Current Events > Comcast takrs "revenge" for cord cutting. Imposing data caps.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.fool.com/investing/2020/12/10/comcast-comes-for-the-cord-cutters/?source=iedfolrf0000001

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) will begin imposing data caps on customers in all of the states it operates in come 2021, after announcing that a dozen states in the Northeast that were previously excluded from the limitations would now be included.
Starting in January, the cable operator will put all Xfinity customers under a monthly 1.2 terabyte cap on data usage and will charge them $10 for every 50 gigabytes of data they exceed the limit, up to a maximum of $100.

Cutting out cable
Comcast reported it lost 273,000 cable customers in the third quarter, which was actually fewer than the 409,000 it lost in Q1 and the 477,000 that cut the cord in the second. Yet that brings the total number of consumers abandoning Xfinity so far this year to 1.16 million.
At the same time, though, Comcast added 1.43 million high-speed internet customers to the rolls, suggesting that while customers were cutting the cord to cable programming, many were keeping their internet access.

Year to date, Comcast has added over 1.7 million one-product customers, which is easy to believe are mostly internet-only households, but overall it has lost almost 300,000 customers in total in 2020. That means consumers want Comcast's internet service, but not its cable and telephone offerings.
The data cap helps recoup the lost revenue, and could be a sign Comcast expects net neutrality to return.

Staking out neutral ground
Previously Comcast could charge bandwidth hogs like Netflix for direct access to its network, but net neutrality prohibited such access fees. After the FCC killed net neutrality in 2017, Comcast reportedly demanded fees again from Netflix, which eventually agreed to have the streaming service bundled with the Xfinity service, but which gave Comcast control over the important customer billing relationship.
Assuming the Biden administration takes office in January, net neutrality could be back on the table. The fees Comcast collected from Netflix and others might not survive, but the data cap for people using its internet service to stream video would endure.

Scum of the earth.

"We're losing customers left and right! Whay do we do!?"

"Fuck them harder than before, raise prices across the board!"

"Perfect plan, now they're for sure not going to drop us entirely!"

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Breaking news: Business adapts to changing market

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Not sure why this surprises anyone?

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How much data usage does 4K streaming take up? I was going to say most people probably would be unaffected, but I guess streaming could rack up the gigs.

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

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Do Verizon and other companies do this?

Hopefully those companies use this to take a bunch of customers away from Comcast and don't just copy them.

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My internet has lower caps than that and I've never even come anywhere close to hitting it

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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Hahahahahahaha

I have COX which is basically Comcast. My is already 160. I just got charged 220 for going over my cap

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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

LMFAO you think different ISPs (of any quality) exist in the same market that Comcast does.

holy shit

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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Kinda hard to do that in Florida

DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Because in lots of areas, the number of available ISPs is just one.

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Lokison posted...

"We're losing customers left and right! Whay do we do!?"

"Fuck them harder than before, raise prices across the board!"

"Perfect plan, now they're for sure not going to drop us entirely!"

i mean
it is.

in my area, the only options are ATT and Comcast. they conspired to have exactly the same plans, data caps and pricing. theres no competition.

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My bill went up despite me using less data in November than October, and I'm barely home anyways

Shit sucks

PowerOats posted...

Kinda hard to do that in Florida

You guys have cox? They are shit but less shit than timewarner and comcast.

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In my area Comcast doesn't even offer just internet service, you have to get both cable and internet. Honestly, I am fine with it. I still like to have cable tv, and my data usage is no where near that limit each month. But if I did stream a lot, I could see it being an issue.

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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Not in the United States. Most providers have regional monopolies. If the US were another country they might have invested in a heavy fiber optic infrastructure, but around here if it isn't outdated and crumbling then it's SOCIALISM! -_-

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Commiecast strikes again.

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This is why "municipal franchise" needs to end, as a concept.

I pay for cable tv even though I don't have a TV because it's cheaper than internet by itself. Fuck Comcast

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DuneMan posted...

Not in the United States. Most providers have regional monopolies. If the US were another country they might have invested in a heavy fiber optic infrastructure, but around here if it isn't outdated and crumbling then it's SOCIALISM! -_-

Doesnt help that google charges 10,000 usd to install fiber and they are pretty much the only people rolling out fiber in the states.

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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Been said already, but specifically here in Philadelphia where Comcast HQ is located, it's either them, Verizon, or no internet at all.

This is why city dwellers have been patiently waiting for Google to introduce their own fibre optic network beyond rural markets. Hurry the fuck up Alphabet nerds!

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I wouldn't hold my breath for Google. They failed to live up to their motto of "Don't be evil."

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Imo, the government should own the infrastructure and then sell bandwidth rights to various companies that then sell internet access. That way you can have more ISPs competing in an area instead of having like 1 or 2 options.

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Offering widespread broadband internet has nothing to do with being evil or not though. Everyone in the US having super fast internet would be really beneficial for Google/Alphabet as a business.

