Comcast aims to combat cord cutting by limiting major internet speed increases to cable...

[Capaill]

FTA cannot get all the channels in the world for free. Because some are behind a paywall (HBO, Sky, etc). And that's important for some of the major shows and sports events, especially the ones where TV channels have exclusive rights.
The only way to get all channels for free is to break the law.

 

[Yorgan]

People still use Comcast? In 2018?

You provide your own internet?

 

[damitdon]

I work for Comcast. Speed increases were for existing customers already under contract in bundle plans. Higher speeds for internet only customers are available to those that want to subscribe or upgrade existing internet only accounts. No one is being singled out or intentionally left behind. Customers signed contracts for bundles that included specific internet speeds and we just upped those for no particular reason other than we wanted to do something no one else would ever do for existing customers. We no longer reserve the best deals for new customers. ALL customers can take advantage of any of our current promotional plans. Including higher speed internet for internet only customers.

 

[tipstir]

I've been with Comcast since 1986, today I am still with them for internet only.. I am not going to pay 2K a year for DVR or STB I'll never use. OTA I had cut the cord in 2012 and returned all equipment. Ordered a Modem and I don't have to pay fees for that device. I'v e watched my service drop and it climb back. I use to hear others talk about getting the service for $40 bucks. I got on that bang wagon too. There I heard about the some programs for 10.99 but I would loose my grandfather account and had to start a new one. So they fixed so I can get it for 10.99, then grown to $14.99 and then hit me with $49.99 when the speed from 10 down and 2 up gone to 30 up and 5 or 10 up. I called and called and spoke and spoke to get the price lower. Now it's $19.99 internet only.. OTA I run it just like Comcast did I had to rewired the house to make all 6 HDTV work on the same signal strength. HDTV in the Patio, HDTV in Kitchen, HDTV all 3 Bed Rooms and HDTV Living Room. OTA in 1080i Dolby Digital Surround sound connected to either 5.1 (2x) and 7.1 (2x) Anyway OTA with less money to spend on Comcast. I can take vacation or buy something I want to buy. They offer services for everyone. Doesn't mean you have to buy into anything they offer. CATV was the bomb in the 80's but do we really need all those services. Digital phone, Digital TV, Digital Security System an etc... I got internet and I can stream what I want to see..Got Youtube etc.. what else do I need..

PS Dish TV or Direct TV not interested SATV because of the prices and poor service. Comcast has been going out on me for more than 6 times. Do you really think I going to go and wait until 8 pm when the service drop off at 12 noon. I got back a credit of $5.88 knocked my internet monthly down too..
OTA Free over 80 channels.. SciFi Channel called Comet TV, 3 or for 24/7 Movie Channels. Grit TV ll Westerns.. Quest like Nova or Discovery Channel. Lots of Cooking Channels. I live in South Florida I have dual RCA HDTV connected to that connects them into one ANT gives me 80 miles range one pointed north west and the other south east. I get both markets I don't live in the city but again with the amp and 8-way distributor amp I am using make up for weak signal..I rewired all the Comcast Wires into my own Comcast box model it said blank but I got two boxes side. One is mind the other one is there.
By 2013 OTA project is completed. GF watching her shows we can have guest watch OTA and have youtube from chromecast for the rest of the gang out in the patio or they can watch a movie at the same time. No drop in service. Weather doesn't effect at all.

 

[bolski]

Thank goodness for my Plex server I have at home. I just stream via my LAN (don't use the internet). RIP my Blu-Ray collection and I'm happy. Anything else, I can get from the library and pop it into my Blu-Ray player and watch to my heart's content with NO internet needed.

 

[Duke9192]

I work for Comcast. Speed increases were for existing customers already under contract in bundle plans. Higher speeds for internet only customers are available to those that want to subscribe or upgrade existing internet only accounts. No one is being singled out or intentionally left behind. Customers signed contracts for bundles that included specific internet speeds and we just upped those for no particular reason other than we wanted to do something no one else would ever do for existing customers. We no longer reserve the best deals for new customers. ALL customers can take advantage of any of our current promotional plans. Including higher speed internet for internet only customers.

It would be nice if the current news media outlets would properly cover more than a single side of a story. Hit pieces such as this seem to be all you see no matter the news outlet. It reminds me of gossip in high school. Journists/news media/editors etc, need a dose of maturity FFS

 

[tipstir]

Thank goodness for my Plex server I have at home. I just stream via my LAN (don't use the internet). RIP my Blu-Ray collection and I'm happy. Anything else, I can get from the library and pop it into my Blu-Ray player and watch to my heart's content with NO internet needed.

