Growth Slowing For Comcast - Market saturation, telco competition have impact...
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Growth Slowing For Comcast
Market saturation, telco competition have impact...
(old news - 11:25AM Thursday Oct 25 2007)
tags: prices · business · cable · stats · Comcast
Comcast, surely happy to talk about something other than their traffic shaping practices, released their third quarter results this morning. The company said that third-quarter profits fell 54%, with the company earning $560 million, compared with $1.22 billion in the same quarter a year ago. Subscriber additions also slowed; the company added 450,000 broadband customers, down 16% from a year ago. Comcast lost 65,000 basic cable customers during Q3. However, revenue increased 21% to $7.78 billion, up from $6.43 billion a year ago. The company continued its strong VoIP growth, adding 662,000 VoIP customers to bring their industry-leading total to 3.8 million. Comcast shares dropped 7.4% on the news. "We are seeing increasing competition and a softer economy and, as a result, a slightly slower growth rate," suggested Comcast CEO Brian Roberts during a conference call we listened in on this morning. FiOS is beginning to have a bigger impact, and there's fewer dial-up converts to pluck from the tree. Is it time for price cuts yet, Brian?
Related:- Comcast Charging Rental Fee For Owned Modems
- Wasn't Competition Supposed To Bring Lower TV Prices?
- Comcast: Human Contact Costs Extra
- Comcast: Metered Billing Is Not The Answer
- Comcast Offers Broadband Price For Life Promotion
- Comcast Installs DOCSIS 3.0 In Two New Markets
- Comcast Ramping Up Customer Retention Offers
- Comcast Unveils New International VoIP Plans
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ztmike @ 25th Oct 11:30AM:
Price cuts?
How about a damn upgrade in speed!? 384upload should not even be allowed unless its isdn or some small company offering it.
CC needs to get with the program and not just up speeds to where theres competition..if thats going to be the case, ill be stuck at 384upload for a long time coming.
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TK Junk Mail @ 25th Oct 11:30AM:
Comcast ups investments in infrastructure
Contrary to many detractors, Comcast is reinvesting money in infrastructure and improving their services.
»www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co···chnology
Meanwhile, Comcast's capital expenditures rose by 19 percent to $1.5 billion in the quarter as it upgraded Adelphia's systems, bought equipment and added employees to handle increased business.
Here is a link to Comcast's financial presentation from this morning:
»library.corporate-ir.net/library···ound.pdf
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MysticGogeta @ 25th Oct 11:33AM:
Re: Price cuts?
I don't know I would take a price cut over more speed.
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anon @ 25th Oct 12:33PM:
Re: Price cuts?
I would take a price cut over more speed anyday. $71/mo for 8/1 standalone internet? That should be illegal. If their internet was cheaper, I would have it now, but instead I went with DSL.
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Morac @ 25th Oct 11:44AM:
Re: Price cuts?
The only way to get a price cut is to sign up for a 2 year contract.
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 11:45AM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by MysticGogeta :
I don't know I would take a price cut over more speed.
Amen. I'd rather save the $$. 3/6/8 - for me it's all the same and I'd love for CC to offer a 3 tier for a decent cut.
Sadly, I doubt we'd see that.
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JSRoman @ 25th Oct 11:46AM:
54% in perspective and competition
»www.marketwatch.com/news/story/c···id=yhoof
"The year-earlier quarter included a gain of $694 million related to the Adelphia deal and a gain of $234 million related to the transfer of cable systems to Time Warner.
In the latest three months, Comcast recorded an expense of $55 million for the settlement of litigation associated with former Internet service provider AtHome, which went bankrupt several years ago.
Excluding these items, Comcast would have earned $560 million, or 18 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago profit of $548 million, or 17 cents a share. "
During the call they also said Qwest and AT&T were more of PITA competive wise than Verizon. AT&T making promo offers that Comcast would never consider such as free video for a year.
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ptrowski @ 25th Oct 11:51AM:
Maybe the profits are down....
Because the profit reports are being "delayed" instead of blocked. :)
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DJ_Kismuth @ 25th Oct 11:54AM:
Re: Price cuts?
wow 384k is all they offer for upload? How can such a big and seemingly successful company, offer such a lousy upload speed to their customers?
I had 384k upload back in 2001, and even then it seemed slow. I feel sorry for you. Glad I don't use Comcast.
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anon @ 25th Oct 11:54AM:
Market saturation
in comcast's case is sorta like a septic field - you never know which flush caused the back-flow but you know it's close because that smell ... can't you smell that smell ... the smell is all around you ...
