Comcast rates going up again!!

[784caroline]

If you get Comcast you should read the Pricing changes coming your way January 1, 2015. What really bugs me is the Digital Adapter fees (which we originaly got for free about 2-3 years ago) are rising from $1.99 per adapter to $2.99 per adapter per month. Another crazy fee is the Broadcast TV fee now at $1.50 to $3.25 per month. Another issue is when you call Comcast to raise an issue about somehting , they NOW change you a one time $2.99 billing change fee.

Talk about nickel and diming you!!

[JourneyOfLife]

Better get used to it... Look at this!

The Motley Fool:

How Comcast Plans to Boost Your Internet Bill With New Fees

Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA ) has begun testing data caps in certain markets and plans to make what it prefers to call "usage-based" billing standard policy across the country within the next five years.

Previously, in nearly all cases, Internet data was an unlimited flat-rate, all-you-can-eat buffet. Under its new plan, which Comcast has already rolled out in a number of test cities, the company will sell users a flat amount of data and then charge them overages. This will take a system where customers had cost certainty and replace it with the model that has served the cell-phone industry so well -- one where subscribers pay more if they go over a set limit.


How Comcast Plans to Boost Your Internet Bill With New Fees (CMCSA) (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/06/how-comcast-plans-to-boost-your-internet-bill-with.aspx)

[tuccillo]

That is why I don't have cable/sat TV service. I have an over-the-air antenna for HighDef broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox (and others) from Orlando for no cost. I also use Netflix and Hulu+ for $8/month.

If you get Comcast you should read the Pricing changes coming your way January 1, 2015. What really bugs me is the Digital Adapter fees (which we originaly got for free about 2-3 years ago) are rising from $1.99 per adapter to $2.99 per adapter per month. Another crazy fee is the Broadcast TV fee now at $1.50 to $3.25 per month. Another issue is when you call Comcast to raise an issue about somehting , they NOW change you a one time $2.99 billing change fee.

Talk about nickel and diming you!!

[billethkid]

what would work but would be impossible to make happen....all Comcast customers demand going to the next package down from what they currently have (unless you already only have basic).

In substantial numbers that would have a significant impact on their revenues.

[TrudyM]

Are the internet fees going up also. The higher level internet access here in WA has gone up. I assume because people are using streaming like Ruku - google crome - and the new amazon fire stick and dumping cable. Problem is hubby would go into withdrawl without the golf channel.


And yes I know I can't spell.

[Villages PL]

Isn't most of this junk-food for the mind and very addictive? :)......Just say NO!

[rubicon]

Comcast is about to lose a boat full of customers

[rubicon]

That is why I don't have cable/sat TV service. I have an over-the-air antenna for HighDef broadcasts from ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox (and others) from Orlando for no cost. I also use Netflix and Hulu+ for $8/month.

Where did you get the antenna? what did it cost? here is it placed? What do you use for telephone service and internet?

[tuccillo]

Tom at TheVillagesAV.com installed the antenna in our attic. I believe the model is a DB4e from AntennasDirect.com. I don't like to quote other peoples prices so I would recommend you call Tom - it was reasonable and he does a great job installing it. It has a amplifier because the signal is split 4-ways. If you are handy you can do the install yourself. I had Tom do it because his price was very reasonable and he had done a bunch of installs in The Villages and could guarantee that I would pick up stations from Orlando - I pull in about 50 stations.

I use CenturyLink for Internet access but do not have phone service through them. I use an Ooma Voice-over-IP for phone service (as well as cell phones).

Tom has recently posted that Comcast has a pretty good deal for internet access plus basic TV for 1-year, I believe. I do not know what the price is after 1 year. I "cut the cord" with TV service about 3 years ago and have not looked back.

Where did you get the antenna? what did it cost? here is it placed? What do you use for telephone service and internet?

[Hancle704]

Comcast gets away with it because many folks tolerate it. They have reached a point where they enjoy an almost monopoly status in some markets and could care less what their customers think. Oh and there are some who say they enjoy the high speed that only Comcast can offer, is it really that important? Not to me.

[PennBF]

Where are the Florida elected reps who are to protect the Community against abuses? This is just another way of using the air waves as a facility to over charge and cheat customers. Only the Gov't reps can stop this and they are invisable. :yuck:

[tuccillo]

I have had 100 Mbits/sec (nominal download) internet in a previous home outside of The Villages in the past and I now have 10 Mbits/sec in The Villages. I work from home (I do "computer stuff") and stream video via Roku boxes. It is really hard to see the difference between 100 Mbits/sec and 10 Mbits/sec. The 100 Mbits/sec was part of a "bundled plan" through the local phone company with an IP TV service (which I dropped after a year). I agree that the vast majority of people don't need the higher speed internet that Comcast offers. Along those lines, I wonder how many people are overpaying for cellular data plans where they use a small percentage of the "megabytes per month" that they are paying for. It is always worthwhile to analyze your needs before choosing a service.

