US Broadband ISPs Expect Price Cuts

prostoalex writes "US broadband providers are trying to avoid the price wars, but the cost of DSL and cable hookups is still headed down with major promotions from players like Comcast and Yahoo/SBC. Currently there are 22 million US subscribers, 2 million of which subscribed during the past three months. It looks like the prices for broadband Internet are headed towards $20-30/month range, although most operators prefer to lock you into a yearly contract or provide special price for the first several months only."

Comments

Re:in other words

[fastidious edward]

well... price wars typically trigger shakeouts where smaller competitors get driven out of business, so I'm glad price wars are not going ahead... small competitors making a viable go of it in the long run means increased competition.

Price wars are also typical 'testing grounds' in oligopoly situations, sometimes where one large provider tests another (that price wars are not imminent suggests providers are in perfect harmony [unlikely] or have too tight margins to risk a price war), othertimes they are coordinated attempts to show the consumer what great value they get and are more spin than substance.

Price wars are a bad thing - they cause small competitors to be driven out of business (long term this means the market in the hands of a powerful few) and the fact a company can undertake a price war means it has room to move even with discounted prices (surely bloated prices... it is in need of competition but has the 'price war' signal to any potential competition they are alert and the going will be rough).

Price wars are never a good thing.

Re:They must be joking...

[saden1]

I got Comcast and they started me of at $25 a month for 6 months and that was sweet. After the 6 months was up they started charging me $56 for it. It would have been $46 a month if I had subscribed to their cable TV package but since I don't watch TV I declined their offer. When I called them up and told them I want to cancel because Quest has offered me DSL for $29 a month. Of course, I have not intention of switching to DSL , which sucks big time around this area. Needless to say when the support/sales lady heard that I wanted to cancel she gave me a $30 a month package for 3 more months. I told here I will cancel at the end of this deal and she said well give us a call and if we have a deal in 3 months we'll give it to you. I guess I am gonna call them up and do the cancellation dance all over again.

Moral of the story, If you tell them you want to cancel they'll do everything in their power to keep you as a customer.