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joker5656 @ 25th Oct 12:00PM:
Could it be Price hikes
yea you hike the prices twice in a year its bound to bite you in the ass. when will companys learn???
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flycuban @ 25th Oct 12:02PM:
Why??
Why would you want Comcast cable? DirecTV offers so much more...with there new HD channels Comcast can't compete...and the best part of Comcast - How do they get there most of their programming? VIA SATELLITE! So why would you want to pay for cable? Satellite you cut the middle man out.....never understood why people get cable!
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 12:03PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by Morac :
The only way to get a price cut is to sign up for a 2 year contract.
Yeah, some deal. Right now I have Dig Cable + DVR + Internet = $124/mo
Triple play:
Phone: $33 +$4 = $37
Internet: $33
Dig Cable: $33
DVR: $13
========================
Total: $116
Savings: $8
That price is for 1 year, after year 1 I wonder what you will pay for year 2.
What they need to do is a double play for those of us who could care less about phone. But you won't as they want to be the #1 phone company too.
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DaveNJ @ 25th Oct 12:05PM:
Cablecard fiasco
Part of this is the cable operators lackluster implementation of cablecard. If cable industry were smart it would have promoted a workable version, and locked people into the mindset of Hd from cable. Now they lost another revenue stream, and Fios is just going to profit off of it. Most people dont know what cablecard is , or if they are receiving real HD.
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Comcablrtl @ 25th Oct 12:07PM:
Re: Price cuts?
Comcast has upstream PowerBoost, which increases your upload to 1Mbps for a short time. Granted, the 384Kbps permanent speed is a bit low, the PowerBoost definitely makes a difference.
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simplykristi @ 25th Oct 12:08PM:
Lost another Customer
We are in the process of cancelling Comcast. We switched back to AT&T for phone and are now using DSL. The phone service was not that great with CDV at times. We went to satellite for TV. We got DISH Network. I didn't realize how much I was missing on TV until we got satellite installed. I will never go back to cable.
Kristi
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JSRoman @ 25th Oct 12:09PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by itguy05 :
What they need to do is a double play for those of us who could care less about phone. But you won't as they want to be the #1 phone company too.
Double play is coming. It was mentioned during the call and also a lower price/slower speed internet tier.
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morbo @ 25th Oct 12:16PM:
Re: Could it be Price hikes
they learn when you stop paying them, of course. if enough people do it...
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Rob @ 25th Oct 12:20PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by DJ_Kismuth :
wow 384k is all they offer for upload? How can such a big and seemingly successful company, offer such a lousy upload speed to their customers?
I had 384k upload back in 2001, and even then it seemed slow. I feel sorry for you. Glad I don't use Comcast.
They offer a higher tier of 8/768 for $52/mo.
What I think cable companies should do is let you pick your upload and download speeds from a list. For example, offer 768/3mb/6mb/8mb/10mb as a download and 256kbps/384kbps/512kbps/768kbps/1meg as upload. Set the price for each speed, and then allow a customer to pick the download and upload speeds
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TK Junk Mail @ 25th Oct 12:21PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by Comcablrtl :
Comcast has upstream PowerBoost, which increases your upload to 1Mbps for a short time. Granted, the 384Kbps permanent speed is a bit low, the PowerBoost definitely makes a difference.
Everyone can also get 768kbps upload and in some markets 1 mbps upload for $10 more per month. Plus the Powerboost you mentioned. With Powerboost I consistently get 1.5 mbps upload for about the 1st 10 MBytes of data being uploaded.
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braynes @ 25th Oct 12:26PM:
Re: Maybe the profits are down....
The Cap. expense were spent on Sandvine.
Bruce
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dmj @ 25th Oct 12:27PM:
Re: Why??
For the Internet of course, DirecTV sucks for Internet.
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BosstonesOwn @ 25th Oct 12:27PM:
Re: Why??
Well you don't cut out the middle man. They still up link via sat and fiber. And satellite actually has a little more latency but doesn't matter.
Now some people don't want to pay up front for a hd box or a hd dvr box. Which comcast provides for free. And also some of us have tried and have trees preventing us from hitting the directv birds needed for HD, I can actually only get at 2 from dishnetworks and 0 from directv.
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Rick @ 25th Oct 12:29PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by JSRoman :
It was mentioned during the call and also a lower price/slower speed internet tier.
That's good to hear. Up until now they've basically just handed the telco's over this entire segment of the market which has struck me as pretty foolish considering how huge the market is.
While they have had a 384k tier for about 25.00 a month, that's certainly been no bargain. Reportedly they have or are upgrading that to at least 768k however.