Comcast gets away with it because many folks tolerate it. They have reached a point where they enjoy an almost monopoly status in some markets and could care less what their customers think. Oh and there are some who say they enjoy the high speed that only Comcast can offer, is it really that important? Not to me.

[sunnyatlast]

Comcast gets away with it because many folks tolerate it. They have reached a point where they enjoy an almost monopoly status in some markets and could care less what their customers think. Oh and there are some who say they enjoy the high speed that only Comcast can offer, is it really that important? Not to me.

Wait till they form an even bigger monopoly with Time Warner, with the blessing of their pals in Washington:

Time Warner Cable Likes Chances on Comcast Merger Approval in Early 2015 - TheStreet (http://www.thestreet.com/story/12977942/1/time-warner-cable-likes-chances-on-comcast-merger-approval-in-early-2015.html)

Be sure to read the last two paragraphs.

[Deseylou]

We dropped Comcast and went back to Direct TV
We are so much happier
Saving money also

[PaPaLarry]

We dropped Comcast and went back to Direct TV
We are so much happier
Saving money also
Like what's the difference in prices or costs?

[Jim 9922]

Where are the Florida elected reps who are to protect the Community against abuses? This is just another way of using the air waves as a facility to over charge and cheat customers. Only the Gov't reps can stop this and they are invisable. :yuck:
In many communities the local governments, with all the States' blessings, issued exclusive licenses to the various cable operators, so they are into the "pork" too. And, there a few lines on your bills for various government-mandated "fees" and taxes. So you won't hear much from the government bumblecrats who put the whole system into operation and still collect their share of the juice.

[Steve & Deanna]

With no cable competition such as Brighthouse, fees ad prices will escalate. I remember in our area when AT & T had telephone monopoly....but that said, we were paying $10.00/mo. Times have REALLY changed as well as rates

[zcaveman]

I see that the Voice/Data modem is going to $10 a month. I guess it is time to start looking for a replacement.

Z

[KeepingItReal]

Something Else to Watch For with Comcast

FierceCable <editors@fiercecable.com>

Comcast News Just for Information

Daniel Frankel - FierceCable (http://www.fiercecable.com/author/dfrankel)

1. Comcast sued for turning residential routers into hotspots
By Daniel Frankel

Two Northern California residents have launched a class action suit in a San Francisco federal court against Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA), claiming the cable company's shared Wi-Fi routers use too much electrical power, violate their privacy and slow their network.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on behalf of Pittsburg, Calif., resident Toyer Grear and his daughter Joycelyn Harris. They claim Comcast is "exploiting them for profit" by using their leased gateway to support the MSO's rollout of its Wi-Fi network.

The suit claims that the secondary signal these gateways broadcast increase their electrical power usage by as much as 40 percent, and that Comcast is pushing "tens of millions of dollars per month of the electricity bills needed to run their nationwide public Wi-Fi network onto customers."

The suit also claims the secondary signal puts Comcast's customers under greater security risk, allowing "strangers to connect to the Internet through the same wireless router used by Comcast customers."

Comcast has yet to publicly respond to the lawsuit.

Comcast is seeking to build a carrier-grade Wi-Fi network that can compete with cellular networks, and it has the ambitious goal of deploying 8 million Wi-Fi hotspots across the U.S. by the end of 2014.

Many of those hotspots utilize newer gateways leased by customers, which push out a secondary signal that's publicly available.

Comcast has begun notifying its customers in cases when their router is being used as a hotspot. And the company has provisions to turn the secondary signal off if a customer wants to opt out.

However, as a message-board poster noted on DSL Reports last week, the sharing is a default setting in Comcast's wireless gateways. So, every time the MSO pushes out a firmware update and resets the device's settings, it gets pushed back into hotspot sharing mode.

And for their part, the plaintiffs in the suit accuse Comcast of being vague about the contractual terms of Wi-Fi sharing.

[tuccillo]

I don't believe there are even 57,000 homes in The Villages (isn't the latest advertised build-out 56,000 homes) let alone all of them having Century Link fiber to the house. I live in a newer area and do have Century Link fiber. I have had a few issues but they were resolved without any drama and I am happy with it.

There are nearly 57,000 homes in the villages with direct fiber optic connections through centurylink. Brighthouse is just another cable co, like all the others. Fiber is the Mercedes of the telecommunications world.

It's not going to get any better...

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Comcast gets away with it because many folks tolerate it. They have reached a point where they enjoy an almost monopoly status in some markets and could care less what their customers think. Oh and there are some who say they enjoy the high speed that only Comcast can offer, is it really that important? Not to me.

