the problem is when they don't offer their Ultra tier in many areas (well, that and insulting our intelligence with such transparent lies as to why they are adding caps). Though that said, like you say, there are worse companies out there, for now.

Karl Bode
News Guy
join:2000-03-02

1 recommendation

Karl Bode

News Guy

Re: Mediacom

Whether a cap is "reasonable" doesn't really change the fact that these companies are using a lack of competition to impose rate hikes on already pricey tiers (by global developed country standards). They can already push excessive users on to business tiers. All these caps do is encourage upselling and abuse, especially if your only competitor is a low-quality DSL provider that offers capped 3 Mbps DSL.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Mediacom

Well, yes.

On the bright side, they're mainly competing against providers who have DSL as their bread and butter. Which is more than can be said of the likes of Comcast in many areas (ahem, Verizon).
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned) to Karl Bode

Member

to Karl Bode
said by Karl Bode:

Whether a cap is "reasonable" doesn't really change the fact that these companies are using a lack of competition to impose rate hikes on already pricey tiers (by global developed country standards).

Please. Look at TV. Some people have cable, TWO satellite companies and either u-verse or FiOS as options. Not to mention OTA and internet viewing. Yet good luck getting cable, satellite or U-verse/FiOS under $70 a month at regular price. So having 4 pay TV options( and the threat of cord cutting via OTA and internet viewing ) has not done a thing to lower pricing. What makes you think having more ISPs in an area would be any different?
TBBroadband
join:2012-10-26
Fremont, OH

TBBroadband

Member

Re: Mediacom

It works but only in select areas with select companies.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to 88615298

Member

to 88615298
It works elsewhere and in other countries.

RyanThaDude
Indiana's No. 1 Zero
join:2004-01-24
Walkerton, IN

RyanThaDude to Karl Bode

Member

to Karl Bode
Exactly. I have no other choice as CenturyLink won't offer us DSL because of being too far (even though I live in a populated town), and we have no other means of higher caps since they don't offer any higher speeds other than 20mbps. Very anti-competitive, shit service. It's been the WORST company I've dealt with, for sure!
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to iansltx

Member

to iansltx
Except there is no relation between the speed of the connection and the amount of traffic transferred. There is zero justification for caps. Caps have nothing to do with congestion management. If they didn't want congestion to happen then they shouldn't be overselling the nodes to squeeze out more profit.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Mediacom

There is a positive correlation between the speed of someone's connection and the amount of data that they transfer over it, probably because there's a positive correlation between price and amount of transfer used, all else equal.

Yes, caps low enough that people hit them are a revenue source. If you don't like it, you should build your own ISP and find out what the cost of last-mile bandwidth really is. The same economies of scale that make you reluctant to do that also allow Mediacom to come up with a number that represents the overall cost per GB that crosses their network, and it's not as close to zero as you might think.

Also, in an ideal world (not saying this is happening with Mediacom) higher-end users pay for the network upgrades for the node. A bunch of 10M users would probably be just fine with a couple of DOCSIS channels bonded per node. Add in a few 50M and 105M high-end folks and you now need four, six or even eight channels. Those line cards cost money. So Mediacom matches incremental revenue to incremental expenses and makes a profit.

Would they be able to add in as much profit in a more competitive environment? Nope. But it's downright scary to become a new competitor in wireline communications, unless you're coming in with a tech that others can't match without significant effort. Marginal costs for the incumbent, sans upgrades, are just too low. So it takes someone with balls like Google to do this these days.

ITALIAN926
join:2003-08-16

ITALIAN926 to Karl Bode

Member

to Karl Bode
As far as caps, one day, it will be the norm for all companies. What will ISPs do when speeds are so fast, and wireless tech reaches so far, that one subscriber can open his network for his entire street? So, on this persons wifi, hes supplying IPTV / Torrents, data, and VoIP for everyone. Todays speeds are tomorrows dialup, and the ISPs wont be able to allow 1 subscriber on each street.

The only way to prevent such misuse is usage billing.

Breaking a TOS? Yea, that works real well, and good luck enforcing it.

Eagles1221
join:2009-04-29
Vincentown, NJ

Eagles1221 to Klarth

Member

to Klarth
3mbit for 28 a month isn't overly bad and 150 GB isn't so rotten for mid range use as long as you stay with SD video
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

Re: Mediacom

It's not like you'd be doing much HD viewing at 3 Mbps anyway.
Cobra11M
join:2010-12-23
Mineral Wells, TX

Cobra11M to Klarth

Member

to Klarth
ha sounds like Suddenlink!, underdeveloped and charge $$ for overages

rebus9
join:2002-03-26
Tampa Bay

1 recommendation

rebus9 to Klarth

Member

to Klarth
said by Klarth:

I think you're giving them too much credit.

+1

If this was really about reducing impact on other users...