I guess their concern must be that existing 42.95/month customers will downgrade but personally..I doubt that will be much of an issue.
I think those people are on DSL already anyway and existing customers are all about the faster speeds for the most part.
And, if they do lose a few to that..so what?
They're opening up a big market for existing dsl customers to use comcasts lower speed/price tiers instead.
The net would seem to me to be a real positive for comcast overall.
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Richard B @ 25th Oct 12:35PM:
Blame Me
In Q3 I downgraded form Digital plus to basic analog cable. I would have dropped cable TV cable Broadband and go back to DSL if went for the discount. I am very price sensitive. Beside I not a big TV watcher it the last three moths I only watched 30 minutes.
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 12:47PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by Rick :
I guess their concern must be that existing 42.95/month customers will downgrade but personally..I doubt that will be much of an issue.
I think those people are on DSL already anyway and existing customers are all about the faster speeds for the most part.
Guess I must be in the minority - 3/4/5/6 is all about the same for me.
I'd rather have the dough than the speed (and I work in IT)
Comcast 6/384k - $42.95 w/ cable, $60 without
Verizon DSL 3/768k - $29.99
Fios- 5/2 - $30
I'd take a 3 tier for less and either have the $ or add to video services.
quote:
And, if they do lose a few to that..so what?
Would they rather have $30 from me or $0? Cause once the Internet goes from Comcast, DirecTV and Dish start looking very appealing. Actually Internet is the only reason I have video through Comcast.
They know this full well and it's why prices will not budge and they will keep the BS Slowsky tier.
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Ebolla @ 25th Oct 12:50PM:
Re: Price cuts?
you wouldnt be put into $99.00 bundle since active sub, you would likely get the 129.00 bundle which is
standard+cdv+chsi+pref w/hbo+starz if you add in your dvr you would be paying about 145/month, normal cost is about 180/month
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N3OGH @ 25th Oct 12:59PM:
Re: Could it be Price hikes
said by morbo :
they learn when you stop paying them, of course. if enough people do it...
Oh, it's happening. Their is no love lost for Comcast in my part of the world (Philly burbs). Most of the people I talk to when I'm out really don't like Comcast's strong arm monopolistic practices. Regular folks (folks not as into it as we are) are pitching a bitch about 2 rate hikes in a year.
Comcast is cutting off their nose despite their face. I'm probably gonna go with a dish later this year. I would now, but I can't get up on the roof until my gimp foot heals up, and I don't feel like waiting around all day for an install tech. I would rather do it myself.
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 01:01PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by Ebolla :
you wouldnt be put into $99.00 bundle since active sub, you would likely get the 129.00 bundle which is
standard+cdv+chsi+pref w/hbo+starz if you add in your dvr you would be paying about 145/month, normal cost is about 180/month
The rep did say that one, but I want to CUT my costs, not increase them. And it is really pointless to pay $33 for a phone that we won't use (we use our cells). If they had a similar deal minus the phone it would be perfect.
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MysticGogeta @ 25th Oct 01:31PM:
Re: Price cuts?
Recent test (I'm in Houston area)
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dr3yec @ 25th Oct 01:33PM:
Re: Blame Me
I got 3 months and I am kicking comcast to the curb. With the price increases every 6 months. They can keep there service. Cant wait to hand the lady my equipment and say please close my account. It will be one of the greatest days of my life.
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Neyland85 @ 25th Oct 01:34PM:
Re: Could it be Price hikes
You'll need two HD DVR's from Dish if you want to record two local HD shows at one time. Their Dual tuner HD DVR only has one off air antenna tuner... guess where you local HD content comes from....
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Boogeyman @ 25th Oct 01:42PM:
Re: Blame Me
Amen, A lot of the more tech savvy and just generally busy people are watching less and less cable/broadcast tv. If that new show you want to watch comes on when you are at work, out, whatever and you dont watch enough tv to pay the extra for a dvr, then what happens? You either dont watch it, or you get it from p2p. There are numerous shows I like to watch, but they all come on at weird times and I dont have a set schedule, so I have to wait for them to come out on p2p so I can watch. Since the ONLY reason we keep paying for cable tv is so when hockey season rolls around we have a chance to catch a few games, I dont see paying the extra $10-15 or whatever it is a month for a dvr box just to catch 5 different shows.
I was at a meeting the other day where a sales rep was discussing Neilsens tv statistics. The average household watches 8hrs a day, so yes, I do understand I am in the minority here, hell, we probably only have the tv on for 8 hrs a month, maybe. Its probably more like 4hrs a month. But I have talked to a lot of people I work with, and it seems like all the more tech savvy people watch less tv and spend more time online (We probably spend about 8hrs a day online on average, now that my wife and I are into WoW again, its more like 12hrs, lol).
