Internet costs

[Midpack]

I have lived in several complexes where one company is the exclusive provider and I have no choice. The price of connecting to internet has been increasing, especially if you do not bundle it with cable TV and phone services. In addition , the ISP has been squeezing out additional charges for installation and modem rental fee (in the case of Comcast) , and repeatedly tried to bring in traffic based pricing. The trend was unlike long distance telephone calls and air travel, where until recently, competition had really brought the cost down.

Sounds like it may not help you, but I lowered my hi-speed rate by dropping down one level when my last increase hit. There are 7 levels of hi-speed with XFinity, something I did not know before. I also bought my own modem saving me $7.00/mo. FWIW...from an earlier post.

Comcast threatened to raise my monthly rate from $48.95 to $62.95*. When they've done so in the past, I told them I would switch to DSL, and they backed off. This time they refused to back off, so I dropped down one level keeping my monthly cost at $49.95**. They offer 7 performance levels and corresponding prices, I had no idea:

• Economy
• Economy Plus
• Performance Starter**
• Performance*
• Blast!
• Extreme 50
• Extreme 105

The difference in speed isn't even noticeable for most activities including streaming. It's only apparent on large downloads, and then it's not that bad. I may drop down another level or two and save even more.

 

[imoldernu]

The basic customer contract with Comcast (excluding sub contracts) contains more than 15,000 words. The Declaration of Independence has 1137 words, and the Constitution 4543 words

Comcast Agreement for Residential Services

Would love to hear from anyone who has read the full contract.

Best advice?

Give me grace to accept with serenitythe things that cannot be changed,Courage to change the things which should be changed,and the Wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

 

[bondi688]

My word, yes. But I wasn't talking about safety regulation, there. I was talking about anti-trust scrutiny that prevented airlines from merging and acquiring other airlines as they wished.

Please restate what point you were making with that assertion.

My point for the government's part in the plane ticket cost was stated.

Your definition for what is good regulation is curious. So prevention of formation of monopoly and decreasing competition by merging and acquisition of airlines is bad? Deregulation leading to existence of low cost airlines was destabilizing the financial well being of the industry? And the breaking up of AT&T monopoly has nothing to do with the drop in long distance telephone charge?

Again, the suggestion that us little people are coming up with our own terms and inflicting them on internet providers is laughable. Comcast and AT&T were the third and fourth largest contributors of political campaign money in 2012. Comcast and AT&T spent 4 and 7 million dollars last year on lobbying.

 

[rbmrtn]

I've been debating dropping the land line. My 95 year old mom rarely calls me but when she does, she dials that number. Can't get her to use my cell number. Plus the quality of a cell call is not always good and I need it to be for her. So I need it for now.

That's a familiar story. I got magicjack and use it to make LD calls to my elderly parent. Mostly have her retrained to call the MJ number. I don't even have the land line connected to phone. I need to get rid of it but the security system is tied to it.

 

[bondi688]

Midpack
Thanks, but you ought to be ashamed of coming up with your own terms and conditions and inflicting them on the helpless Comcast.

 

[rbmrtn]

As far as dialing-up still working, most modern web pages are designed for high speed internet and won't even load over dialup. It was starting to have problems years ago with AOLs graphic interface. There actually was a text based browser I used on linux called lynx, still around. It just displays text and discards all the graphics, addons etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)

 

[bUU]

So prevention of formation of monopoly and decreasing competition by merging and acquisition of airlines is bad?

I didn't say that. If you're going to argue against things no one said, then are actually arguing with yourself.

If I don't use the word "bad" or "good" what I write, then you don't add them in when you're reading what I wrote.

What I said was bad was a consumer inflicting their own terms and conditions on a mass-market service provider.

Again, the suggestion that us little people are coming up with our own terms and inflicting them on internet providers is laughable.

Only because you apparently refuse to go back to the message you replied to and read the comment that I was responding to.

Comcast and AT&T were the third and fourth largest contributors of political campaign money in 2012.

What conspiracies do you care to allege against the #1 and #2 largest contributors?