"We have a small subset of customers that are using a very large portion of the available bandwidth, which can have a negative impact on the other internet users in the surrounding area," says a Mediacom employee in our forums reading from a script. "By curbing this behavior, other customers can benefit with faster speeds."

... they would have gone to tiered throttling.

Heavy downloader hits ___GB, throttle to 75%. Next ___GB, throttle to 50%. And so forth, until they're down to a couple of Mbps.

Just follow the money trail. It's more profitable to bill for overages than throttle down heavy users.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned)

Member

Re: Mediacom

Or simply not oversell their network in the name of squeezing more profits. That is what results in congestion.
Os
join:2011-01-26
US

Os

Member

CenturyLink

CenturyLink is the telco in most of IA (former Qwest). Mediacom owns IA.

Mediacom might be the worst of all the cable companies. Pathetic TV offerings with metered billing. For all the problems with Atlantic Broadband here with their TV, at least they're not metering their customers. Yet.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: CenturyLink

Centurylink is the telco in the large cities in IA, not IA in general. There are nearly 150 telcos in IA and Windstream has a very large footprint.
88615298 (banned)
join:2004-07-28
West Tenness

88615298 (banned)

Member

999 GB more than enough

While no caps would be best if one is seriously griping about "only" having 999 GB then perhaps going outside every once in a while would do them good. And their caps for lower speeds are better than what other ISPs with caps offer. Charter gives you 500 GB for their 100 Mbps tier and 250 GB for their 30 Mbps tier. People on still on their grandfathered 15 Mbps or 3 Mbps plans have a 100 GB cap.
Expand your moderator at work
shpatb
join:2013-07-16

shpatb to 88615298

Member

to 88615298

Re: 999 GB more than enough

Charter doesn't enforce caps in Wisconsin from what I've seen, I use over 500 gb a month and my family uses over 500 gb a month as well and have never received anything from charter. I have a lot of friends that are heavy users and never have had any cap problems either.
tmc8080
join:2004-04-24
Brooklyn, NY

tmc8080

Member

now they come for your broadband

Ready to write your politicians now?

I tend to think some municipalities are waiting to become like Detroit... give in to the special interests so much (whatever they may be) that you leave nothing but a sad state of affairs in its wake..

Iowaman5
@mchsi.com

Iowaman5

Anon

At least there caps are better than the others.

I am on the 50 Mbps and run about 500 to 600 gigs a month. Some of the caps the other cable company's have would kill my bank account.
Cobra11M
join:2010-12-23
Mineral Wells, TX

Cobra11M

Member

Re: At least there caps are better than the others.

Suddenlink would love to have you as a customer!, haha

thedragonmas
Premium Member
join:2007-12-28
Albany, GA
Netgear R6300 v2
ARRIS SB6180

thedragonmas to Iowaman5

Premium Member

to Iowaman5
im so sick of them double dipping. it should be unlimited data with limited speed, or unlimited speed with limited data. and this b.s. move is just that. freakin exp basic is $75/mo, the only reason they did this is because of people like me, basic cable $30, who uses streaming, granted i havent in a while but i was just about to get hulu plus to get the shows i CANT get elsewhere because i dont sub to the exp basic package.. yeah if you try to use say "gold" for adult swim it logs in to your cable acct, sees your not paying for the channel then bounces you out. yet, you can get the same content on places like hulu+..

that really is what this crap is about and im irate about it. but there aint a damn thing i can do about it if i want internet.

ok well i can shoot off a few snail mail letters to my congress critter for a lot of good that will do. (mainly because no one else does it)

P Ness
You'Ve Forgotten 9-11 Already
Premium Member
join:2001-08-29
way way out

1 recommendation

P Ness

Premium Member

WE have a small amount of people using what they pay for....

so we must put a stop to that

Iowaman5
@mchsi.com

Iowaman5

Anon

Re: WE have a small amount of people using what they pay for....

That's what I'm saying. I pay for 999 gig's and I'm going to use what I need to use.

winsyrstrife
River City Bounce
Premium Member
join:2002-04-30
Brooklyn, NY

winsyrstrife

Premium Member

Any rollover?

On those monthly GBs the customers are paying for?

AnonMan
@comcast.net

1 recommendation

AnonMan

Anon

Regulation?

So because GAS and POWER and WATER get regulated because they are by usage when does internet get proper regulation to guarantee that the data is accurate?

What's to stop you from using 200GB and them saying 300GB and your cap is 250?? Monitoring it yourself is useless too because it's your word vs. them. They will claim your cheap router or firewall PC doesn't compare to the 100k equipment they use that is inaccurate.

Where does it end?
How is this any different from me opening a store, selling something for $5 and I say, well you still owe me one more $1 even though you gave me $5.. It should be just as much of a crime...

