Comcast to Cord Cutters...
- STC
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^ So don't complain when your price goes up
If you use more, you will pay more and that's the way the cookie will crumble ladies and gentlemen...
If you use more, you will pay more and that's the way the cookie will crumble ladies and gentlemen...
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You're missing the point.STC wrote:^ Do you expect me to pay for *your high usage?
(*example)
I'm certainly not lobbying, but would be accepting of the proposal to meter both my low and *your high internet usage.
Why not share all infrastructure costs so we'd all pay the same electricity, gas and water bill no matter what size our home or how much we use?
Throw all the meters away. Useless things...
You are in fact metered on your electric and water usage; do they offer to sell you as much as you need but then restrict how much you can get? When it gets hot outside, does the electric company brown our your neighborhood because they don't have the infrastructure to support your buying as much as you want to keep yourself cool?
No. They provide the infrastructure to provide what people want to buy at the metered rates.
If you had brownouts, you'd be unhappy at the very least. Yet, you're happy paying your low price for internet despite the service giving you the bandwidth equivalent of a brownout.
To eliminate those "bandwidth brownouts" every night will require your price going up. And to satisfy those willing to pay for more bandwidth, they'll have to improve the infrastructure to minimize if not eliminate brownouts. And that puts you paying more. Sure, relatively speaking the bandwidth hogs will pay more than you--but the base charge will accelerate for everyone in your city, including you.
Be careful what you wish for.
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Well..I'm screwed. AT&T is working on purchasing DirecTV. I'll not give a single dime to AT&T. Television is about to go the way of the dinosaur in my house.
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Aha. "Mr. Electric Company, go ahead and brown out my neighbors--but don't touch ME, for God's sake! I want to keep cool! But I don't care about my neighbors. Let them suffer so that I can get what *I* want."STC wrote:..I don't know... maybe I'm just happy in my cocoon of billing/service levels but would like just a little more back at peak times.
Reducing full bandwidth torrents at those times would help the casual browser with snappier throughput.
Is it lawful in your area for an ISP to sniff traffic, identify it, and pick and choose what traffic it chooses to pass and what traffic it chooses to choke?
If I were your neighbor, I'd be VERY unhappy with your selfish attitude.
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+1Venom51 wrote:Well..I'm screwed. AT&T is working on purchasing DirecTV. I'll not give a single dime to AT&T. Television is about to go the way of the dinosaur in my house.
I have been AT&T-free in my life for several years now. They deserve exactly zero of my hard-earned money. There is nothing they offer that I must have. They are untrustworthy at best, and outright thieves in general.
I can't believe the "HAVE TO HAVE AN iPHONE!" lemmings who fed Jabba the AT&T they way they did. NOTHING they offer is worth doing business with them.
- STC
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^ You are missing the point IMO.adam1991 wrote:...I'd be VERY unhappy with your selfish attitude.
Data is being unitized, whether you like it or not.
I am certainly not selfish. That's kind of ironic if you are indeed a high capacity user!
I approve of metered billing and naturally high users will not. It's pretty clear why, and that's my lot on this one.
Now excuse me while I go and fill up my car with gas for a flat rate
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- mcewinter
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Why should the price go up? I pay for a higher tier to satisfy the quality of service that I desire. I want the ability to stream several movies in my home using legal means. I could pay for 6mb service and save a reasonable amount of money but it's not worth it if I can't take advantage of the popular services that I subscibe to. Instead, I pay for a level to satisfy our usage. I pay more...no smoke and mirrors.STC wrote:^ So don't complain when your price goes up
If you use more, you will pay more and that's the way the cookie will crumble ladies and gentlemen...
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As I said, there's no doubt there would be a differential between what you pay and what others pay.STC wrote:I approve of metered billing and naturally high users will not. It's pretty clear why, and that's my lot on this one.
But it will all start from a higher base charge, because those who are happy enough today with their bandwidth brownouts will tomorrow NOT be happy because they EXPECT that the bandwidth they're asking for WILL be available. To ensure that, everyone will pay more in order that the infrastructure can accommodate the wishes of the bandwidth hogs who are willing to pay.
