Cable Prices Keep Rising, and Customers Keep Paying

[Force Commander]

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/techn ... ref=slogin

[Big Media]

DirecTV.

Their prices keep rising, too, but you actually pay additional money for additional channels. Not the other way around.

[Dr. Whiplash]

Good read.

This struck a chord...

"...the lure of cable appears to have a sociological component. In a stress-filled life, cable television is easy to use. 'I work eight hours a day facing a computer. When I come home, the last thing I want to do is mess with another computer,' said Eric Yu, 24, a college student in San Francisco who pays around $80 a month for cable. Mr. Yu said he watches only a handful of channels, including some in high definition like National Geographic. But to get them, he has to pay for a premium package. 'I just pay the bill and try to forget about it,' he said. 'It lessens the pain.'"

[Hoosier Daddy]

I like cable because I get everything I want in their next to lowest tier (about $45 a month) and it's hassle free. Just turn the TV on and pick your channel. And I can have a million TV sets connected and not need converter boxes for each one. Plus, cable internet just rocks. DSL, where available around here, just can't reach the speed my cable modem achieves every day. And let's not even discuss satellite internet stuff like Hughes and WildBlue. I realize it's the only sorta-high speed option for some folks, but it doesn't hold a candle to cable internet. VOIP? Yup. I got it. Best investment I made. Nationwide long distance (everything everywhere is a local call!) on my call plan for $14.95 a month. It still amazes me that people still comparison shop for who has the cheapest dial-up service.

[fearpeddler]

another bonus of cable net vs. verizons crappy "broadband" is if your net history is requested for any reason verizon will hand it over without telling you, the cable company at least has the courtesy to let you know you're gonna get sued...

[Dr. Whiplash]

I'm keeping Suddenlink internet but dropped expanded basic out of pure necessity. Somewhat to my surprise, I don't really miss all that crap. Yeah, I miss a good show now and then but I can catch up with those and Discovery and Nat Geo online, and the $35 is being put to good use, i.e., gasoline for the mobile unit. That said, I'm already worried about football season. Hoping for an expanded basic 'bargain' pack before August 30th.

[sportsvoice]

Wonderful Time Warner here costs $55 a month for expanded basic. Ten bucks more with a dish gets me the HD Tier and HD DVR, plus I don't have to watch the constant hard sell for overpriced "Digital Phone" service or enjoy them consistently overrunning the cable operator breaks and cutting off 30 seconds of the show I was watching. Road Runner sucked for me too. I had constant outages, and the email service was pitiful (10MB inbox? Please...) Time Warner sucks...

[Big Media]

I chose Verizon broadband because it is "fast enough" for $15/month. It is much faster than dial-up, for which I was paying $5 more back in the day, but it is Slowskys compared to the lightening fast Comcast business access we have at work. I also had Adelphia 256K service for $25/month for a while. That was a f-cking rip-off.

I can't justify an EXTRA $30/month for an extra megabit that I would seldom use anyway.

Bottom line, I have DirectTV - $65/month including 2 DVRs and 1 HD DVR
Verizon Telephone - $15/month for an incoming line (we already have excellent cell service)
Verizon Dialup (I mean DSL) - $15/month
That's a total of $95/month.

Comparatively, I had Adelphia Expanded Basic - $50/month including taxes/fees, etc.
One stand alone Tivo - $15/month for Tivo Service
Adelphia Broadband - $45/month including modem rental, taxes/fees, etc.
Verizon Telephone - $55/month for the bells and whistles calling plan, features, etc.
For a total of $165/month


Not quite a wash.

[Lester]

High Speed Internet
Cable with one specialty channel (HBO)
1 DVR

$133 a month... scratch that... $135. It went up this month.

[cgarison]

Comcast in Philly is pretty expensive.

$135/month for Digital Premium (includes Encore and Flix), 1 Standard digtial cable box, 1 HD digital cable box, Comcast cable with boost with up to 8 mbit down and 1 mbit up with power boost (stupid gimmick). FiOS is not available in the city/county of Philadelphia and the copper for the DSL is so old (full of resistance) that the speed is degraded to just slightly more than dialup. And our last oprion of Earthlink's municipal WiFi (Wireless Philadelphia) goes dark in just a week. So this means Comcast is the only real game in town for a home office.