We wouldnt even have cable tv if my wife wasnt a hockey fan too, sure we do occasionally flip it to the news in the morning as we get ready for work and are waiting for the coffee to brew, but the only reason we keep it is so we can watch the few games we care about.
I guess my point with this long winded and grammaticly error filled post is that I've noticed more and more people watching less and less tv in the recent years. Not like a mass migration, more like the slow uptake of the automobile when it was first invented. But I have a feeling, with dvr's, p2p, vod, less and less people are going to want to be chained to a certain time slot to watch what they want to watch. And as that happens, there will be the people who just say, "Well, if I cant get it when I want it, I will just go without".
Wow, my line of reasoning just kind of stayed to the "When will the broadcasters, riaa, mpaa, etc learn that people want stuff when they want it, how they want it, and dont feel the need the pay for and recieve the services if they cant" argument. Sorry, about that.
Guess thats what happens when you spend 30 min typing a post and get frequently distracted. So I am just gonna stop typing now before I start talking about something that doesnt even have to do with broadband/tv access.
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N3OGH @ 25th Oct 01:52PM:
Re: Could it be Price hikes
I said "a" dish.
I was actually eyeing DirecTV without the DVR. I haven't used my DVR in a while, and I can give it up.
I only have 2 TV's. One in the bedroom, and one in the living room. Only 1 is high def...
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Beli @ 25th Oct 02:11PM:
Re: Blame Me
Indeed, even the non-tech savvy are using the Internet more than the TV in my experience. I mainly use the TV for my favorite TV shows, a few of them on NBC and so forth, and the classics on DVD (MacGyver!) and some more recent ones (Monk, Psych). We also watch the news and I play video games.
I wonder when the TVoIP revolution will start taking off. The main thing hindering this is the fact that not enough people have the Internet connection to do so, such as us rural HughesNet users.
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TK Junk Mail @ 25th Oct 02:21PM:
Re: Price cuts?
With Upload & Download Powerboost
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MysticGogeta @ 25th Oct 02:38PM:
Re: Price cuts?
Comcast fails in my area.
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bogey780 @ 25th Oct 03:02PM:
Re: Price cuts?
So you're not going to advocate selling Comcast stock?
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fiberguy @ 25th Oct 03:57PM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by The_ANoN :
I would take a price cut over more speed anyday. $71/mo for 8/1 standalone internet? That should be illegal.
What?! Are you kidding?! Why in the world should that be "illegal"....?
I REALLY want to hear this one.....
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fiberguy @ 25th Oct 04:03PM:
Re: Price cuts?
PLEASE don't advocate complicating things. At $42 and $52 a month for the 6 & 8 tiers, why in the world make what is simple, complicated?
The VAST majority of customers are NOT here on BBR and could give a rat's ass less about all this choice.. Simple pricing is perfectly fine for about 95% of the customer base... Many people also believe that $42 a month is ok for pricing as well.
Almost everyday, there is someone crying out that people need to speak with their wallets.. and the fact that people are in fact buying the tiers at $42 and $52 a month means people ARE speaking with their wallets.. (yes, it does work both ways) ..including in areas where both Cable & DSL is available..
I don't dismiss your idea, but I do think it makes things far worse for the consumer than it needs to be... it's already hard enough to buy a cable television package, much less the time it will take to be able to figure out the pricing on a vast tier option internet service.
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fiberguy @ 25th Oct 04:11PM:
Re: Why??
Satellite is no different than cable in delivery - they just position themselves and their "plant" in a different skew. DirecTv still collects signals from all the same birds as cable.. they repackage it and re-uplink it to their own birds to which it then is re-collected by your own dish. In satellite, you are your own "head end" in a sort of way.. where as cable there is a master head end and it's not re-packaged, in many cases.
Further, satellite offsets ALL the costs of their "plant" upgrade to the end user (like a cell provider) and cable doesn't.
Satellite has saved themselves from becoming obsolete a couple times already, but they won't be able to keep up with the best of what's to come for much longer.
All those HD channels JUST came down the line, as you know. To think that cable won't, or can't, meet or beat that capacity is foolish. Let's not even say cable.. let's say terrestrial providers. Satellite has quote a few limitations and downfalls of it's own as does a wire-line provider.