 

[samclem]

As far as dialing-up still working, most modern web pages are designed for high speed internet and won't even load over dialup. It was starting to have problems years ago with AOLs graphic interface. There actually was a text based browser I used on linux called lynx, still around. It just displays text and discards all the graphics, addons etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynx_(web_browser)

Yep, you'd need to strip out the graphics and also choose an ISP offering a good compression capability. I could very well do without most of the gee-whiz graphics on most web sites, but I'm sure there would be frustrations with formatting, etc if they are stripped out of an existing page ("where did the menu go?" What tabs are they talking about?)

 

[Sue J]

We've had Roadrunner cable modem Internet service since 1997. I think it was $29.95 back then. It increases every few years and then was $39.95 for a while. Kept creeping up and it's currently $58. We use it a lot and like the service.

One alternative would be AT&T U-Verse but we like our DirecTV and don't want a home phone landline. We're still under a DirecTV 2 year contract since we got a free upgrade. When the contract is up I'll consider other offers because they change their packages and new customer offers all the time.

 

[bondi688]

I didn't say that. If you're going to argue against things no one said, then are actually arguing with yourself.
If I don't use the word "bad" or "good" what I write, then you don't add them in when you're reading what I wrote.
What conspiracies do you care to allege against the #1 and #2 largest contributors?

Then follow your own standard. Where did I put the word "conspiracy" or allege one?

 

[bUU]

Where did I include the term "little people"? If you aren't alleging a conspiracy, then the last two sentences in that posting you wrote were non-sequitur. I'm fine with that conclusion.

 

[REWahoo]

At the risk of interrupting the bickering and bonding going on here, I noticed tomorrow's Diane Rehm Show on NPR will be on "why Americans are paying more for Internet access but getting much less". Might be worth a listen.

Susan Crawford: "Captive Audience" | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR

 

[bUU]

I think I've heard Susan Crawford before. If she's who I think she is, she places much of the blame for how things are on lack of will of Americans to support substantial reregulation. Back in the day, we (I say "we" because that's where I was working at the time) would earn 13% profit on expenses for telecommunications service. (Think about that. If it looked like we wouldn't make our numbers for the quarter, we would simply need to spend more money to bolster our profits. That's the down-side of regulated utilities that aren't actually funded through taxes - their rates are driven by their costs, rather than by the value you receive.)

Deregulation was intended to spur on innovation and essentially make more data cheaper. It sure did. And we're paying a lot less per bit today than we did thirty years ago, I assure you. However, there is a price for deregulation and that's that the innovation may be so attractive that you feel compelled to consume more and more and more so that whatever cost savings deregulation brought about was subsumed into the effect of added demand.

The solution, of course, is going back to the old model, where government has a say about what providers offer in return for establishing pricing whereby providers receive a guaranteed 13% profit on expense. I doubt that there are enough Americans willing to support such a move, even though they would prefer to have lower rates, because the point will be made to them that such a move would stifle innovation (and it will, again, I assure you, from personal experience).

 

[bondi688]

At the risk of interrupting the bickering and bonding going on here, I noticed tomorrow's Diane Rehm Show on NPR will be on "why Americans are paying more for Internet access but getting much less". Might be worth a listen.

Susan Crawford: "Captive Audience" | The Diane Rehm Show from WAMU and NPR

I linked to a study earlier in this thread (post #6)that Meadbh also linked to (#13) . The study had this finding:

"When looking at the cost and speed of Internet access in major U.S. cities in comparison to other global cities, it is difficult to ignore the fact that the U.S. is so much more expensive than many of its international counterparts. As this report demonstrates, U.S. consumers often pay higher prices for slower service than many other parts of the world."

It will be interesting to listen to Diane Rehm's take on that.

 

[bondi688]

Susan P. Crawford - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Susan Crawford will appear on Diane Rehm show tomorrow to discuss her book: Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, published by Yale University Press in 2012. ( Kind of a funny title, come to think of it. Don't we all know there is no monopoly when it comes to Internet Service Providers?)

But she, a professor of Law at Yeshiva University, a visiting professor at Yale Law, the K School, Princeton and Harvard Law School, who served as the President's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, and is a member of Mayor Bloomberg's Council on Technology and Innovation, is probably not a credible source.

