Comcast: We want our customers to hate us so much that they pay us money

[AlTech]

Comcast has revealed their objective and the reason behind their data caps. They want you to hate them and pay them money.

 

 

Quote

The

Journal points out what we've been saying all along: data caps, beyond being a flagrant money grab, are a threat to video competitors like Netflix that exist completely in the "over the top" network. It's probably the biggest and most obvious conflict of interest in the communications industry; Comcast, as a company that makes a lot of money off selling cable television to people, has huge incentives to make it harder for customers to enjoy pure internet services like Netflix. So schemes like data caps, which have already been used extensively in the wireless industry to reap as much money as possible from customers, exist solely to frustrate those customers — which is really an incredible situation in a country that ostensibly cares so much about the virtue of competition.

 

 

---

The point of data caps is to frustrate customers enough to make them pay

"We everyday contribute to the use and growth of the internet," Comcast executive Marcien Jenckes told the Journal. "There is absolutely no anticompetitive belief or objective." That's such an obvious lie it hurts; Comcast's own Stream TV internet television service doesn't count against data caps. If data caps weren't anti-competitive, why would Comcast give its own internet service a privileged position? The answer is the same as it's always been: Comcast really hates actually competing with anyone.

The conversation about "net neutrality" can often quickly become a nightmare of semantics and pedantry — and ironically I suspect the cable companies have benefitted from it becoming a huge buzzword. That's what happens when you get caught up in drawing the boundaries around words and rules: you can forget what the point of the whole thing was in the first place, or struggle to think about the bigger picture. The big picture is still this: only a few huge companies control both the wireline and wireless networks that everyone depends on. They want to extract as much money as possible from those networks while suffering as little competition as possible. Again, for instance, that's why Comcast chose to try to dominate Time Warner Cable by buying it instead of competing with it.

Comcast told The Wall Street Journal it's "now actively considering substantially increasing" its data caps. Comcast created those data caps in the first place, likely knowing they would frustrate customers. It's no wonder Comcast and its peers want to grind the FCC into dust — it's the only way they can keep playing games with a critical public utility.

 

 

 

 

WTF? Why do you even? What is this? I am so confused.

 

http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/23/11494510/comcast-att-wsj-data-cap-report

[thekeemo]

Yay capitalistic ideals!

[Oshino Shinobu]

Comcast care only about profits, not their customers, like pretty much every other for-profit company. They're just terrible at trying to hide that they don't care for their customers. 
 

[Darkman]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Comcast care only about profits, not their customers, like pretty much every other for-profit company. They're just terrible at trying to hide that they don't care for their customers.

Yeah my isp is the same way, I have no other options for an isp. I've failed way too many homework assignments from it.

[aajjeee]

thank god there is an unlimited option with videotron

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, thekeemo said:

Yay capitalistic ideals!

Capitalism is a really good idea in a democracy...

oh wait...

no its not its the worst fucking thing ever.

Too bad we really can't do anything about monopolies, the governemnt is given too much money by TWC, Comcast and others 

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, Darkman said:

Yeah my isp is the same way, I have no other options for an isp. I've failed way too many homework assignments from it.

It's normally a matter of choosing between the lessor of multiple evils. Unless you're one of the lucky few that have small providers available that provide good speeds and no bullshit. 

[Arc_Jester]

Although my ISP is shit at CS and fixing problems in a timely fashion I'd much rather have them than Comcast.

[SilicateWielder]

10 minutes ago, Ronnie76 said:

Capitalism is a really good idea in a democracy...

oh wait...

no its not its the worst fucking thing ever.

Too bad we really can't do anything about monopolies, the governemnt is given too much money by TWC, Comcast and others 

Well, the U.S is technically a republic. (DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES! WE'RE NOT A TRUE LAND OF FREEDOM)

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, UnbrokenMotion said:

Well, technically a republic if you're in the U.S (DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES! WE'RE NOT A TRUE LAND OF FREEDOM)

I'm aware

our whole lives are almost pre-determined

Born-->Go to school-->Go to work-->Retire-->Die

and very rarely its different 

[Tech_Dreamer]

Mmmmm..Smell Like USA!

[Derangel]

19 minutes ago, Ronnie76 said:

Capitalism is a really good idea in a democracy...

oh wait...

no its not its the worst fucking thing ever.

Too bad we really can't do anything about monopolies, the governemnt is given too much money by TWC, Comcast and others 

 

Well TWC probably won't exist for too much longer, so yay for even less fake competition.

[AlTech]

22 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

It's normally a matter of choosing between the lessor of multiple evils. Unless you're one of the lucky few that have small providers available that provide good speeds and no bullshit. 

Is it normal to get way better speeds during the day than at night? Cos that's what's happening for me.

[Lurick]

Just now, AluminiumTech said:

Is it normal to get way better speeds during the day than at night? Cos that's what's happening for me.

Yes, when they say you have X amount of bandwidth it's not dedicated to you but shared. When people aren't at home you have more free bandwidth but when everyone is home and hitting the interwebs at the same time there is less to go around. It's called oversubscription.