In the end, in the long run, my money will ALWAYS go on a wired service INCLUDING at&t U-verse over a dish service. Dish appears to be "ahead of the game" sometimes, but they have one advantage that hard lines don't which is time to deployment as they can launch a satellite and get a small increase of service out - but at what $$$$ to the customer?
Satellite will always fill a niche, but their market will soon shrink as more customers wake up and figure out the gimmick. Many customers, now purchasing those pretty new TV's, in many markets will look at the cost to get HD from the birds, then look at the wire line option and in many cases, after shelling out $2000+ (circa) on a new TV are not going to be willing to shell out a few hundred more just to get the service, a monthly HD tier fee, and contracts up the butt.
The average consumer is not as jumpy to get the latest thing as those on BBR are.
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David @ 25th Oct 04:17PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
said by simplykristi :
We are in the process of cancelling Comcast. We switched back to AT&T for phone and are now using DSL. The phone service was not that great with CDV at times. We went to satellite for TV. We got DISH Network. I didn't realize how much I was missing on TV until we got satellite installed. I will never go back to cable.
Kristi
Lemme know if you have problems with the DSL please...
Thanks ahead of time.
David
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JTRockville @ 25th Oct 04:28PM:
Analysts Expected Better
The number of new digital-cable subscribers beat analyst expectations, but the new phone and new internet subscribers fell short.
Stock prices are at a 15-month low (down 25% this year).
Details here: »www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=···r6CBTQls
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 04:32PM:
Re: Why??
quote:
All those HD channels JUST came down the line, as you know. To think that cable won't, or can't, meet or beat that capacity is foolish.
How? Already Comcast is looking worse than Dishnetwork (which is bad) on most SD Channels. Comcast has already felt the pinch from broadband + cable.
quote:
Many customers, now purchasing those pretty new TV's, in many markets will look at the cost to get HD from the birds, then look at the wire line option and in many cases, after shelling out $2000+ (circa) on a new TV are not going to be willing to shell out a few hundred more just to get the service, a monthly HD tier fee, and contracts up the butt.
But you have the same fees from Comcast:
HD Fee $
DVR Fee $
Contracts if you do any sort of triple play.
And the DVR is $199 from DirecTV, free from Dish.
So tell me, where is this huge disadvantage?
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jmallory @ 25th Oct 04:33PM:
Basic Video vs. DIgital Video Sub Counts
When Comcast shows the number of the add / loss of subscribers for basic and digital video...do customers that go from one to the other counted in those numbers or are they measured some other way? I took a quick look and aside from basic video (which is probably considered the least desirable customer) all other businesses appear to be growing which isn't bad considering the higher costs of energy eating into people's income. I don't see anything really negative in the report, the reduction in profit seems to be directly linked to the increase in capital spending.
-- Jim
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simplykristi @ 25th Oct 05:04PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
I am having trouble setting up the mailserver since I use email addresses off my domain. I think that I might be having an issue with set up.
Otherwise, the DSL runs great!
Thanks,
Kristi
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David @ 25th Oct 05:09PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
Your private server or no? I guess the question is are you needing port 25 unblocked?
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simplykristi @ 25th Oct 05:17PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
I guess I do. My webhost told me I couldn't get it unblocked from AT&T.
Kristi
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David @ 25th Oct 05:22PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
you going out port 25?
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fiberguy @ 25th Oct 05:49PM:
Re: Why??
I'm not even going to touch this post. Seriously, did you even read mine?
Do you even know what your system offers? Contracts if you do any triple play?
When you re-read my post & come back with some honest answers, I will be glad to engage you in a conversation... So far, you've hit everything incorrectly.
I'll give you a few hints:
1) Where is the Comcast "HD Tier" fee?
2) Where does Comcast make you pay anything to swap equipment in upgrade fees?
3) Where is this "mandatory" contract on the triple play?
4) Are you only looking in your own back yard, or are you looking at Comcast, the company?
You've missed the mark on so many levels.
--
"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..."
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scooterr50 @ 25th Oct 05:59PM:
re: Growth Slowing For Comcast
they can add me to the + side if they ever get the voip service up and running n my corner of the state. i would jump on it and have been waiting for some time now.
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itguy05 @ 25th Oct 06:09PM:
Re: Why??
quote:
1) Where is the Comcast "HD Tier" fee?
From:
»www.comcast.com/Shop/Buyflow/Def···shx#A102
Probably won't work as it's tailed to each zip code.
HDTV:
Equip charge for Digital Preferred Premium Package customers premium movie network(s) included. $6.50
HDTV for customers with Digital Classic or above premium movie network(s) included. $9.95
Want a DVR + HDTV? From the Terms and Conditions:
If you receive an HD/DVR converter from Comcast, the monthly charge will be $16.95 ($11.95 for the DVR service plus $5.00 for the HD service).
quote:
2) Where does Comcast make you pay anything to swap equipment in upgrade fees?