The problem is not that folks tolerate it, it's that they're the only game in town. In order for economics and the law of supply and demand to function properly, competition must be at the consumer level.

Comcast and all of the other providers only compete for towns, counties or areas. Those first line customers only care about what tax revenues a provider will bring.

What we have with cable companies is a bunch of little monopolies. We really need to break them up and allow fair competition at the consumer level. If enough customers changed their service to a competitor Comcast prices would come down. But, if you want high speed digital cable and internet, in many places there are no competitors.

I am in Lady Lake. I cannot get Verizon or Brighthouse so Comcast knows that I cannot go anywhere.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

I don't believe there are even 57,000 homes in The Villages (isn't the latest advertised build-out 56,000 homes) let alone all of them having Century Link fiber to the house. I live in a newer area and do have Century Link fiber. I have had a few issues but they were resolved without any drama and I am happy with it.

Certainly no homes in the historic district have it and I doubt that many north of 466 have it either.

[PennBF]

Monopolies can only exist with the sanction and approval of the Government. As long as our representatives ignore the abuse to its citizens get use to the abusive fees for this service. The question is why do these rep's ignore the
problem of citizents being overcharges and terrible service, etc. As the saying goes," What is their payback"? and there has to be a payback for their lack of action:mad:.

[JourneyOfLife]

We dropped Comcast and went back to Direct TV
We are so much happier
Saving money also

Sorry to break the news to you... AT&T is Buying Direct TV!

AT&T to buy DirecTV for $48.5 billion as cellular growth eases | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/18/us-directv-att-idUSBREA4B0W220140518)

The PAY TV (Cable, Satelite), Phone (fixed and cellular), Internet (fixed and cellular) are merging into a small oligopoly!

If the Comcast/TW and AT&T/Direct TV mergers happen. It will take about 5 years for the follow-on Mergers to Complete

There will be 3, maybe 4 mega companies in an oligopoly.

Next up will look something like this:

- Verizon will probably buy Dish... the story will probably be... to enable them to compete with AT&T
- Comcast will probably try to buy either Tmobile or Sprint to round out their bundle with cellular.. The story will probably be, to compete with Verizon and AT&T
- Then the remaining cellular company will probably have little choice but merge with Charter Communications and the two of them will likely attempt to buy out the remaining larger cable TV companies.... so they can compete in the oligopoly!

One big problem besides the evaporation of competition and choice.... is that the fixed line business in many areas of the country do not have any competition! There is only 1 provider for fixed Phone and Internet!

[tuccillo]

Even where there is competition, it appears that the prices are always pretty close. For example, I have 3 choices for internet access (Comcast, Brighthouse, and Century Link) and once you are beyond the first year or so of "special introductory pricing", the prices don't appear to be all that different. The same applies for TV where my choices are Comcast, Brighthouse, Century Link, DirectTV, and Dish. Has anyone done a detailed look at pricing once you are beyond the first year or so? Customer service is a whole other issue.

The problem is not that folks tolerate it, it's that they're the only game in town. In order for economics and the law of supply and demand to function properly, competition must be at the consumer level.

Comcast and all of the other providers only compete for towns, counties or areas. Those first line customers only care about what tax revenues a provider will bring.

What we have with cable companies is a bunch of little monopolies. We really need to break them up and allow fair competition at the consumer level. If enough customers changed their service to a competitor Comcast prices would come down. But, if you want high speed digital cable and internet, in many places there are no competitors.

I am in Lady Lake. I cannot get Verizon or Brighthouse so Comcast knows that I cannot go anywhere.

[JourneyOfLife]

All of those companies have an average price point in mind for a specific service and for bundles! Even in the promotions, the cost over a period of time will not deviate to much from company to company in a geographic area.

While they may break ranks in terms of pricing from time to time, to try to gain business from the other company, for the most part they will tend to follow the leader.

You can bet they study customer trends regularly regarding how long someone might stick with the company or switch service companies. Since there are only a few competitors, it is fairly easy to understand/anticipate their competitors actions/reactions in terms of pricing.

Here is a primer on oligopolies and price setting.

Oligopoly Diagram | Economics Help (http://www.economicshelp.org/microessays/markets/oligopoly-diagram/)

[Paper1]

For the most part I believe in a free market but with communications, internet, television, and medical care there needs to be more comsumer protection. All 4 of these areas lobby Washington very heavily and are having a feeding frenzy with profits. For the percentage of economy they control they do not produce an equal percentage of jobs.

[mtdjed]

what would work but would be impossible to make happen....all Comcast customers demand going to the next package down from what they currently have (unless you already only have basic).

In substantial numbers that would have a significant impact on their revenues.

Do you realize they do have a rate below basic? I have had that for a year at $45 per month including the ridiculous charge for 3 adapters. I'm not a huge TV person but still get plenty of channels. That will likely go up also.