[AmpedNow]

With HD becoming mandatory, it's sad that they insist on charging so much more for HD packages.

I'm sick of being nickel and dimed... Between this and high-speed internet, we are so far behind the rest of the world.

[Dave Loudin]

With HD becoming mandatory, it's sad that they insist on charging so much more for HD packages.

Like when the phone company charged more for touch-tone lines?

[sportsvoice]

With HD becoming mandatory, it's sad that they insist on charging so much more for HD packages.

Like when the phone company charged more for touch-tone lines?

There was one old school building we went into to set up a broadcast and found out we couldn't dial out for some reason. The phone line was bridged onto an old rotary phone in a closet or office somewhere. I could call out on that phone. Beats me how I stumbled across a line that was not set up for touch tone, but when I switched the phone mixer to "pulse dial" it worked. The worst part is that they were probably still paying a rental fee for that phone.

If only it was that simple now. I hate dealing with interfacing to digital PBXs and VoIP stuff.

[Dr. Whiplash]

Just thought I'd pass along Marietta's Suddenlink $20 basic package. We mostly get 'two of everything,' which might make it more tolerable than in some markets...

2 Network West Virginia
3 WSAZ-NBC 3 Huntington
4 WTAP-NBC 15 Parkersburg
5 WTAP-DT2-MyNetwork Parkersburg
6 WSYX-ABC 6 Columbus
7 QVC
8 WCHS-ABC 8 Charleston
9 WOUB-PBS 20 Athens
10 WBNS-CBS 10 Columbus
11 WVAH-FOX 11 Charleston
12 WPBY-PBS 33 Huntington
13 WOWK-CBS 13 Huntington
14 WTAP-DT3-FOX Parkersburg
15 Education Access (Marietta College, WMRT-FM audio)
16 C-SPAN
17 C-SPAN 2
18 WGN-IND 9 Chicago
19 Cincinnati Reds Baseball
19 Leased Access (MSN Sex)
20 ShopNBC
21 CW Network
22 Local Government (Washington St Comm College)




I might have made up that thing about channel 19.

[Hoosier Daddy]

The biggest telco rip-off is Caller ID. That information is automatically encoded every time someone makes a telephone call. It's blocked unless you subscribe to Caller ID. But you can pay extra again to block *YOUR* Caller ID from being received by anyone who already paid for Caller ID. But *THEY* and *YOU* can pay again to refuse to accept calls from anyone who blocks their Caller ID information.

Meanwhile, the telemarketers sail right through all the blocks and barricades. Go figure.

And to think, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Three Way Calling, and Digital Voice Mail all cost extra $$$ from the phone company in addition to your base charge, yet they're *FREE* (included in the base price) with every basic cell phone or VOIP line. And with cellular and VOIP, the local calling area is about 3,000 times bigger.

[Dr. Whiplash]

HD, do you think the telcos have any chance at salvaging a future with their much-ballyhooed "cable" offerings? I can't see it, but don't have a telco background. Seems to me the telcos are like the railroads - able to survive thanks to the physical nature of their infrastructures, but doomed to a lesser role, and maybe not a permanent one. What say you?

[Hoosier Daddy]

I don't know ... I can't see how telcos can even be competitive with their current pricing structure. I'd think the telcos would be all over things like free Caller ID, free call waiting, free call forwarding, etc. as part of even the most basic residential package. I wonder if most people stick with Verizon (or whoever) just out of habit and not because it's the best price.

In defense of the wireline companies, they are bound by volumes and volumes of tariffs and regulations that don't apply to the other guys. Wireline service is almost 100% reliable too. Cellular and VOIP companies have a very cavalier attitude about service and availability, as if it isn't *their* fault when your phone doesn't work. In contrast, telcos have to provide a dial tone pretty much anywhere you want it -- as long as you're willing to pay to have the wires laid down and the monthly fees, etc.

Right now, I think the phone companies offering (very, very limited) television service is simply too little too late. Telcos do provide a lot of the infrastructure and backhaul for cell towers. But is it a situation where Verizon drops a T1 line to a new cell stick and gradually loses 500 wireline customers because of it? I'm just askin' ...