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You assume the pipe is infinitely large to supply you with what you want. It isn't, and even you have bandwidth brownouts--slow speeds during peak times--that you tolerate.mcewinter wrote:Why should the price go up? I pay for a higher tier to satisfy the quality of service that I desire. I want the ability to stream several movies in my home using legal means. I could pay for 6mb service and save a reasonable amount of money but it's not worth it if I can't take advantage of the popular services that I subscibe to. Instead, I pay for a level to satisfy our usage. I pay more...no smoke and mirrors.STC wrote:^ So don't complain when your price goes up
If you use more, you will pay more and that's the way the cookie will crumble ladies and gentlemen...
When I have the need and have chosen to pay the higher bill, I will *not* tolerate those slow speeds regardless of the time of day. That requires building a bigger pipe, and that means prices increase for everyone--including the low user.
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@Crash: I have no idea if your link will help me figure out what is going on. From my perspective, there is no problem. I am getting more than the speed I paid for when I test it from a site that is not on Brighthouse's network. When I test with a server that is on-network, it is slower. This tells me that the on-network server has a problem, but the off-network server does not. That's OK with me.
@Everybody_else: Wow... where do I start?
STC, if you're a low-end user, then (in a "metered" scenario) you should pay a lower base-rate than what you are paying today. The problem is that the cable companies won't reduce your base rate... they'll just charge the high-end users more. That's not fair. Also, if you live in a very sparsely populated area, then I can understand why your service is sub-par. Don't forget... there are only 10% as many people in Canada as there are in the US... but approximately the same land area. The overall population density of Canada is much lower than the US... so it would be much more expensive (per subscriber) for a Canadian cableco to invest in infrastructure.
Adam, I like your "brownout" example, but I'm sure you know that it does happen occasionally with electric utilities... especially during extremely hot/cold weather. However, when it does happen to the electric service... people scream loudly. Most people don't scream so loud about sub-par Internet service. I still like your example though. In our business, me and my employer plan capacity based on the absolute worst-case-peak periods. Most of the time, our networks and systems are far below capacity. But if we couldn't handle the peak loads, our customers would leave us for the competition in a heart beat.
And therein lies the difference. In my business, we HAVE competition! The cable companies don't. If they did, we wouldn't be talking about data caps and outrageous prices!
I suppose I should also add that the electric utility is tightly regulated, and so John Q. Public has some pull when they screw up. The cable companies are not regulated very tightly, and there is no competition. John Q. Public has no pull at all with the cable companies.
@Everybody_else: Wow... where do I start?
STC, if you're a low-end user, then (in a "metered" scenario) you should pay a lower base-rate than what you are paying today. The problem is that the cable companies won't reduce your base rate... they'll just charge the high-end users more. That's not fair. Also, if you live in a very sparsely populated area, then I can understand why your service is sub-par. Don't forget... there are only 10% as many people in Canada as there are in the US... but approximately the same land area. The overall population density of Canada is much lower than the US... so it would be much more expensive (per subscriber) for a Canadian cableco to invest in infrastructure.
Adam, I like your "brownout" example, but I'm sure you know that it does happen occasionally with electric utilities... especially during extremely hot/cold weather. However, when it does happen to the electric service... people scream loudly. Most people don't scream so loud about sub-par Internet service. I still like your example though. In our business, me and my employer plan capacity based on the absolute worst-case-peak periods. Most of the time, our networks and systems are far below capacity. But if we couldn't handle the peak loads, our customers would leave us for the competition in a heart beat.
And therein lies the difference. In my business, we HAVE competition! The cable companies don't. If they did, we wouldn't be talking about data caps and outrageous prices!
I suppose I should also add that the electric utility is tightly regulated, and so John Q. Public has some pull when they screw up. The cable companies are not regulated very tightly, and there is no competition. John Q. Public has no pull at all with the cable companies.
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Well the consumer does have one big pull against the cable companies but in a way it is the big hammer that is causing this whole up-roar. The consumer can decide not to buy cable. So the cable companies now want to raise rates on those that are left so they can stay in business. With AT&T buying Directv it has been said that it will be used so that AT&T can free its copper lines of Unverse/TV service and use it solely for broadband internet and also to get broadband internet to rural areas via sat dish. This might be the only alternative cord cutters will have when they leave the cable company so AT&T is ready to scoop the rats up from the burning ship.barnabas1969 wrote:
I suppose I should also add that the electric utility is tightly regulated, and so John Q. Public has some pull when they screw up. The cable companies are not regulated very tightly, and there is no competition. John Q. Public has no pull at all with the cable companies.