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someone might be able to answer this. how is this legal? why are internet service providers allowed to be monopolies? is It just because the technology isn't there yet to have multiple providers in multiple areas? I'm asking because I don't know, not because I'm trying to make a point.
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Comcast is one of the scummiest companies in the country. But the US is absolutely enormous and it would be impossible for, say, every telecom to lay cables across the entire country. It's just prohibitively expensive once you get past the suburbs, and most of the country is, well, open country. So the telecoms colluded to divide up the regions that they would serve, e.g., I don't have comcast in my area, I only have spectrum and FIOS.

uwnim posted...

Imo, the government should own the infrastructure and then sell bandwidth rights to various companies that then sell internet access. That way you can have more ISPs competing in an area instead of having like 1 or 2 options.

It's bullshit when the "public" builds a stadium for a private entity, and it would be just as bullshit to lay down fiber for a private entity.

uwnim posted...

Imo, the government should own the infrastructure and then sell bandwidth rights to various companies that then sell internet access. That way you can have more ISPs competing in an area instead of having like 1 or 2 options.

Should just full on be a public utility at this point but then you start running into the chinese internet problem of government overreach

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I thought this was always the case?

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ZeroX91 posted...

You guys have cox?

Nah, just the one
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ZeroX91 posted...

Should just full on be a public utility at this point but then you start running into the chinese internet problem of government overreach

That, and the fact that local governments can't even get water right most of the time.

So the way to fix people leaving is to make even more want to leave?

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pojr posted...

someone might be able to answer this. how is this legal? why are internet service providers allowed to be monopolies? is It just because the technology isn't there yet to have multiple providers in multiple areas? I'm asking because I don't know, not because I'm trying to make a point.

Corperate cronyism in Washington.

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pojr posted...

someone might be able to answer this. how is this legal? why are internet service providers allowed to be monopolies? is It just because the technology isn't there yet to have multiple providers in multiple areas? I'm asking because I don't know, not because I'm trying to make a point.

They own the local area infrastructure. Since it would be inconvenient or impractical to have a bunch of providers have their own cables/lines they are instead granted a regional monopoly.


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uwnim posted...

They own the local area infrastructure. Since it would be inconvenient or impractical to have a bunch of providers have their own cables/lines they are instead granted a regional monopoly.

make sense, well I really hope the government puts some kind of restriction on that. doesn't seem like that is the case. but maybe I'm wrong.

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pojr posted...

make sense, well I really hope the government puts some kind of restriction on that. doesn't seem like that is the case. but maybe I'm wrong.

They wont because the get kickbacks from the telecommunications companies.

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ZeroX91 posted...

pojr posted...

make sense, well I really hope the government puts some kind of restriction on that. doesn't seem like that is the case. but maybe I'm wrong.

They wont because the get kickbacks from the telecommunications companies.

kickbacks eh? is that a secret thing no one is supposed to know about? or just part of being allowed to be a monopoly?
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I really wish everyone had it as good as do when it comes to internet. My ISP is a smaller company called Optimum that actually has to compete with Verizon in some areas. So they go out of their way to be better than Verizon by pretty much every metric.
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pojr posted...

kickbacks eh? is that a secret thing no one is supposed to know about? or just part of being allowed to be a monopoly?

Just how it works, it was hidden once upon a time not so much since the 80s

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Huh, America is weird

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pokedude900 posted...

I really wish everyone had it as good as do when it comes to internet. My ISP is a smaller company called Optimum that actually has to compete with Verizon in some areas. So they go out of their way to be better than Verizon by pretty much every metric.

Optimum is absolute trash. Especially after Altice bought them.

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DEKMStephens posted...

Huh, America is weird

https://youtu.be/xw87-zP2VNA

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InfinityMonster posted...

Optimum is absolute trash. Especially after Altice bought them.

How? I've got solid upload and download speeds and rarely have any issues. And when something does come up, they get someone over to fix the problem in a timely manner. We even just canceled our cable with them recently, and there was no hassle. Meanwhile I've heard tons of horror stories about Verizon.
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DEKMStephens posted...

Yeah I'm confused, wouldn't people just go to a different ISP?

Many areas only have 1 or 2 other options.

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DEKMStephens posted...

Huh, America is weird

we just grit our teeth and yell FREEDOM every time the corporate overlords bend us over a barrel. it doesn't do anything, but the alternative is communism.

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pokedude900 posted...

How? I've got solid upload and download speeds and rarely have any issues. And when something does come up, they get someone over to fix the problem in a timely manner. Meanwhile I've heard tons of horror stories about Verizon.

They have massive issues with overselling their nodes causing huge saturation. There are areas where you get 1 Mbps after 3 PM to like 1 AM because of the load. You're just somewhere where the node hasn't faced this yet.

I had to file complaints up the asshole for them to come and split the node in my neighborhood. I know several people in LI, NYC and NJ whose internet is damn near unusable and this can be confirmed on dslreports.

FiOS beats them in almost every way because of the fiber nature. The only bad thing about them is their forced Quantum router if you have TV, which you can just have with your own router. Plus since Altice, FiOS has been cheaper. There's $26 in just fees with Optimum nowadays.

I can go more into it if you'd like since I've had and worked with both those and Spectrum over 2 decades now.

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