To make caps more fun, I can make your usage climb with you having nothing turned on but your modem... Just flood it with useless traffic... Like already happens on the net... It's like paying for spam text messages when you pay per msg.

elios
join:2005-11-15
Springfield, MO

1 recommendation

elios

Member

Re: Regulation?

pretty much how i feel
if they want to have metered service then they must be classed as a ultiltiy and regulated as such and meters must be checked just each states weights and measures just like all other meters used for sales

buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

buzz_4_20

Member

Nothing Higher than 999gigs...

Awe Crap....
»www.plupien.com/May.png

IAMU
@iamu.org

IAMU

Anon

Mediacom competition

Many of you may not be aware of the fact that Mediacom DOES face strong competition in a number of cities in Iowa. This competition comes not from CenturyLink, Frontier, or any other ILEC. It comes from municipal broadband utilities in several cities. Examples include Cedar Falls, where gigabit internet is available on their fiber-to-the-home platform; Spencer, where customers can subscribe to 100 Mbps down/ 10 Mbps up; and many others, none of which currently have caps. I would be curious to see if Mediacom will be enforcing caps in these municipal communities.

••••••••••
28619103 (banned)
join:2009-03-01
21435

1 edit

28619103 (banned)

Member

.

.
True
join:2013-08-08

True

Member

my 2 cents

While i don't Like metered. at least this is more fair then most. Consider this compairson Amazon EC2 hosting who is generally considered good value by most web site ops. charged 12 cents per GB for anything more then 1 GB and less 10 TB a month. thats just the bandwidth cost. not counting CPU/Storage charges. $10 for 50g works out to about 20 cents a gig. Considering the extra support overheard of a ISP this is not too bad. and the packages prices from up to 14.5 cents and 19 cents per gig. Personal I would be interested to see an ISP offer pricing starting at like $15 bucks a month for like 80 gig cap and 15 to 18 cents a gig overage and everyone gets top speed (50mbps 100 mbps whatever). make it more like your power or water bill. Personally i run about 100-120 gigs a month and i consider myself a pretty heavy user of online games and online media but that just me living alone no other famialy members. user such a plan my bill whould be about $22 bucks a month over the 56 i pay now Families with 4+ active users would pay more just like i have a $22 buck a month power bill but my neighbor with 4 kids has over $120 a month bill.
afn06011
join:2012-10-15
Florida

1 recommendation

afn06011

Member

Congestion, and monthy data allotments.

So I now have a data allotment I'll just use that allotment during prime-time (7 pm till 11 pm), and everyone else uses their allotment during prime-time.. You still have network congestion.
silbaco
Premium Member
join:2009-08-03
USA

silbaco

Premium Member

Re: Congestion, and monthy data allotments.

Indeed that is how it seems to work out in the end. It will stop those people who heavily torrent anime or go crazy on Steam during the middle of the night when no one else is online and network congestion is not an issue.
34764170 (banned)
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON

34764170 (banned) to afn06011

Member

to afn06011
Caps have nothing to do with congestion management. It isn't the "heavy" users causing congestion. It is everyone combined.
SunnyD
join:2009-03-20
Madison, AL

SunnyD

Member

To be honest, Mediacrap legitimately has congestion issues.

When I was on Mediacom, things started out fairly decent. But they overbuilt rather quickly into traditionally Knology territory (which was even worse at the time), and it didn't take long for Mediacom to have significant congestion issues where I was. A complaint or two ended up putting me on another node, which alleviated things for a couple weeks until that node filled up. Primetime usage on Mediacom was basically worthless.

Of course attacking it from an infrastructure standpoint rather than a shareholder profit standpoint would probably serve their customers better, but hey... what do the shareholders care?

••••••

Blahblahblah
@mchsi.com

Blahblahblah

Anon

College Towns?

Ya this is going to go over reeeeeeeeal well in Iowa City and Ames, and the other college towns in the area...

skylander7
@mchsi.com

skylander7

Anon

This is criminal

I live in Harvest, AL.. I'm lucky to get 1-3mb/s down during the day and speed jumps up at 8-9pm to 20mb/s. They WILL hit you with the cap, I want to say I've gone over once or twice. I've talked to my county commissioner to ask for some sort of initiative to get Knology to go 2 more miles north to reach my subdivision and his secretary jokes "oh wow I have Mediacom too, I've never seen a Mediacom truck to fix their crappy internet service." After three years of modem swaps, support calls, the support calls in which they never show, testing the lines to my house, etc., I still have issues. An engineer told me that they have 20 year old nodes and nobody will pay to upgrade them. It's so bad that everyone knows that when the temp changes to start spamming calls to customer support as resistance on the line changes and you can watch upstream signals on modems jump to 55 dbmv, yet nothing ever changes. Working over VPN is a crapshoot, Xbox Live gets laggy all the time, etc.

They're criminals. I have no pity for them to see some other provider come in and take their business. I'd use DSL but AT&T could only max out at like 3mb/s.. not enough for concurrent use of Netflix, VPN, etc. I'm hoping this company gets sued into oblivion and acquired by a company with more competence.