Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/05/02/millennials-killing-cable.html
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I feel so sorry for people stuck with Comcast as their only internet source.
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I wonder how many of these supposed TV subscribers even have cable boxes? For about 6 years now Comcast has been making me buy basic cable to get any broadband plan at all. I could buy just internet, but it would cost twice as much total! Then they wanted to charge monthly cable box rent, and I declined. So I “subscribe” to cable that they know I can’t watch and they probably use me and all my neighbors to boost their numbers in performance reports.
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We have FIOS or COX as our only two options. We have FIOS in our house with a limited TV lineup and their fastest internet and the free phone service. Ditching TV all-together with Verizon makes the cost of their highest speed internet service outrageous. We are essentially getting the limited TV lineup for free and a discount on the internet.
What Comcast is doing sucks, but makes sense from their business perspective. Save the best service for full package customers. Problem is it is a stop gap for them as a TV provider. They need to think more creatively on how they can offer better and more valued services. Regular TV is not cutting it anymore. People are sick of 425 channels of nothing.
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AT&T fibre just came to our neighborhood…it looks like it’s probably time to dump Comcast once and for all.
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I got some deal where they threw in a “free” HBO Go subscription (before HBO Now), but they couldn’t turn it on until I had a box associated with my account. So they sent me a box, and 4 years later it’s still unopened in the shipping container in my basement.
I’ve gotten a speed increase almost every year. I forget where it started, maybe 50Mbps, but it’s up to like 250Mbps nominal now (peaks at 280 Mbps). So I dunno, I get what’s going on with them and the TV numbers. Because I have TV I have to pay like $5/month in broadcast retransmission fees (to Comcast) and $4/month in franchise fees (to the city), but my cost now for Internet+HBO ($15/month) with TV would be almost the same if I dropped the TV portion. So… I dunno.
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There is definitely something to this business of making you keep a Home Phone and TV as I have twice tried to “downgrade” our ATT UVERSE to get rid of the phone and they have twice come back with making me keep the phone but lowering the overall rate. It has to have something to do with their metrics and reporting to shareholders.
I tried to add HBO back in January, but due to a comedy of errors on their part, they couldn’t do it for what they advertised it as (I tried to add it via the TV channel because it was cheaper).
After an hour on the phone telling them that I was TRYING TO GIVE THEM MONEY, and telling them I was just going to get HBO NOW instead, they gave me the max channel lineup with HBO included and doubled my Internet speed while dropping the entire package price by $30. This put me into a new year-long “promo” package that was similar to what they were offering new customers. Which was good because my old one was going to expire in a month.
So I tried to pay for HBO but ended up getting them to pay me $30 to take HBO.
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I have AT&T and they’re marginally better. Would love to get Google Fiber or Grande Communications high speed internet but neither have service in my immediate area ]:
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Just know Verizon isn’t much better than Comcast in some ways. You will get that nice cheap package as a new customer and then within two years see your bill triple and will have to fight tooth and nail and jump through hoops to get it back to a reasonable monthly expense again.
They are great with new customers and seriously awful with existing customer service.
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Simply - that should be against the law.
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If it were against the law, then there would be no “promotional” packages for new customers to begin with. They offer the basic service for $80 a month for two years and charge existing customers twice that for the same service…take away their ability to do those discounts and it would just become charge everyone the same flat amount regardless.
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To be clear, yes, Comcast will absolutely sell you high-speed Internet, whether you subscribe to cable TV or not.
As the article specifically says, cable TV subscribers in those two areas get free speed boosts to encourage cable TV subscriptions. Other customers can still pay for high speed service.
“Internet-only customers can get the new speeds by paying more.” – the article
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ftfy… 
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oh, and the thing often not mentioned about these speed increases is that they don’t touch the upload rates. I’ve got 250 Mbps download, but like 10-15 Mbps upload. So that’s great.
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This is the most misleading article I’ve ever read. Comcast has increased its speeds 17 times in 17 years without raising its speed to customers. What is happening is Houston is that people that have just internet won’t get this FREE upgrade that they don’t have to do in the first place. This article talking about slowing speeds down is wrong and misleading.
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unfortunately most telcom providers have a monopoly in their regions. So while it sucks…I don’t denigrate Comcast for that. It’s sort of the norm.
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Welcome to BoingBoing, comrade!
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This is why I support community owned Internet access. It’s just not debatable whether people need it or not. If you don’t have access to the Internet then you can’t do most of the things you need to do in most cities (pay bills/taxes, register vehicles, apply for insurance, apply for a job, etc). The Internet is now the commons and it needs to be treated like one under law. Too bad the propertarians control both political parties in the US.
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