[RVRoadie]

Tom at TheVillagesAV.com installed the antenna in our attic. I believe the model is a DB4e from AntennasDirect.com. I don't like to quote other peoples prices so I would recommend you call Tom - it was reasonable and he does a great job installing it. It has a amplifier because the signal is split 4-ways. If you are handy you can do the install yourself. I had Tom do it because his price was very reasonable and he had done a bunch of installs in The Villages and could guarantee that I would pick up stations from Orlando - I pull in about 50 stations.

I use CenturyLink for Internet access but do not have phone service through them. I use an Ooma Voice-over-IP for phone service (as well as cell phones).

Tom has recently posted that Comcast has a pretty good deal for internet access plus basic TV for 1-year, I believe. I do not know what the price is after 1 year. I "cut the cord" with TV service about 3 years ago and have not looked back.

I called Tom about an antenna. He gave me a price on an antenna and installation, but said he didn't really like crawling around in the attack to install. He asked me what I was doing for internet and I told him comcast. Then he said something that blew my mind. I don't want to draw undo attention to this, but if you have a similar setup, split your cable connection and run it into a digital TV, scan for digital channels using the cable selection and see what happens. Hint: you won't need an OTA antenna to get OTA broadcasts.

[looneycat]

If you get Comcast you should read the Pricing changes coming your way January 1, 2015. What really bugs me is the Digital Adapter fees (which we originaly got for free about 2-3 years ago) are rising from $1.99 per adapter to $2.99 per adapter per month. Another crazy fee is the Broadcast TV fee now at $1.50 to $3.25 per month. Another issue is when you call Comcast to raise an issue about somehting , they NOW change you a one time $2.99 billing change fee.

Talk about nickel and diming you!!

and you keep them because.........

[Living a Fantasy]

I have been so fed up with Comcast that I finally researched other alternatives and discovered Direct TV. Unbelievable differences in quality of service and customer support. I spoke to Nathan at Sam's Club. As a Sam's member I will be receiving a $300.00 Sam's Gift Card for signing up. Also, a $10.00 per month discount for me and also to my neighbor for referring me.

But that's not why I signed with them. I can utilize the highest HD quality and bypass all of the older and scrambled cable in the house by selecting their wireless remote mini-genie. I can view (for no additional costs) the same TV stations remotely on my iPad or Smarthphone as long as I have a WIFI connection.

I have been smiling for days since I got it installed.

[tuccillo]

Are you still using Comcast for internet access?

I have been so fed up with Comcast that I finally researched other alternatives and discovered Direct TV. Unbelievable differences in quality of service and customer support. I spoke to Nathan at Sam's Club. As a Sam's member I will be receiving a $300.00 Sam's Gift Card for signing up. Also, a $10.00 per month discount for me and also to my neighbor for referring me.

But that's not why I signed with them. I can utilize the highest HD quality and bypass all of the older and scrambled cable in the house by selecting their wireless remote mini-genie. I can view (for no additional costs) the same TV stations remotely on my iPad or Smarthphone as long as I have a WIFI connection.

I have been smiling for days since I got it installed.

[Chellybean]

Better get used to it... Look at this!



How Comcast Plans to Boost Your Internet Bill With New Fees (CMCSA) (http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/12/06/how-comcast-plans-to-boost-your-internet-bill-with.aspx)

I wouldn't get to worried Comcast days are numbered like the Cell companies.
They can only get pigish until the market crashes on them.
Put a antenna up and point it toward Orlando and you will get 30 to 40 channels.free to air and have no tv bills just Internet 3 mgb's is plenty unless you are streaming video.
Don't let them up sell you folks.
People are already getting their favorite channels over the internet and canceling the TV service. Apple TV is one way. Educate yourself folks a small omni direction antenna with proper placement on the roof will get you alot of channels and the FCC protects you and preempts any local laws or Bylaws around here, don't be bullied and have your neighbors or The V tell you, you can't, they are breaking the law and can't make you take it down, how do you think all these satellite dishes got on peoples roof's

[Chellybean]

p.s i will try splitting my coaxial coming in for my internet and see if anything is on it, i'll give you a update

[NYGUY]

Where are the Florida elected reps who are to protect the Community against abuses? This is just another way of using the air waves as a facility to over charge and cheat customers. Only the Gov't reps can stop this and they are invisable. :yuck:

They are invisible because corporate interests have them in their back pocket through lobbyists and huge campaign contributions. The politicians americans vote for care nothing about you or your community!!!

[Chellybean]

p.s i will try splitting my coaxial coming in for my internet and see if anything is on it, i'll give you a update

Nice Thanks for the Info Very happy now :)

[PaPaLarry]

Sounds like it's still to early to have a company that can compete against Comcast!