»Any service fees to downgrade to basic-only package?
Sounds like some more fees...
quote:
3) Where is this "mandatory" contract on the triple play?
You got me there - I thought it was a 2 year contract.
Keep 'em coming.
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simplykristi @ 25th Oct 06:12PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
Yes
Kristi
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David @ 25th Oct 06:34PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
Send me an IM with the dsl number and the id you are authenticating with.
Thanks
David
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fiberguy @ 25th Oct 06:37PM:
Re: Why??
You still don't get it.. and still didn't read my post.
I never said there wasn't a "cost" involved in the equipment.
You are quoting equipment charges by comcast. On top of equipment, does Comcast charge a fee for the HD Tier? No.. they don't. Does the bird? Yes... about $9.95.. So, the birds charge a monthly fee for the ability to have the same channels we already pay for in the basic charges just to have a clear picture, or as I like to call it, current technology. If your system is charging a fee for the actual programming in addition to the equipment fee, then your system is the exception and FAR FAR FAR from the corporate rule. Comcast, at large, does NOT charge for HDTV programming. It is tiered with typical packages - you simply rent the box.
Further, you make it sound worse than it is on the equipment. EVERY box has a base charge.. the HD portion of the tuner is $6.95 (circa) the other $5 is the box itself, just like the bird.
Compare the birds to cable. If you are a current cable customer and want a DVR, there is no $200 upgrade charge to have the luxury to "lease" a box that you won't own from the bird companies. Cable, you perform a standard change of service, or pick one up, and pay the monthly lease. The cost is cheaper. Again, this is where the birds offset their cost model to the customer unlike cable.
You can also get HDTV from cable with out a monthly box fee, should you choose, and buy your own box, get a cable card at no charge.
Again, you're still not getting the point to this post and you STILL didn't read my original post - please actually try this time.
You, like many, try to grab at any straw to make ANY point possible to sound like you're right - and since I'm the one heading this topic/thread, I can say you're wrong. We're talking about the advantages and disadvantages that both services have - and hands down, cable has the bird beat on this one as the bird passes on the cost of plant upgrades to the customer directly should they chose to take part of it. New customers, however, are excluded. Again, this is how they resemble the cellular companies where new customers get the new toys, and old customers don't mean crap to them.. why? Because they are in contracts and it doesn't matter.
I'll take a 5% price increase ANY DAY and be included in on any new technology as it comes.. I'd rather take small hits than anything large when ever I want to make a change.
Any "tax" to a customer in large sum is regressive. People can take smaller hits, as has been the way through much of our history, over anything large.. it's how the economy works.
Still failing to see the issue?
--
"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..."
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David @ 25th Oct 07:54PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
Cool, thanks for the conversation and glad your port 25 works. Keep in mind if there is any other ID's you authenticate with you may need to do those in the future but if this is the only one then that should be it.
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simplykristi @ 25th Oct 08:15PM:
Re: Lost another Customer
Thank you soo much! :) Your help is truly appreciated! :) If I have any problems, I will PM you. :)
Kristi
--
My Photo Gallery: »www.simplykristi.smugmug.com/
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jmallory @ 25th Oct 08:46PM:
Re: Growth Slowing For Comcast
said by scooterr50 :
they can add me to the + side if they ever get the voip service up and running n my corner of the state. i would jump on it and have been waiting for some time now.
They upgraded our system to 1Ghz and I just got CDV on Wednesday. So far, so good.
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anon @ 25th Oct 09:19PM:
Re: Price cuts?
Good gravy thats a ton of money!!!
I just pay $50 for Internet and limited cable. Bought myself a 42 LCD and hooked my PC up to it where I watch all the good stuff on sites like YouTube and it's chinese equivalent.
I use Skype to Skype for talking and my cell phone to make regular calls!
Expect more people in the future to follow this scheme ... making their profits drop more where they realize this and embrace billing by the byte! Sucks but it's gonna happen...
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pokesph @ 25th Oct 09:40PM:
Slow Growth
I blame the coming Bandwidth Apocalypse.
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en102 @ 25th Oct 11:52PM:
Re: Price cuts?
Ditto... and one of our NE's uses a 1.5/384kbps DSL :p
If I don't need it (or for the most part notice the difference), why pay it ?
Comcast and others typically have a package that they WANT/EXPECT most people to use.