[HalGameGuru]

26 minutes ago, Ronnie76 said:

Capitalism is a really good idea in a democracy...

oh wait...

no its not its the worst fucking thing ever.

Too bad we really can't do anything about monopolies, the governemnt is given too much money by TWC, Comcast and others 

You're confusing capitalism for corporatism. In capitalism there's no system in place for players like Comcast or TWC to keep competition out. Look at Romania, their internet system is what you get from decades of cutthroat competition where the government didn't stick its nose in.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

Yes, when they say you have X amount of bandwidth it's not dedicated to you but shared. When people aren't at home you have more free bandwidth but when everyone is home and hitting the interwebs at the same time there is less to go around. It's called oversubscription.

k cos 800Mb/s Upload and 800Mb/s download theoretically. But I don't get anywhere near during the evening.

[Trik'Stari]

While everything said is true, I don't see anything in the article where comcast actually admits "we want our customers to hate us enough to pay us more"

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

k cos 800Mb/s Upload and 800Mb/s download theoretically. But I don't get anywhere near during the evening.

Yah, that's why they always put that lovely qualifier of "up to X" in their advertisements. You can have it be anywhere from 1:1 which is a dedicated line, all the way to something like 200:1 where there would be 200 houses being served off the main line.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

Yah, that's why they always put that lovely qualifier of "up to X" in their advertisements. You can have it be anywhere from 1:1 which is a dedicated line, all the way to something like 200:1 where there would be 200 houses being served off the main line.

I can play like a 4K video with no buffering but that's still not 800Mb/s. And apparently I have fiber optic cables.

[HalGameGuru]

4 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Yah, that's why they always put that lovely qualifier of "up to X" in their advertisements. You can have it be anywhere from 1:1 which is a dedicated line, all the way to something like 200:1 where there would be 200 houses being served off the main line.

to be fair, on nodal systems, if they aren't over subscribed even under heavy usage your speed shouldn't drop precipitously, But since they all DO over-subscribe infrastructure that could comfortably handle 500 subscribers must deal with 2000 and complete dropouts and horrible speed can result. Luckily there ARE companies out there that are looking to improve their subscriber ratios and if you call in and get a higher level support manager your area could be bumped up in line for new nodes.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 hour ago, AluminiumTech said:

Is it normal to get way better speeds during the day than at night? Cos that's what's happening for me.

Depends what you mean by night. Typically, mid-day and late night/early morning are the fastest times, while 6.30 - 9.30AM and 5-10PM are the slowest. Consider when most people are getting home from work/school or about to leave and there's where its at its slowest because more people are connected. Peak times change on weekends and holidays, though. 

Luckily for me, I don't really see the decrease in bandwidth as I live in a rural area with a good connection, so there's not many people going to the exchange. 

EDIT: Some ISPs actually throttle pretty much everyone during peak times. Again, luckily for me my ISP only throttle P2P traffic, which can be solved with a VPN. 

[cryon1cang3l]

Well you are not alone.

Sitting on Vodafone in Germany, was KabelDeutschland like 6 months ago.

Thats our local version of Comcast and the name just means CableGermany.

They have the usual drawbacks of coaxial cable internet via DOCSIS - low upload. That results in a 100/6 connection, but it is stable and has no traffic limit. No oversubscription. The sad part: i could get a 200/12 plan, but that includes 1000gb traffic and will be reduced to 10/1 till the months end with no additional cost - still unusable for me. And i`m lucky enough to have a VDSL connection here, that can go up to 50/10 mbit/s, but is running at 10/2 with 100GB cap just as a backup solution. 

But they also "can" throttle P2P traffic after reaching like 10gb daily on P2P connections, it is just not used right now after a huge shitstorm.

We pay pretty much the same, for me its 35€ monthly for 100/6 coax with a phone line and unlimited calls to other phone lines, but not for mobile, just landline. 

With all bells and whistles that becomes pretty expensive around 80-90€ for the full package + additional payTV crap.

 

Its not as bad as Comcast and the general uptime for me is: 30-45h in a year the line is dead, other 50-60 hours in a year the connection is crippled to a point where heavy usage is not possible, but light usage like prebuffering videos before watching is completly fine.

[iamdarkbowser]

2 hours ago, Ronnie76 said:

I'm aware

our whole lives are almost pre-determined

Born-->Go to school-->Go to work-->Retire-->Die

and very rarely its different 

Hmm not true, you can stick die anywhere in there. terrorists

[Ryoutarou97]

3 hours ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Comcast care only about profits, not their customers, like pretty much every other for-profit company. They're just terrible at trying to hide that they don't care for their customers. 
 

I distinctly remember being taught that "A corporation's only goal is to make money for its investors" (about American Industrialisation). It's the one thing that really stuck with me from U.S. History.

[shdowhunt60]

"Capitalism is dead!" type the keyboard warriors on their computers using the internet.