Price Skirmishes

why won't cable companies admit it, they'll have to lower prices!

Interesting, a few months back in Kileen, TX, I saw an ad for $26.95/mo (or was it $25???) for the first three months.

I hate it that they are only offering these discounts when you can get DSL. I know it's good business, but when I am paying $45/month for cable internet, I wish I could get the $26.95/SBC DSL offer even though it is a lower speed

When I signed up for Comcast, I got the $19.95 for 6 months(soon to end). Comcast is also boosting everyone to 3mbps at no extra cost...I have no problem with service. Only once were my pings above 40ms, I blame it on the upgrade work being done...again, no problem.

said by lakino:

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why won't cable companies admit it, they'll have to lower prices!

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Cable overwhelmingly controls the High speed market, and TV. They in No way have to lower prices!
When your in almost total control, you dictate the market.
Like what they have been doing & will do.

I am here in southern california and i have cox high speed- i get it for 29.99 a month + 10.00 for cable modem rental-- good prices compared to what the equivalant speeds with dsl are.

Some of these offers made by other Cable Co. are not even considered at Charter. They've recently just bought the dl to 2mbps, while other cable co. are going to 3mbps. Initially I thought that their intro price of $30/month until April is a good deal, but in comparison to industry standards now, it still sucks. So all you peeps out there with comcast, roadrunner, ool, etc... should consider yourselves blessed that you don't live in Charter territory.

18 months ago, I couldn't have imagined being off of Optimum Online and Cablevision video. FF to today and I have Directv and Verizon DSL. One less premium subscriber for the Dolans to worry about. HDTV options might bring me back one day, but they best not hold their breath.

Folks,

The truth is, all of this is going to turn out badly. These prices are way, way too low and are going to result in more large bankruptcies and other problems in our industry. People can't even make money (I mean ACTUALLY make money, not EBDTA, "pro forma" or other BS, I mean ACTUALLY take in more than they spend, including EVERYTHING they spend on infrastructure and equipment) on $50/mo on 1.5Mbit service, now you guys want 3Mbit for $20?

Just look at how many broadband companies have filed for bankruptcy. That means fewer choices for you, lost jobs, less development of technology, etc., etc.,

People, this is an expensive industry. It takes a lot of money to run a broadband internet service, a LOT of money. They money should come from customers, not investors, stock inflation, accounting tricks that call expenses investments, or other artificial, crooked BS ala the dot com and telecom frauds.

When are we going to learn? What you guys want is the "wal-mart-ization" of this industry, where there is only one or two big players and they offer nothing but homogenized crap - but it's cheap! Always lower prices - always !!

That just doesn't sound like the kind of promise those of us who started this industry saw in the internet.

Buy your own modem. $10 a month is ridiculously high for renting something that can be purchased for $50.

The Internet wouldn't exist without low prices...that's what you're forgetting...There would of never been an internet boom if we'd still pay over $50 a month for normal internet access (56k). No average person is going to spend more than $40 on broadband either.

So I rather have small companies go dead, than having to pay $50 to access the internet.

(plus it's not like they are losing money by giving you access for $30 dollars a month. They still make plenty of money off of you, or they wouldn't be providing you internet access in the first place.)

It's just another BS, Industrypro...

We started with internet first and we are still on the old infrastructure. All those companies STILL see profiting from copper wires etc. so they want to keep it as long as possible. Other countries started later and their infrastructure is better off.

Our government guidelines for those companies are killin' the bells. Plus FTTH etc, gives many posibilites You can use it for.

And guess what? My cousin's fiance installs POPs for the livin' making mad money and the other day she said she got a $4,000 router (CISCO one I believe) and doesn't know what to do with it.

Everything is there just TAKES time to install.

I wouldn't mind payin' $100-$150 for a 10MBiT FTTH. If people don't want to pay that much, You just do monthly transfer caps or vary the speed according to customer needs.

It is just the matter of TIME and it will take FOREVER to get this ready.

It's good that some cities take it into their own hands. For some it will work out for others it won't. But see, Verizon knows that the first one to do it will have an advantage over others. There are still smart people there.

$100 for 10Mbit? Are you kidding?

In Switzerland they pay like $20 for 100Mbit.

But yes, I know things are MUCH different in Switzerland.

The fact is, FTTH does not cost big bucks after you overcome the installation ($1500). One day we will probably see 100Mbit fiber for $30 a month. We just need to deploy it.

