Comcast tells the FCC that it doesn't want to reveal its hidden broadband fees upfront

[waclark]

the majority of those costs are 100% controlled by Comcast. this is a known fact. it's also why they can increase it whenever they want and it's not included in the advertised price but hidden away.

Sources? I know for a fact that there have been cost increases in sports content. I own a bar and we pay a lot more than home users and sports channels are usually the most expensive. Comcast has no control over what the NFL or MLB charge for content.

"Since 2014, cumulative inflation is about 28.5%." - thanks for proving my point. the price increases makes no sense. even with the services becoming more expensive and inflation.... things don't add up. these "fees" went up by a factor of not a percentage.

And Comcast receives money from the government to do precisely what many of the fees are for (like improving your internet speed).

As I pointed out, my costs have not gone up. Overall, for the years I've had Comcast, my speeds have increased but my costs have not.

TL;DR:
- they have a monopoly
- they can control the price with hidden fees
- they receive money from both you and the government for improving the "infrastructure" and they also charge exorbitant amounts of money for people who are "outside" of the service area
- they lie about the technical details of their services and statistics so they can keep getting money from the government

What exactly are you defending here?

Cable companies have a monopoly on purpose. The government set them up that way. However, I would say that today, this is less true. We have at least 3 options where I live. Comcast, Century Link DSL and Fiber.

On the overall pricing of services, you may find this interesting.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for internet services and electronic information providers are 16.94% lower in 2023 versus 1997 (a $8.47 difference in value).

Between 1997 and 2023: Internet services experienced an average inflation rate of -0.71% per year. In other words, internet services costing $50 in the year 1997 would cost $41.53 in 2023 for an equivalent purchase. Compared to the overall inflation rate of 2.46% during this same period, inflation for internet services was significantly lower.

 

[Puiu]

Sources? I know for a fact that there have been cost increases in sports content. I own a bar and we pay a lot more than home users and sports channels are usually the most expensive. Comcast has no control over what the NFL or MLB charge for content.

As I pointed out, my costs have not gone up. Overall, for the years I've had Comcast, my speeds have increased but my costs have not.

Cable companies have a monopoly on purpose. The government set them up that way. However, I would say that today, this is less true. We have at least 3 options where I live. Comcast, Century Link DSL and Fiber.

On the overall pricing of services, you may find this interesting.

The "overall" prices.... that's pure gold from you
Dude, that's exactly the proof of a monopoly. Do you even know how cheap the internet is in other places compared to the 90s?

Hell, I have multiple options of 1gbps for less than 10$....

 

[waclark]

The "overall" prices.... that's pure gold from you
Dude, that's exactly the proof of a monopoly. Do you even know how cheap the internet is in other places compared to the 90s?

Hell, I have multiple options of 1gbps for less than 10$....

Well, you can make jokes but Internet service prices have fallen quite a bit since 1997 to 2023, at least in the US. Prices have dropped by a little over 16% in that time frame.

As for being a monopoly, that was done intentionally when Internet services were first rolled out in the US. I've never advocated for that to continue, and we are seeing this change, albeit slowly in the US. I have at least 3 options for Internet Services where I live.

Comparing cost of Internet in other places, you're not wrong about that but if you look at our average speeds and the cost per MB, we're not the worst. Countries like the UK, Ireland, Australia, Greece, Belgium, Mexico, Jamaica, El Salvador, Honduras, Ecuador, Pakistan, Turkey, and many more countries pay higher per MB prices than the US. Speed-wise, we're like the 12th higest (on average) out of 117 countries.

The point which I still stand by, is that with Comcast my cost have not gone up. My speeds have gone up and the price I pay has not gone up commensurate with the speed increases. Others may have different experiences, but this has been mine.

 

[Neatfeatguy]

Per Comcast "https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/exp-unlimited-data" They have an ulimited data option, yes there is a fee for that, but it's there.

I work from home, my wife, works from home, we stream TV as we subscribe to YouTube TV. We also have Disney, Hulu, Netflix, Prime etc. I have multiple internet connected smart devices. I game, for the most part online games. We stream music and so on. I'm not saying you can't get to 1.2TB of data in a month, but we aren't anywhere close to that. Even when my daughter and grandson lived with us, we didn't come close to that. Even if we doubled our usage, we wouldn't hit the cap. My point is that not everyone needs 1.2T of data and if you do, then perhaps you should pay for that. Just because you run over your limits doesn't mean the vast majority of people do. As for insulting me, well, maybe you should do some research and learn that the average data usage in the US is about 1/2 TB and pre-pandemic was closer to 1/3 TB. So, maybe what you're complaining about isn't really an issue for most people so perhaps you should stop preaching to the rest of us that 1.2TB isn't enough when the data says otherwise (https://www.allconnect.com/blog/report-internet-use-over-half-terabyte#:~:text=Key findings: 1 The average household consumes 586.7,in 2022, more than double the previous year.)

So raising prices is a "shady" tactic? Have you ever run any sort of business, successfully? Cost go up, you should know that given the crazy inflation we've seen over the past 2 years. I can't speak to your personal experiences, but mine, as I stated, are that my speeds went up but my bill hasn't, outside of promos. As I said, I don't use broadcast TV from Comcast and that appears to be where some cost increases are coming from.

They sure do have unlimited data options. Options that they won't offer unless I'm willing to double the price of what I'm paying. Why would I pay nearly double for faster speeds when they're not needed and for an unlimited data cap? That's just fiscally stupid.

Streaming music takes very little data. Playing games online takes very little data unless you subscribe to something like what Google Stadia offered - a service like that takes a lot of data, but since you don't come close to your data cap I'd say you just play online games such as MOBA/shooters/WoW or some such.

Having a lot of streaming services means nothing. I have access to a lot; Hulu, Netflix, Discovery+, Disney+ and the list goes on, but it doesn't mean anything other than I just have a lot of streaming services I have access to.

I didn't sling any insults, just called it as I saw it - another person on their soapbox trying to talk for everyone instead of listening and understanding. You feel like chiming in to tell others that what works for you is good so the other people must be the problem.

The data caps are just as I called them - BS. They're unnecessary and only help the ISP continue predatory practices for pricing.

Also, I didn't say raising prices was a shady tactic, sometimes it is inevitable. I did, however, say how they went about raising prices was. I've worked a lot of years in customer service and I know for a fact that most people are willing to swallow what you have to tell them as long as it's truthful. Sure, you'll still have those that complain and cry to no end, but surprisingly most customers were thankful and tolerable if you were truthful. So many managers were always trying to save face for the company and lying to the customers only pissed them off, tell the customers the truth and they're generally understanding.