Yeah, I have NAS with web server doesn't need the internet I use my Extranet internal web server to stream movies and music to any HDTV on the network or HDMI computer o HDTV wireless or wired.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

Vote with your wallet people! I know it is difficult but I myself got so pissed off at the two ISP's in my area so I have no internet access at home for two months now. I got tired of going back and forth and spending hours on the phone with their stupid customer retention associates that I just said screw it. I've tried calling both of them every two weeks to see if I could get a reasonable deal and they still won't provide one so I will continue on without service. Luckily I have a pretty huge collection of movies and TV shows saved on a personal server so I can keep myself relatively entertained. I have a feeling one of the ISP's will come around eventually...

One of the ISP's even refused to cancel my service no matter how many times I told them to that I just closed the checking account so they can't take money any more. I'm waiting for them to most likely file a no payment in 180 days report with the credit bureaus at which point I'll provide all the evidence that I asked them to cancel and that I had no balance owed nor was I locked into any active contract yet at the time I requested cancellation yet they continued to charge me. I'm confident I'll win this and the ISP is going to screw themselves.

 

[NahNood]

Crapcast loves their tricks, and there will always be customers to stay along for the ride. But I and surely many others will still go even if they offered their gigabyte speed instead of double or near-double with TV service. Now, if they offered symmetrical upload speed instead........ nah, j/k.

 

[Knot Schure]

Why not? It's even harder to believe people still use AOL.

I've had two people give me AOL email addresses in the past year. Each time, I checked my pulse to verify that 1) I was still alive and not hallucinating, and 2) had not accidentally traveled back in time.

I use an AOL address.

I am a frequent traveler, and each day deal with many people whose first language is not English...

Thus saying xxxx@aol.com is much more easily understood by them - especially over the phone.

I do not pay them for anything, and nor have I used their dial up since 2002. But I hear there are people doing just that... wow.

 

[Knot Schure]

It sounds like the desperate cries, of a bully that is slowly losing his influence.

Its so clear to me - allow people to choose E X A C T L Y what they want to watch / pay for, and you would have LOADS of new customers.

I do not wish to subsidize religious channels, effing incessant football, cooking programs, and other crappy children's channels for which I have no use.

Pre-set cable packages are a socialists dream come true..

 

[Gebro]

Dear Comcast (& Spectrum),

I am not a hostage, and don't appreciate being treated like one.

Signed,

The Customer

 

[Vinficator6]

Not so sure with this assessment. I recenty switched from AT&T over priced cable to Xfinity GB internet.

Xfinity is making a switch to a digital platform...no box needed. I have their streaming app and get everything minus the channels that still honor cable only contracts. I was even able to reduce as another streaming account. I feel that this will be the medium of the future. What was once a great service (cable) has become more like a bank in their practices.

 

[RaXoR]

15Mbps is 5 times better service than we currently have.

I fell heir to FIOS, after Verizon took down the 50+ year old copper telephone lines, and so discontinued DSL. I have the lowest tier, 25/25, and trust me, I haven't seen any server even come close to being throttled by my connection.

Of course it's just me here, so one device at a time. For those with a dozen children and their friends using your connection...YMMV.

Except it's not about you. You may be complacent with your connection since all you do is come on here to yap about how others are "entitled" because you use one device to do the yapping. This is about Comcast pulling off an anti-consumer move by charging the same for lower speeds while everyone else who has their TV service gets the "benefit" of faster speeds. Not everyone is fine with settling for the bare minimum. Many people truly enjoy playing video games (everything has moved from physical to digital, pop in a game into your PS4/Xbox One and you'll be downloading the game, on PC Steam dominates) or watching UHD movies on their home theater setup. 25/25 would've been fine back in 2008 and 2009 but things have transitioned from physical media to digital media only.

 

[RaXoR]

...we just upped those for no particular reason other than we wanted to do something no one else would ever do for existing customers.

Let me stop you right there. Charter/Time Warner (Spectrum) did it first.

 

[TheBigT42]

This is why internet / cable providers need to truly compete against each other.
Yes DSL and Cable internet providers compete...but DSL sucks

Cable VS Cable is what we need.

 

[TheBigT42]

Comcast won't last long in multi-internet markets with that approach .....

Good thing that's only 23% of the US and even less in the markets comcast actually serves. I think they can take the 5% subscriber loss.

This is just one development in a long string since the removal of Net Neutrallity. I noticed they also removed the exact speed of my internet package from my bill and online as well. Now you've got to call them up to get that. Just the lack of transparency NN was against.