No thanx i will keep my 39,99 RoadRunner ove DSl for 26.99 for sure

Time Warner is running full-page newspaper ads for their cable service to compete against satellite and half-page ads for their RoadRunner service. I don't pay them that much attention, but I think the price is $29.95/month for 3 or 6 months. Free installation, equipment, etc, etc... I believe SBC/Yahoo's DSL rate is $26.95/month around here. What speed, 768/128 or 1500/256, it is, I don't know.

TW's website is saying $29.95 for 2 months or install it yourself and get a 3rd month for that same price. They still list their "normal" price as $44.95 for cable customers and $49.95 for non-cable customers...

DSL may be less robust, but it works and there are no server restrictons.

I just made the switch from ELNK DSL to OOL, and I could not be happier, but the glooming fact is, I'm scared of getting capped , because I run my own internet station and when I was on DSL for the past 3 years, I never worried about ANYTHING like that.

The fact is, for me, I have a need for MORE speed, and that's why i have Cable, and it's the FASTEST CABLE service I know of. I'll never get rid of it, and I would not mind paying $100 for FTTH if it means getting a MUCH HIGHER speed rate than i'm getting with cable now.

If you deliver the speed, I'll pay for it. Isn't that what broadband is supposed to be for anyway? SPEED?
How did we go from SPEED to demanding the lowest prices for the highest Internet service? I belive $50 a month is good for a minimal CABLE connection of 3000Mb/600, but people wanna pay $9.95 a month for it. We're spoiled, and that's just they way it's gonna stay .

The most I see are people with wads of cash complaining about a drop in the bucket $50 for a 3000/500 connection.....WTF? there are people that can't even get it.

I do think that the price that DSL goes for, is way out of the league, and should be lowered, if DSL is to dominate the LOWER end of the broadband market, thereby pushing AOL and their DIALup nightmares out the door. DSL CANNOT compete with Cable, NO WAY NO HOW!

Companies like EarthLink that doesn't have a leg to stand on, I feel sorry for. they have no in house service to offer, except for DIAL UP. Reselling is not the answer in the 21st century. What happens when the company u resell for, starts offering the service for what u offer or LESS? IT WILL happen.

For my service $50 a month gets you a 10000/1000 Internet connection, and that's well below and MUCH less than the service costs. I have no problem paying for it. What I do ahve a problem with, is paying $50 for a 1500/384 connection, but at the same tmie, DSL is stable and it works without the restrictions.

JE

SBC/Yahoo DSL is 384-1536 for download depending on distance and 128-256 for upload for $26.95. The 256 upload is for all CO's. The RT's are still at a sync of 160 until upgrades happen to all the RT's.

Edit for clarity:)

2mbps down is bad? Jesus some of you need to get a grip on things. Sure it's not OOL speed or anything comparable to Japan, Sweden, or the netherlands, but trust me things could be worse. You could not have Cable or DSL service in your area at all or you could find yourself in a situation like mine living in Alaska where the cable ISP GCI is raping and pilaging while offering a laughable product w/ very restrictive bandwidth limits.. Then on the other hand you have the local DSL ISP who recently lowered their price for 320kbps/320kbps to $40/mo... They have a higher 960kbps/320kbps but good luck getting it because ACS considers 22,000ft loops acceptable by todays standards

All this happening in Anchorage, Alaska the largest population based city in the state; roughly 300,000+ ... You'd think given technology developments that better standards would be set industry wide...

So you are saying broadband companies lose money by offering a 1.5mbit package for $50? I find that ridicously hard to believe. The profit margine on their services is outrageous, yet dropping prices a little is going to cause mass bankruptcy?

said by rtw03:

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I hate it that they are only offering these discounts when you can get DSL

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It's called competition! (but you knew that ) They (cable) aren't going to lower costs unless they have to. I have DSL now and Comca$t is coming in this next summer, there's going to be a price war, I predict it. BUT, Comca$t TV service is so crappy here they would have to give me cable internet before I would switch. I went DTV years ago. Sorry I like low ping times, no caps, and reliability. I'll keep my DSL and have more than 30 channels of TV to boot. Oh yea, my speed has gone UP, and the price has gone DOWN this year. Yea I'll switch.;)

quote:

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When DSL providers dropped their prices this year

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Ok...I must have missed that because my DSL price tag NEVER dropped.
Ok, ok...I take that back. It ONLY dropped when I bundled long distance and some other "features". It never dropped on its own.