The only true death nell for the cablecos will be if we truly can cut the cord and not use them for anything...including broadband.
- mcewinter
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You said "infinitely", not me. The "pipe" that I pay for suffices my family's needs...all day long. The budget tier would not be sufficent.adam1991 wrote:You assume the pipe is infinitely large to supply you with what you want. It isn't, and even you have bandwidth brownouts--slow speeds during peak times--that you tolerate.mcewinter wrote:Why should the price go up? I pay for a higher tier to satisfy the quality of service that I desire. I want the ability to stream several movies in my home using legal means. I could pay for 6mb service and save a reasonable amount of money but it's not worth it if I can't take advantage of the popular services that I subscibe to. Instead, I pay for a level to satisfy our usage. I pay more...no smoke and mirrors.STC wrote:^ So don't complain when your price goes up
If you use more, you will pay more and that's the way the cookie will crumble ladies and gentlemen...
When I have the need and have chosen to pay the higher bill, I will *not* tolerate those slow speeds regardless of the time of day. That requires building a bigger pipe, and that means prices increase for everyone--including the low user.
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Yep, you just lit up another doobie with me. Wireless is not going to cut it anytime soon (and is way too cap-infested anyway), and fiber is far away as the government continues to look the other way on the lack of competition for HSI. You're talking la-la land for the forseeable future.EZEd wrote: The only true death knell for the cablecos will be if we truly can cut the cord and not use them for anything...including broadband.
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He's not talking about the tiny pipe that goes to your house. He's talking about the big pipe that feeds the entire service area. That pipe is not infinitely large. As demand for a piece of the pipe increases, so will the price. It's basic economics.mcewinter wrote:You said "infinitely", not me. The "pipe" that I pay for suffices my family's needs...all day long. The budget tier would not be sufficent.
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What might actually be a good idea from the govt perspective is to take some (all?) of that re-allocated RF spectrum from the ATSC implementation and capture some of those 100kw transmitters from TV stations and use it for local area (city wide) broadband. But again that would bw something actually smart like long more fiber and our government just can't be in the business of doing smart things or even useful things that benefit us tax payers. They'd rather smoke a doobie themselves and offer us a hit than to do something smart. They want to get rid of broadcast tv anyway. Why not convert it to broadband IP that they control instead of the cablecos ?slowbiscuit wrote:Yep, you just lit up another doobie with me. Wireless is not going to cut it anytime soon (and is way too cap-infested anyway), and fiber is far away as the government continues to look the other way on the lack of competition for HSI. You're talking la-la land for the forseeable future.EZEd wrote: The only true death knell for the cablecos will be if we truly can cut the cord and not use them for anything...including broadband.
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Laying more fiber...that is
- mcewinter
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I know. I'm not convinced that the big pipe is infinitely too small to provide quality service.richard1980 wrote:He's not talking about the tiny pipe that goes to your house. He's talking about the big pipe that feeds the entire service area. That pipe is not infinitely large. As demand for a piece of the pipe increases, so will the price. It's basic economics.mcewinter wrote:You said "infinitely", not me. The "pipe" that I pay for suffices my family's needs...all day long. The budget tier would not be sufficent.
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I suppose I live in an area with an excessively big pipe for the demand (presumably because my neighbors just don't use their Internet connections), or I have a cable provider who spends exorbitant amounts of money to provide service which far exceeds that of their peers elsewhere in the country.mcewinter wrote:I know. I'm not convinced that the big pipe is infinitely too small to provide quality service.richard1980 wrote:He's not talking about the tiny pipe that goes to your house. He's talking about the big pipe that feeds the entire service area. That pipe is not infinitely large. As demand for a piece of the pipe increases, so will the price. It's basic economics.mcewinter wrote:You said "infinitely", not me. The "pipe" that I pay for suffices my family's needs...all day long. The budget tier would not be sufficent.
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I've had Brighthouse Internet service since 1999 or 2000. Since then, I've lived in 3 different houses in two different cities. I had the same experience at all of them. I guess I just got lucky and always lived near the fiber?STC wrote:^ Or just a lot of fibre close by
EDIT: Back in 1999 or 2000, it was actually TWC. Our region became Brighthouse, but it's still the same infrastructure, people, etc. The phone number is still 877-TWC-EASY.