Comcast 6.0 with Powerboost... 768 for those that don't want to pay. Anything else is for power users, and typically doesn't cost a whole lot more.
Verizon has fiber, and has done similar
AT&T has gone the other way... especially on Uverse.
basic 1.5/1 is cheap, 3/1 is $5/month more, but 6/1 is $15/more than 3/1. Capacity issues to the VRAD, anyone.
--
Canada = Hollywood North
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smcallah @ 26th Oct 12:14AM:
Re: Price cuts?
I would like to see someone get 384k upload out of ISDN.
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Rick @ 26th Oct 09:18AM:
Re: Price cuts?
said by itguy05 :
I'd rather have the dough than the speed (and I work in IT)
You must REALLY want (or need) the dough because what you're proposing makes little sense otherwise.
What you're proposing is to go from a 6Mb service (12Mb or more..and in my case 20Mb with powerboost) to a 3Mb (that most only see about 2.4 ~2.6 with)..to save 12.66 per month.
Which amounts to .42 cents per day.
Do you realize how EXPENSIVE that REALLY makes the DSL on a speed for speed basis?
2.5Mb DSL vs. 20Mb pb enabled comcast...for a 42cents per day difference.
Last night I had to download all the updates for a microsoft office suite I have. It was well over 120Mb...and maybe even 200Mb or more considering all the security updates that followed it. That would have taken a LOT more time on a slowsky DSL Connection versus my PB enabled one. Which had me seeing almost 3Mb speeds for a good portion of those files.
42cents per day. Let's take a look at that.
That money won't buy you HALF of a wendy dollar menu burger.
1/3rd a bottle of Pepsi.
Do you make 15.00 bucks an hour? Guess what? you'll earn 42 cents in less than TWO minutes per day.
All that to have the best connection available.
I'm all about budgeting and being conservative. But I'm also all about value for my money too.
And DSL simply is no value. It's in the real expensive food aisle as far as I'm concerned. The place you buy the small..expensive cans of any something versus the economy sizes.
But wait..there's even more.
Don't want a landline?
DSL just got REAL expensive my friend.
Phone line..
taxes..
TELCO make believe taxes...
and DSL...
all add up to costing you way more than you're paying for a real high speed..quality connection.
Don't get fooled by the "low" price claims of DSL.
Spend less than 2 mins per day working to treat yourself to the best you can get.
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itguy05 @ 26th Oct 10:55AM:
Re: Price cuts?
Would be nice except:
My line tests at about 4.8M on just about every speedtest. Rarely do I even hit 6M. Uploads are right on the money at 384k.
That $12/mo would let me put another premium on my cable bill, which would be better than speed that is unused 90% of the time.
I don't download all that much and have no issues "scheduling downloads" or simply doing something else while things are downloading.
Sorry, I'd rather have the $ to put other places.
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itguy05 @ 26th Oct 11:09AM:
Re: Why??
quote:
On top of equipment, does Comcast charge a fee for the HD Tier? No.. they don't. Does the bird? Yes... about $9.95.. So, the birds charge a monthly fee for the ability to have the same channels we already pay for in the basic charges just to have a clear picture, or as I like to call it, current technology.
Let's say this:
If I give back my DCT-3412 DVR and plug the cable into my TV, I get 0 HD channels. So, I need to have some sort of box from Comcast. A regular cable box is something and the additional capabilities for HDTV cost extra. Call it a box fee, HD teir fee, etc, it's the same thing - a fee. Obfuscating it by changing the name doesn't make the cost any less.
Go to www.comcast.com, sign up for service in zip 17011 to see hot things stack up.
quote:
Compare the birds to cable. If you are a current cable customer and want a DVR, there is no $200 upgrade charge to have the luxury to "lease" a box that you won't own from the bird companies. Cable, you perform a standard change of service, or pick one up, and pay the monthly lease. The cost is cheaper.
How do you figure?
DTV = $199 upfront, $6/mo for a HD DVR
Comcast = $0 upfront, $17.00 for a HD DVR.
After year 1, I've spent:
DTV = $271
Comcast = $204
After year 2:
DTV = $72 ($343 total)
Comcast = $204 ($408 total)
It gets worse if you do year 3, 4, 5....
It gets worse if I add in that DirecTV, for the same amount of channels on Comcast is ~ $10 cheaper per month.
I've done the math, have the spreadsheets and with DTV (HD, and an HD DVR @ $200) with basic Cable + Internet, at the end of 2 years I'd spend $5 more than with Comcast. If we get another rate increase from CC, it'd wash any savings.
