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Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

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Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#61

Post by Shinkei »

oz wrote: post #53
Shinkei wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you trolling? In an industry that is not regulated as a utility due to monopoly issues, profit margins are irrelevant. But in an industry that activity stiffles local competition with monopoly powers, this is all the info I need: http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=CMCSA+Key+Statistics The serious answer to your question is that the price a consumer pays should reflect the value of the service they are receiving and…

> should be proportional to the cost of providing this product/service. I'm sorry, but I can't agree with that as a general principle. In this specific instance, with Comcast et al who benefit from monopolies, sure. But as a general principle, the 'value' of a product or service is whatever people are willing to pay for it. If I buy widgets in Asia for $1 each, and Americans are willing to buy them for $1,000,000 eac…

Well nothing in my statement says 'as a general principle.' In fact, I specifically said that in a genuinely free market, profit margin is irrelevant (it could be 2% or 100%). I agree, but they aren't working in a free market.

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#63

Post by drakaal »

jotm wrote: post #43
drakaal wrote: post #33

I worked at TCI prior to the certification of Docsis 1.0. Back then if you wanted to go from 512k to 1M we would "roll a truck" because we needed to check that your signal was good enough that you would not only get service, but that we wouldn't go broke every time it rained and the signal would degrade. Basically you needed to have 20% better signal than was needed for the service so that you wouldn't fall off-line…

I thought that can be done remotely? On one of my old ISPs I could change every setting on the modem on the company's website. It was quite scary, actually, how little privacy I had in this regard. They could easily check the signal strength to the modem that way...

You could do a signal check remotely. You couldn't certify the line. How would you pull a new coax, or check that the end user didn't have a splitter between the modem and the tap?

If you call tech support they lose a lot of money, and people at the bleeding edge tend to be the ones who call the most and take the longest to trouble shoot.

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#65

Post by zobzu »

officemonkey wrote: post #25
ck2 wrote: post #3

On a side note, what do you do at 105mbps that you cannot do at 50mbps? Unless maybe you have a multi user household. I pay $50 for 5mbps. It's highway robbery.

I have 6 mbps for $51/mo with AT&T. I quoted them 50 mbps for the same price with a local cable company. I wanted higher speeds. They couldn't get me close to the other deal, so I told them they had to compete on price. They offered $35 with a year contract. I told them I was going to get service with the cable company and call back to cancel and they dropped my price to %50 off for six months with no strings attache…

ive comcast here and there is no alternate cable provider. so yeah.

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#66

Post by Shinkei »

larrys wrote: post #60
oz wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> should be proportional to the cost of providing this product/service. I'm sorry, but I can't agree with that as a general principle. In this specific instance, with Comcast et al who benefit from monopolies, sure. But as a general principle, the 'value' of a product or service is whatever people are willing to pay for it. If I buy widgets in Asia for $1 each, and Americans are willing to buy them for $1,000,000 eac…

Threads like this always bring out people on HN and elsewhere that simply don't think like business people. You can choose "value" as your strategy and sometimes that can work in your favor. But many times the public is easily duped by your competition and what they have advertised as "value" and it's not that simple.

Laughing at 'don't think like business people.' If you believe that the primary goal of business is supposed to be 'make profit at any cost,' then yes, I don't think like those people and you should take some time to re-evaluate the purpose of business. If you believe that the primary goal of business is supposd to be, 'make a product or provide a service that is valuable,' then I think our humane values are in-line with our work.

Cases in point: Ponzi schemes, monopolies and cartels, price-fixing schemes, 'pump and dump' securities fraud, insider trading... need I go on? All of these things are illegal in the US--the supposed mecca of free market capitalism. Do you think these should be legal? Or you are simply arguing that everything that is legal is ethical? If you believe that, then I think you put too much faith in our legislature.

Edited to remove an inflammatory statement.

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#68

Post by reeses »

nathancahill wrote: post #51
kyleblarson wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good point. Makes me think of people who go on mileage runs to accrue airline miles for status. They tend to compare value in cents per mile, and if the run yields a low enough cost per mile, it's worth their time to take a flight just to turn around and come back. It would be interesting to see a similar calculation taking into consideration time, likelihood of getting on the HN front page (or being the top post), a…

Where do I go to cash in my internet points?

That is so two bubbles ago.

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#69

Post by nkurz »

300bps wrote: post #57
ck2 wrote: post #3

On a side note, what do you do at 105mbps that you cannot do at 50mbps? Unless maybe you have a multi user household. I pay $50 for 5mbps. It's highway robbery.

Go back and watch a VHS tape recording of an over-the-air broadcast TV show. You will be amazed at how colossally crappy the quality of it is because you're now used to various levels of high-def TV. The quality we get used to is only going to go up from here. Beyond that, look at Netflix's recommendations today: https://support.netflix.com/en/node/306 To get 1080p streaming, you need 7 Mbps. To get 3D you need 12 Mb…

Go back and watch a VHS tape recording of an over-the-air broadcast TV show. You will be amazed at how colossally crappy the quality of it is because you're now used to various levels of high-def TV. The quality we get used to is only going to go up from here.

I agree with your conclusion, but not necessarily your reasoning. By contrast, when I watch an actual DVD, it makes me wonder why we put up with the awful compression artifacts of most streaming video. Instead, I might argue that we need higher bandwidth just to get back to where we were, and then will need even more to get to the point where transmission speed is not the limiting factor.

and unlimited landline phone service

Again, the wonders of modern compression technology. It's amazing that "landline phone" is still considered a step up from VOIP, and yet it is!

Re: Busting Comcast's $250 installation fee for 105 Mbps

#70

Post by toomuchtodo »

larrys wrote: post #58
grecy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's for a few reasons. One is, as you mention, because it's nothing more than a button click to downgrade. Less than a 1 minute call with a CSR. How they can justify $50 for that is anyone's guess. The second is they're saying things like "it's to cover the cost of having CSRs, printing bills, etc." But actually, the $110/mo charge covers that, and always has. Third is because the company is making plenty of profit,…

"How they can justify $50 for that" They don't need to justify. The only reason they would even think about this is if the detriment didn't outweigh the benefit. If perhaps x% of people think that it's a ripoff and 90% don't or don't even know or think everything is a ripoff anyway then why not get the extra revenue? My guess is that the amount of people that even have any understanding of what is involved is quite s…

You are the reason I look forward to municipal fiber. Hello utility regulation.
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