I have a soft spot in my heart for the phone company. Our wireline telephone system is still the best in the world. I'd like to see the telcos get fiercely competitive with the cellular companies and VOIP phone service. The customer would certainly win.

Time will tell.

[sportsvoice]

I don't know ... I can't see how telcos can even be competitive with their current pricing structure. I'd think the telcos would be all over things like free Caller ID, free call waiting, free call forwarding, etc. as part of even the most basic residential package. I wonder if most people stick with Verizon (or whoever) just out of habit and not because it's the best price.

In defense of the wireline companies, they are bound by volumes and volumes of tariffs and regulations that don't apply to the other guys. Wireline service is almost 100% reliable too. Cellular and VOIP companies have a very cavalier attitude about service and availability, as if it isn't *their* fault when your phone doesn't work. In contrast, telcos have to provide a dial tone pretty much anywhere you want it -- as long as you're willing to pay to have the wires laid down and the monthly fees, etc.

Right now, I think the phone companies offering (very, very limited) television service is simply too little too late. Telcos do provide a lot of the infrastructure and backhaul for cell towers. But is it a situation where Verizon drops a T1 line to a new cell stick and gradually loses 500 wireline customers because of it? I'm just askin' ...

I have a soft spot in my heart for the phone company. Our wireline telephone system is still the best in the world. I'd like to see the telcos get fiercely competitive with the cellular companies and VOIP phone service. The customer would certainly win.

Time will tell.

Long ago I went 100% cell phone for my voice needs, because of the free Caller ID and free long distance. However, I still have the el-cheapo metered land line service at home (30 local calls and no long distance). At the time I needed that to get DSL. Now I could get dry loop DSL, but I keep that line to send faxes (which don't play nice over VoIP or cell) and to sit on hold with customer no-service lines so I don't waste my cell minutes.

There are a few companies in my area that are offering flat rate voice service on wireline. The prices are a little higher than VoIP but you get a VoIP-like package (LD, Caller ID, etc...). I didn't see the usefulness in my case, since I would only be able to use the service at home. However, such a thing would be nice for people who live somewhere where they can't get cell service at home.

[fearpeddler]

I still have a land line but its "911 only" .... I didnt see the point in payin verizon 100+ dollars a month for what i'm gettin from At&fee wireless for under 75..

[Hoosier Daddy]

Vonage offers 500 minutes a month (incoming and outgoing) with all the bells and whistles, including nationwide long distance, for $14.99 a month. For $9.99 a month extra, they'll give you a second line dedicated and optimized for FAX service. Vonage offers Caller ID, call forwarding, conference calls, call waiting, international call blocking, digital voice mail, and about 5 other premium features included in the base price at no extra charge.

Vonage offers two features I really like: The first is "follow me" phone service. When someone calls your Vonage number and you don't answer at home within a predetermined amount of time, it rings your cell phone next, then an office phone, or a neighbor's phone, etc. in step-by-step intervals. You can set the ring time interval and the order in which alternate phone numbers will run through the queue by logging into the Vonage website. This can be changed (or totally disabled) as often as you want from any computer at no charge. The second feature is Call Blast, where an entire list of phone numbers rings at once, and the Vonage call is automatically routed to the first phone that answers. Again, immediately changable and toggleable on/off from their website.

When you sign up, you can even pick your phone number from a list available on the Vonage website at no extra charge, or they'll transfer a number you already own into the Vonage system. They'll even add a toll-free (866 or 877 number) incoming line for $5 a month.

Please tell me why the telephone company isn't doing all this stuff and letting you change calling features yourself at no charge?

Drawbacks to Vonage or any other VOIP service: You gotta have high speed internet. Cable or DSL is fine. Not an issue for us since we had it anyway, and would have kept it regardless of whether we used a telco or VOIP service. VOIP doesn't work well with satellite internet. Second problem is that they don't have local numbers in every city and town. This may, or may not, be an issue. Just take a look at who calls you and if they *need* a local number (rather than making a long distance call) to reach you. VOIP also doesn't work when the cable is out or when there is no electricity, but then again, your telco service doesn't work if someone knocks a pole down or if a tree limb falls in the wrong place. And cell sites can be out of service or overwhelmed and unusuable. I'm just sayin' ...