Same reason I'll never lease a cable modem. Paid $50 for mine back in 2005 and would have paid $96 to rent from Comcast. Renting/leasing rarely makes financial sense.
Both technologies have their advantages and disadvantages. I've been with both sat companies, and now with CC. I just want a deal - could care less who it's with. Right now, DTV has the edge in HD and price over the long run.
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itguy05 @ 26th Oct 11:22AM:
Re: Slow Growth
said by pokesph :
I blame the coming Bandwidth Apocalypse.
Naah, you have to fall in line with the rest of the sheep - it's GLOBAL WARMING!
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Rick @ 26th Oct 11:45AM:
Re: Price cuts?
well, perhaps if you're interested in upgrading your cable TV..you could get in on a triple play deal?
Adding phone service might make a lot of sense from a financial perspective versus just going to dsl with the telco's phone service.
Rarely does having dsl + telco phone service + taxes + long distance + a la carte TV service add up to savings over a triple play deal.
Something to think about and at least inquire with them about.
I know here in my area comcast has a 129.00 month deal for digital tv/2 premiums/hsi and digital phone...and a 159/month deal for everything they've got including all 5 premiums and the sports tier.
As for your speeds, they do seem low.
Perhaps you should pop on over to the comcast forum and post the following information.
I and i'm sure others will be happy to take a look for you and see if we can see anything to help you improve on that.
»Comcast High Speed Internet »How To Get Help!
--
The Coyote captured the RR! Roadrunner Rick is now Comcastic!
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fiberguy @ 26th Oct 07:31PM:
Re: Why??
The box fee and HD fee are TWO DIFFERENT THINGS! PERIOD! Don't try to play that game here.
There are PLENTY of providers, DISH and Direct come to mind, that charge equipment fees AND programming fees above and beyond. In those cases, you can rent the box all day long and STILL get no HD until you pay the programming charge. Like that one?
You can get HD from comcast with out paying a dime towards any HD specific tier above and beyond the normal programming price of cable.
Simply purchase a TV with a slot, get a free card, and you get what ever HD comes in your tier. End of story.
Let's say this: plug in your quam TV to cable, you get the locals in HD. Free. Any more questions?
Again - PLEASE - for god sakes.. read my (edit) ORIGINAL post! I am talking about the difference in how the birds pass along their costs vs. cable. What don't you get? are you just looking to argue over what a fee is? please, start another thread.
Stop playing the numbers game buddy.. you're SO far off course here you're a foul ball = 4 strikes.
You want to play games over owning and leasing? Let's talk about the contract you sign with Dish. You're REQUIRED to keep the service for how many years? So, on your own argument, you MUST keep the box. So.. let's run some numbers.
Year one of Direct HD: $390.00 Pretty, huh?
Break it down.
Upgrade: $199.99
12 month eq commit: $72.00 (break out early and pay the fines)
12 months programming commit: $119.88
no programming - the HD /DVR is a paper weight for HD subs.
Total cost: $390.00
With cable, since you like this avenue/game: I can walk away from it any time. If there is a problem with the box, it's their problem, not mine. Oh wait.. the bird.. shall we add in a service plan?
Dish: Technology changes - 1) we don't care, pay us more upfront. 2) too bad, you got your one time kiss:
Cable: Yes sir.. we have the following time slots available.. what would you like?
I left this example for last because it's ON TOPIC to my original post. The satellites are able to upgrade faster because they don't spend the money upfront like cable does and then have the build. They pass THAT on to the customer. Cable may do it in their own way in the form of a 5% annual increase on video but so what.. I'm not getting hit big time in my wallet at one time and it works for me.
With satellite, they pass the cost of build to the customer.
$5 a month, to me, is a burger.. I could care less. I'm not so dang tight with my money every month that I care about $5. Come to me when we're talking something of significance. As far as I'm concerned, $5 is comparable. But, on the same issue, I can guarantee you that $5 a month is much easier for the masses to swallow than a $200 hit to simply move to a new offered technology.
Want to try again?
I don't buy your methods... and they are off topic anyway.
--
"Complaining is the least path of resistance for the self-serving, the lazy, and I’m told it’s a woman’s prerogative..."
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YukonHawk @ 28th Oct 09:06AM:
Re: Price cuts?
I agree. Forget Powerboost it's nothing but a gimmick. I'd say give us a speed upgrade. Maybe not to match the up & down speeds of PB, but throw us a bone with a bump in speed that's comparable to what people are getting on other networks like Cablevision. When I was on that network before I moved I was getting 10 down and 950 up and that was 4 years ago!!
Like other people have mentioned here I would take a price cut and still keep the present speed if possible.
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