As long as they don't jack your price for the same internet service if you don't have their TV service by all mean it's an added bonus. If they start screwing those that have internet only with higher price and lower bandwidth cap that is another story. Though nothing prevent to jack up the internet only price down the road.

Right?! This is literally a story about Comcast saying 'Hey customers, if you are subscribers to our TV service we'll give you a free super-fast internet boost!'

And somehow this is reported as 'limiting internet speed?' I have AT&T - I hope they roll out an 'internet limiting' policy soon too!

This is only funny if you haven't been on the same 15 Mbps plan for the past 10 years. Everyone should get the upgrade, regardless. The precedent this sets for putting further pressure on cord cutters is obvious. They can keep their subscribers at the same speed until they pay more money, which is ridiculous given that the cost of Internet in the US is already pathetic compared to other 1st world countries.

Let me stop you right there. Net Neutrality would have done absolutely nothing to stop this, just like it did nothing to stop home ISP data caps. Net Neutrality is a toothless measure that prevents companies from throttling certain websites (as the supporters have preached to me ad nauseum), but if you're not offering a certain speed tier without a bundle (thus all websites are subjected to that "lower" speed), that's doesn't exactly fit the bill does it?

I agree...it is so sad people have no idea

 

[Vinficator6]

People still use Comcast? In 2018?

Comcast is also known as Xfinity so yes.

 

[tipstir]

My HDTV is CATV ready yet I can't use that feature because Comcast forces you to rent the STB or STB/DVR. Way too much to do. Bundles cost you at the end. Got to be smart to deal with CS or Customer Care is those at the last straw with Comcast. I have to call them every year to get the price adjusted to a low price. I had DSL from SBC Yahoo DSL I use to work for them as well when the DSL were being installed up in New England. I managed 6 contractors and 6 SBC Yahoo DSL employee techs. Still that DSL is no more. AT&T Broadband Service then later AT&T DSL No way to compare DSL with Coax lines. Coax will always win. I need the internet but I don't need expensive internet. There are loop holes in Comcast I will use them to get my prices down. No excuse for me to do that but I will not be forces into some costly deal. Right now Auto-pay is active just to get a discount from $24.99 to $19.99. They still have $10.99 but you have to drop your current service wait 90 days then get a new service. I am not going through all that nonsense I don't have the time for it.

 

[ComradeKoshkov]

As long as they don't jack your price for the same internet service if you don't have their TV service by all mean it's an added bonus. If they start screwing those that have internet only with higher price and lower bandwidth cap that is another story. Though nothing prevent to jack up the internet only price down the road.

Right?! This is literally a story about Comcast saying 'Hey customers, if you are subscribers to our TV service we'll give you a free super-fast internet boost!'

And somehow this is reported as 'limiting internet speed?' I have AT&T - I hope they roll out an 'internet limiting' policy soon too!

I think you may be missing the point. Great, a company is giving customers a free speed boost.. but what about the people who aren't paying for Television? This sets a precedent that internet speeds can be packaged and sold in ways that force you to buy their TV package, and that could be bad.

Bad in what way? All new subscribers could be required to purchase TV bundles to get anything faster than say.. 20Mbps. This type of bundling was what NN kept in check. Comcast is dipping their toes in the water before the test of the ISPs cannon ball in.

 

[tipstir]

I think you may be missing the point. Great, a company is giving customers a free speed boost.. but what about the people who aren't paying for Television? This sets a precedent that internet speeds can be packaged and sold in ways that force you to buy their TV package, and that could be bad.

Bad in what way? All new subscribers could be required to purchase TV bundles to get anything faster than say.. 20Mbps. This type of bundling was what NN kept in check. Comcast is dipping their toes in the water before the test of the ISPs cannon ball in.

Excuse me but why would you need more than 10 mbps. Even 20 mbps not available in my area. So they had increased me to 30 mbps from $14.99 I was paying that cost $49.99. That's crazy.. I had to get CC to drop the price down. They told me call back later in the month. I did and guess what I found out I still had to pay $44.99. For what. They tried to charge my card I had blocked it by sending all my money to another savings. I hate to play these games. Got the CC to change the price and so I can get it for $19.99 but she actually drop it even lower quicker than they said it would take two months for it to finalize. That's silly! You be the same day! You can stream HDTV over 10 mbps you pay max graphics over that line. 30 mbps just makes it go faster. Again you pay for what you get you have to call them each year to make sure you don't get over charge and they can do it without contacting you. They try to call me up and try to get me to buy bundle deals I will not answer those SPAM calls from Comcast. AT&T is iin my area with FiOS I use to work for Frontier Communications they sold FiOS also what I had learned as a Technical Support Rep I would never recommend FiOS. AT&T FiOS is not the same as the costly FiOS from Verizon which Frontier had taken over some of their markets. I had tried to be fair to customers who had called in for help.

