The unintended consequences of switching to streaming
 

Companies with two different revenue streams, (cable video and internet) with revenue and profitability growth goals, are being forced to change their pricing structure to increased internet due to increase in streaming use and the reduction of cable use. Yes, capitalistic innovation is great, roku was created to compete with cable through internet,
but roku and similar aggregators don't care about the cost of the internet access, not their product offering. So with growing internet demand from all device types, and the increase bandwidth/speed requirements, requiring upgrading equipment in the distribution network from the internet access point to the house, prices to recover the cost have to go up in free enterprise.

No different than health care providers with government pricing and commercial/private pricing, where changes in one can effect the pricing of the other, to maintain the provider profitability or cashflow. . .

finance/marketing/analyst guy

here's my 2 cents .having been in the field for 41 years placing what ever the product was at the time unless t moble is placing the fiber them selves ,digging up all the yards and placing new inner duct ,pulling in new fiber,new nodies. there getting it wholesale from , century link,comcast or who ever is all ready in your area and using there system.don't be hoodwinked by there bs....

Technically, that's not what is happening. T-Mobile is NOT selling wired/fiber/cable service for their home internet offering. They are selling internet via cellular service, and are delivering it on brand new infrastructure that they are building themselves.

This is a significant change in internet service delivery. Until now, high speed delivery of internet service over cellular connections was often constrained by the bandwidth capacity of the early cellular networks. The introduction of 5G technology vastly increases both speed and bandwidth capacity of cellular networks. T-Mobile is betting they can switch from cable systems to over-the-air (wireless/radio/cellular) systems and continue to grow their business with new offerings.

And, fortunately, there is much more competition among the "phone" companies than between the cable companies (I won't go into a long rant about how governments have created protected monopolies for cable systems.) The increased competition means that the cellular phone companies are seeing the light of what their customers want and are starting to come around with things like "contract free" and more competitive pricing. (The T-Mobile Home Internet offering has both of those features.) I'll be delighted when I no longer have to do the yearly beg-for-a-discount" ritual from my cable/internet company.

I'm trying to figure out what you are alluding to. T-Mobile is not fiber, to begin with.

And I am a real-world user of the T-Mobile home 4G internet alongside the CenturyLink product in the Villages of Belvedere right here in TV.

And my comparison is - there is no comparison. T-Mobile home just works better. Streaming is faster and more reliable than CenturyLink.

Of course, if it gets market saturation, as it may, the experience may change.

And the T-Mobile device uses an entirely different technology than a 5G hotspot.

End of story.

we have t-mobile for phone and frankly it's too weak and spotty within TV so we are hesitant to stay with them for Internet service. so I hear a lot of opinions back and forth on home internet - Comcast, Centurylink, T-mobile....because its time for us to decide. sigh sigh sigh.

They didn't raise the price. You simply allowed your year (or 2-year) agreement to expire, and now they're charging you the normal price. You were paying a discount.

Give them a call, be willing to sit on hold for awhile and get frustrated pushing buttons on your phone to get a live person (1-800-xfinity).

Tell them you know the plan is $50/month for new customers, and YOU are giving THEM two options:

They can cancel your service, at which point you're now a new customer and will sign up again with the $50 price.

or they can just renew your recently-expired agreement.

The extra you're paying is probably your modem rental. I own my modem, so I don't pay that extra $9/month.

I was paying $49 a month for WiFi only with xfinity. Price jumped to $66. When I called I got the same response that my promotion was over. I replied that I would look for another provider and was out on hold. When agent came back on she said how about $35 a month? I asked if my speed would be the same and she said yes. So $49 to $66 to $35. Go figure.

A combo device should not be an issue. I do agree, in most cases the wireless system they provide is not the best - it's just adequate. Simply get a good router (the Orbi mesh system is phenomenal), and turn off wireless on the provided combo unit. Only use that system as the modem.

If you leave both systems on, they can conflict with one another causing a lower signal for both systems. Most new routers have a scan feature to look for other wireless bands in the area and then select the least used one (this includes looking at what the neighbors are using). There are also numerous free phone apps to see what channels are in use for both 2.4 and 5Ghz bands. Find a free channel, and set the router to that.

We went in person to the Leesburg office and complained about the internet service going from $59.99 to $75.95. After a few minutes of "studying" our account they came up with a "discount" that brought the bill to $60.00 even. So we're paying one cent more per month than last year.

Just an FYI... they don't consider you a "new" customer until you have been disconnected for a specific period of time. It's either 90 days, or 6 months - I can't recall. It's to prevent exactly the scenario described above. Most folks don't want to disconnect for any extended period of time.

My 2 year period recently expired. I called them just prior to it expiring. My bill was going to go from $130/month to $175/month. I had 200Mbps internet and the 220 channel package. The best they could offer was $155/month, even when I threatened to cancel. Their cost to drop to just internet 200Mbps was $75/month (which doesn't include the modem or taxes).

I cancelled and got CenturyLink Fiber (now called Quantum Fiber) 1Gbps (yes, that is 1,000Mbps!) for $65/month. No taxes, guaranteed for life price as long as I stay with them. It includes the modem. For those that say 100Mbps is enough, it is, if you are only streaming on one device. The issue comes up when streaming HD or 4K content on multiple devices. The issue becomes one of bandwidth, not top speed.

After getting Quantum installed, I called to cancel, and of course they said they now had a better offer for me. Too late, I'm gone and done playing their games.

If you are a T-Mobile cell customer, you can get YouTube TV for $55/month for as long as you are with T-Mobile. That's a $10/month discount! You can also get Philo for only $10/month. Philo offers several channels we watch that are not on YouTube TV - The GameShow network, Hallmark channels, and several DIY channels.

What neighborhood are you in? Coming from an area that has Verizon Fios, I think anything that isn't in the area of gigabit speeds is archaic.