And notice how you're comparing your location to my location in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Bottomline is it's all RELATIVE. But I feel in my case bears more relevancy than yours, Sabo7ge, based on geographical location of coarse.

But havn't we all read some head of some big company give the announcement that they will be raising price, cutting service, etc... Citing that it's all based on "Industry Standards"? Charter Communications is not excluded from this, but what I'm pointing towards is that when it comes to meeting "Industry Standards" that benefit the customers (such as raising the speed or lowering the price), Charter seems to ALWAYS be the lagger compared to other cable companies. I'm not even comparing cable industry standards on a broad scale such as broadband as a whole which includes DSL, that would be not a apple-to-apple comparison. My comparison is fair... Charter compared to other cable companies.

Is 2mbps/128k speed bad?? Compared to DSL and ISDN or Dial-up, 2mbps is GREAT!! But if compare it apple-to-apple of what other cable companies are offering and in some cases at a lower price... You cannot deny Charter is the greediest of them all.

With all due respect, Sabo7ge: I think you should double check your logic of comparison before trying to make me or other posters like me sound like spoiled whiners. Whiners we maybe, but we whine for a reason.

Mine did, from $50.00 to $35.00 a month. Oh yea, the speed doubled at no extra charge.:D Gotta love it. Low ping, no caps, reliability, and some of the best newsgroups in the industry, I love my DSL.;)

You need to call SBC and ask for the new lower price. They'll more than likely make you sign a new 1 year contract though.

In Gladwater Texas the fastest speed that Cox offers is 1024/128 for $39.94 per month + 15.xx for basic cable for a total of 56.xx per month.

Sigh.

said by eynlai8:

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You need to call SBC and ask for the new lower price. They'll more than likely make you sign a new 1 year contract though.

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Yeah, I haev a 1 year contract and got a free modem, I get 1.3/324 not bad. However, I think if a lot more people got hooked up and the economy got better I think we would be seeing a lot better prices for cheaper prices.

Cable companies finally realize that people want cheaper prices. Why are people complaining about competition? It's great! I can pay less for better speed, and I'll take it. I'd say let these ISPs kill each other over customers. They're just profitting less than what they're already doing, and it's fine with me.

My logic is fine... 2mbps down unrestricted usage for $40 a month... It might be another 10 years before we see something like that up here at an affordable price due to the CLEC monopoly by GCI and lack of competition being provided by the local ILEC DSL provider ACS communications... Again as stated before you have a product with better speed and value on thoroughput that I only wish was offered in my area... Yes I can argue that Charter is not the greediest cable ISP in America; yes you are spoiled; yes you are a whiner; yes you have no idea what crappy service is like or having no reasonable alternative. End of conversation...

Compare the cost of what your cable ISP provides to this by the statewide cable ISP GCI communications and tell me again how you have it bad?

»www.gci.com/promos/hyper ··· yhn6.htm

512/64K with 5 GB of data transfer per month.
$39.99 a month with GCI Long Distance

Silver Plus 1.0M/128K with 10 gigabytes transfer/month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space: $49.99/month

Gold 1.5M/128K with 20 gigabytes transfer/month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space: $84.99/month

Platinum 1.5M/256K with 25 gigabytes transfer/month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space: $99.99/month

Diamond 2.4M/256K with 30 gigabytes transfer/month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space: $149.99/month

Subscription to Cable TV or $6.99 monthly access fee required. (Access fee choice requires $24.99 one-time install fee)

Additional data transfer beyond package amount is $20/GB/month.

If you do not have GCI Long Distance the following Cable Modem rates apply: (If you Choose GCI Long Distance, you'll save $15/month!)

Silver 512/64K with 5 gigabytes of throughput per month and and 2 email addresses and 10MB of Web Space
$54.99/month

Silver Plus 1.0M/128K with 10 gigabytes of throughput per month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space
$64.99/month

Gold 1.5M/128K with 20 gigabytes of throughput per month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space
$99.99/month

Platinum 1.5M/256K with 25 gigabytes of throughput per month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space
$114.99/month

Diamond 2.4M/256K with 30 gigabytes of throughput per month and 4 email addresses and 20MB of Web Space
$164.99/month

i wanna pay 26.95$ for roadrunner...not this BS 45!

said by sanzman:

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I am here in southern california and i have cox high speed- i get it for 29.99 a month + 10.00 for cable modem rental-- good prices compared to what the equivalant speeds with dsl are.

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its $35 here with $15 mothly modem rental WTF I AM CALLING THOSE TARDS TOMARROW