Comcast Offers To Wire Up Unconnected Customer For Ten Grand?
from the seems-a-bit-pricey dept
While the current FCC and many of its supporters seem to have no problem saying that a cable/DSL duopoly equals "competition" for broadband, plenty of others are discovering the problems with such a solution. If you happen to be in a part of town considered not worth serving, too bad. Comcast has apparently told one potential customers in a neighborhood where every street but his has coverage, that the only way they'll extend service to his street is if he pays $10,000 -- which is quite the setup fee. Now, obviously, these are for profit businesses, and they're going to make decisions like this all the time. But, it does show how people can be left out when there isn't real competition. Hopefully new wireless offerings will help alleviate these types of issues -- but so far, the incumbents are battling hard to stop any kind of wireless competition as well. In the meantime, it would be nice if the original story had provided more details, because a few points do seem questionable. The city where this is happening isn't named, and as some people note in the comments to the original story, the local officials should pull the exclusive franchise they gave Comcast if they're unwilling to offer service. The whole reason municipalities gave out exclusive franchises to cable providers was that was the only way the cable providers would guarantee universal coverage. If the government comes back and threatens to pull the franchise, then suddenly wiring up that street is going to be a lot more appealing -- at a price much lower than $10,000.
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Just keep calling
I called the cable company, and they couldn't even find my street, it was new / prevoiusly a frontage road.
Since they could'nt look it up, they had to have someone call me back.
The guy who called me back, said I was not part of the sub-division (no kidding), and there wasn't a drop for me, and that they would have to have engineering check it out. I called back in two weeks without a response to find out I was too far away, and would't be able to get a cable modem.
This however did not deter me.
Every 3 months or so I would call back and go through the same thing.
Call 1: Can't find address.
Call 2: Send it over to engineering.
Call 3: Too far away.
Then afer 18 months, I called, and on call # 1 they said sure when do you want to schedule, and
I said as soon as possible.
The guy that did the install was great, it took him about 15 minutes of searching Com-ed boxes to realize that it was a 495' run to the nearest box.
I know it was 495' because he had to radio around around to other installers to find one with a new spool of cable. And when he was done installing he only had 5' left.
They ended up re-running it in heavier cable, but it all worked out in the end.
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Its things like this...
Oakland County is installing a county-wide free WiFi network for home users and its being paid for by the county government. Right now they're testing in a few select cities like Troy, where Kmart Headquarters is located (I used to work there, huge place). By next year it'll be county wide coverage for all WiFi users. The connection speed will be 512k which is faster than modem though not quite as fast as cable. I see a day where anyone can access the Net via these free WiFi nets and DSL and Cable will become premium services offering better speeds. The increase in speed will be what prompts people to pay for them, but the fact that anyone can use the free service will push these companies to make sure everyone can use their services if they so choose to do so.
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No Subject Given
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Re: No Subject Given
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Comcast
Patriot Media �offered� to hook me up for $3,900 the house next door has it (for free.) My drive is long and they have offered a rebate of $1500 if I go ahead and sign a contract. I do live in an area of low density housing in New Jersey, which is a predominantly farming area but only 20 mins from Princeton and Flemington. I guess I just live in the sticks.
Stephen Buxton.
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Re: Comcast
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Why does this suprise anyone?
No one is in competition to make a $10k broadband deployment to a single requesting customer who is free to change his mind after his second billing cycle lol.
Competition not only doesnt necessarily solve the problem, it often hinders it.
FIOS is the obvious example.
FIOS will be an unprecendented infrastructure deployment.
IF SBC, etc were legally obligated to let ISPs resell FIOS for a reasonable price (ala DSL), guess what - the business model for spending a few hundred billion dragging fiber optical cable into individual homes across the US is no longer appealing to investors.
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Re: Why does this suprise anyone?
That's an incredibly misleading statement. The real issue is that it's incredibly inefficient for multiple companies to run fiber optic cable into individual homes. It's a natural monopoly. Therefore, it's inefficient for a single provider to get to offer it. If things were set up so that a single network was developed that allowed multiple service providers to offer service you can get the best of both worlds -- with a good network installed, and customers get real competition.
By just giving the monopoly to a single provider, then you get monopoly pricing -- and monopoly problems.
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Re: Why does this suprise anyone?
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it isn't just comcast
We can't get any other broadband so we are stuck with a fragmented t1...which sucks.
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Example
$10,000 is unreasonable, and everybody knows it. I'm surprised the man hasn't considered his legal options at this point.
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There's a way to handle this kind of problem
Most of the time the committe is helpless. But around three years before the current contract expires, the committee will start a state-defined renewal process. There is SOME risk that the cable company will lose its contract and EVERYTHING. So even though renewals are very likely, the cable company will bend over backwards to be nice during the renewal process. That's when they will bow to pressure and wire up some of the streets that were missed.
Unfortunately, a lot of patience is involved.
- precision blogger.
http://precision-blogging.blogspot.com
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No Subject Given
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No Kidding
And then they sit down with me and I am able to hook them up with a T1 for data, unlimited Chicago area calling, mobile plans, e-fax applications, off site back-up and Cisco VPN products for about $500/month.
I could never imagine telling a prospect they need to show me $10,000 before I would consider servicing their business.
Jason Zolghadr
Senior Sales Consultant
Cbeyond Communications
630-468-1215
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WOW $10,0000
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