 

[samclem]

Let's see if there are any clues here:

Diane Rehm show tomorrow to discuss her book: Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, published by Yale University Press in 2012. ( Kind of a funny title, come to think of it. Don't we all know there is no monopoly when it comes to Internet Service Providers?)

But she, a professor of Law at Yeshiva University, a visiting professor at Yale Law, the K School, Princeton and Harvard Law School, who served as the President's Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, and is a member of Mayor Bloomberg's Council on Technology and Innovation, is probably not a credible source.

"Credible"?--I dunno. "Impartial, evenhanded"? Definitely not

 

[bUU]

I'm wondering if you're seeding the row to justify the objections you expect to make tomorrow, of if you'll hail her comments tomorrow and disclaim any implied predisposition. To make it clear... and since the only suggestion I recall anyone having made in this thread, so far, to resolve the issue of the high cost of high-speed Internet was theft of service, could you please outline precisely what you would propose?

 

[imoldernu]

Wireless modem without security. Legal? Illegal?

 

[bUU]

Wireless modem without security.

Foolish.

Those leaving wireless modems located on their premises unsecured invite abuse that they're held responsible for. In the end, you probably will be cleared of all charges and access to your home returned to you, but there is little solace in that after going through the process of being arrested under suspicion, based on transgressions others created capitalizing on your lax security. It is no fun having your home and property searched and possibly confiscated for a period of time.

For details, see: Innocent Man Accused Of Child Pornography After Neighbor Pirates His WiFi

 

[Dawg52]

Foolish.

Those leaving wireless modems located on their premises unsecured invite abuse that they're held responsible for. In the end, you probably will be cleared of all charges and access to your home returned to you, but there is little solace in that after going through the process of being arrested under suspicion, based on transgressions others created capitalizing on your lax security. It is no fun having your home and property searched and possibly confiscated for a period of time.

For details, see: Innocent Man Accused Of Child Pornography After Neighbor Pirates His WiFi

Question about security. I was having problems with my dsl line a year or so ago and the at&t tech set me up with a wireless system. Seemed to make my situation run better so I said fine. I noticed that he set me up on WEP system. At the time he said it should provide me with good enough security although nothing is 100% safe.

Bicker's post got me to researching security and I see it may not be a good way to go. See below link. What do most people use here? WPA? I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world so not sure how much tinkering I want to tackle.

WPA vs WEP: How your Choice Affects your Wireless Network Security | Openxtra

 

[Alan]

Question about security. I was having problems with my dsl line a year or so ago and the at&t tech set me up with a wireless system. Seemed to make my situation run better so I said fine. I noticed that he set me up on WEP system. At the time he said it should provide me with good enough security although nothing is 100% safe.

Bicker's post got me to researching security and I see it may not be a good way to go. See below link. What do most people use here? WPA? I'm not the most computer savvy person in the world so not sure how much tinkering I want to tackle.

WPA vs WEP: How your Choice Affects your Wireless Network Security | Openxtra

There is no doubt that WPA is much stronger security than WEP, but I really wouldn't worry about it, particularly if you live in a house rather than an apartment complex where many people can see your wifi hotspot. The chances of someone hacking into your network are very slim with WEP.

 

[Alan]

Wireless modem without security. Legal? Illegal?

If you use one for your own network then it is legal, but as noted above you are opening up a big security hole.

If you use someone else's unsecured modem without their permission then it is illegal.

18 USC § 1030 - Fraud and related activity in connection with computers | LII / Legal Information Institute

 

[rgarling]

I don't think that particular statute is talking about wifi access issues.

 

[Dawg52]

There is no doubt that WPA is much stronger security than WEP, but I really wouldn't worry about it, particularly if you live in a house rather than an apartment complex where many people can see your wifi hotspot. The chances of someone hacking into your network are very slim with WEP.

Thanks. And most people in my neighborhood are older than me, so that should lower my risk even more.

 

[Alan]

I don't think that particular statute is talking about wifi access issues.

I agree.