I was able to fix a lot of the FiOS issues with the OPT Box which to me has a lot of woes. One customer was the original designer/engineer of the OPT. He shared a lot with me. That box that is attached to house or in the attic or in the garage or in some ones bedroom. if that fails because the backup battery goes dead your out of the ball park. Fuse can blow also if you don't know now you know.. OPT Box needs to be upgraded to go more than 30 mbps down and 30 mbps up. AT&T FiOS isnt' the same they cut cost to make the FiOS cheaper but you get what you pay for. When customers called in I about their old STB I gave them the best one sent it for free drop-ship to them. FiOS Routers and etc.. Not really a job for me I am honest for them. I would have said drop FiOS and go for CATV instead. But again that's me LOL..

 

[ComradeKoshkov]

I stopped reading at 'You don't really need more than 10Mbps'

You obviously don't understand the internet from a perspective that's not single device video streaming. Try downloading a 98GB file on your 10Mbps connection.

 

[davislane1]

Excuse me but why would you need more than 10 mbps.

This needs to go in the TS Hall of Fame for best troll, because it was typed with a straight face.

 

[ComradeKoshkov]

This needs to go in the TS Hall of Fame for best troll, because it was typed with a straight face.

Right? I went to donwload a 50GB+ file on my shitty rural 40Mbps connection (Really runs at like 18) and it took well over 9 hours.

We're gonna need to reclassify broadband speeds before too long, cause this 7 - 12Mbps **** isn't cutting it.

 

[RaXoR]

Excuse me but why would you need more than 10 mbps. Even 20 mbps not available in my area. So they had increased me to 30 mbps from $14.99 I was paying that cost $49.99. That's crazy.. I had to get CC to drop the price down. They told me call back later in the month. I did and guess what I found out I still had to pay $44.99. For what. They tried to charge my card I had blocked it by sending all my money to another savings. I hate to play these games. Got the CC to change the price and so I can get it for $19.99 but she actually drop it even lower quicker than they said it would take two months for it to finalize. That's silly! You be the same day! You can stream HDTV over 10 mbps you pay max graphics over that line. 30 mbps just makes it go faster. Again you pay for what you get you have to call them each year to make sure you don't get over charge and they can do it without contacting you. They try to call me up and try to get me to buy bundle deals I will not answer those SPAM calls from Comcast. AT&T is iin my area with FiOS I use to work for Frontier Communications they sold FiOS also what I had learned as a Technical Support Rep I would never recommend FiOS. AT&T FiOS is not the same as the costly FiOS from Verizon which Frontier had taken over some of their markets. I had tried to be fair to customers who had called in for help.

I was able to fix a lot of the FiOS issues with the OPT Box which to me has a lot of woes. One customer was the original designer/engineer of the OPT. He shared a lot with me. That box that is attached to house or in the attic or in the garage or in some ones bedroom. if that fails because the backup battery goes dead your out of the ball park. Fuse can blow also if you don't know now you know.. OPT Box needs to be upgraded to go more than 30 mbps down and 30 mbps up. AT&T FiOS isnt' the same they cut cost to make the FiOS cheaper but you get what you pay for. When customers called in I about their old STB I gave them the best one sent it for free drop-ship to them. FiOS Routers and etc.. Not really a job for me I am honest for them. I would have said drop FiOS and go for CATV instead. But again that's me LOL..

10Mbps is only good for streaming to one device at a time. We are in the era of 4k streaming and have advanced well beyond 60Mbps. The US is behind other countries when it comes to cost per speed for internet. Take South Korea for example, ISPs are rolling out gigabit connections for only $20 a month. That's $5 more than what you pay and it's 100 times faster than what you had. You paid $14.99 for one tenth of my speed. At your price, you'd be paying $150 for 100Mbps while I only pay $65. I stream to multiple devices as well as download digital games onto my PC and consoles. I stream in 4k on my main TV and 1080p on my other TV. Just those 2 TVs alone would eat up the 10Mbps bandwith and much more. I struggled to stream 4k and 1080p simultaneously when I had a 60Mbps connection. You sir, need to keep up with the times and realize that you are complacent and you're still getting ripped off by "FiOS."