Slashdot Mirror
Broadband Usage Up 42% In The U.S. In 2003
Kickassthegreat writes "As reported here by Reuters, broadband usage in the U.S. jumped 42 percent in 2003 as compared to 2002. As more people sign on to high-speed access, how long will it be before we start seeing the cable companies (such as Comcast) start dropping their prices to levels which compete directly with dial-up?"
It would be nice to know what they took as "broadband" speed. I know that the speeds of broadband in Japan are blinding compared to what we have in the U.S.
If they raised their standards perhaps we would see quite a different deployment figure.
The preceding message was based on actual events. Only the names, locations and events have been changed.
As soon as enough people have broadband you can be damn sure ISP's will start introducing draconian bandwidth limits.
Comcast has special introductory offers of $20/month to compete directly with dial-up. It wouldn't make sense for them to drop the price to $20 as it would eliminate their profit margin. They're providing about 100 times the bandwidth of dialup for only twice the price and you complain about value?
If you think broadband is expensive, look at the rest of your cable bill.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Damn if I know when Comcast will drop their prices but damn they're expensive!
I've had three broadband connections (that I've actually payed for). DSL at home in NJ which has good pings but wasn't high bandwidth, Time Warner RR cable in Rochester which was pretty good in both respects, and now Comcast in Boston. If someone had told me in advance that my Comcast connection would be 9Mbits/second I'd be less irritated with their absurd fees.
Damn bastards usually want $60 a month plus all kinds of installation fees and shit. Fortunately I'm getting it for $20 a month for 3 months, and that's as long as I need it. But in the end their customer service still blows chunks.
What gets me is that in different regions around the US the same service can vary in price by $30 dollars. DSL in some places is $30 a month and in others it can go as high as $60, for the same speed! And I'm not even referring to people who live out in the boonies who may have to pay a premium which is somewhat understandable.
Presently here, but not there.
We have *free* broadband :D
(eg here)
why would they want to lower prices? Its obvious that people will pay for it at the level it is right now...
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
Cable companies will never drop their prices until we start seeing small neighborhood WiFi ISPs as described by Bob Cringely in his past two PBS columns. I've thought about this for a few years now but, alas, I'm no entrepreneur.
But drop their prices to compete with dial-up? They don't even need to drop their prices to compete with DSL. Where I live, Cablevision gives me speeds of 5 Mbps down and 900 kbps up for $40/mo (with TV service; $50/mo a la carte). Verizon DSL is $50/mo and the best speed would be 625 kbps down. Cablevision could raise their price to $60, $70 per month; you name it; and my only alternative would be a dog slow DSL or dial-up connection.
I'm hooked on the fat pipe and they know it.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
The phone companies were a day late and a dollar short in rolling out DSL. Time Warner came out with Road Runners years before the phone company would sell DSL for residential use.
In the years between the Road Runner roll out and the start of DSL roll-out, everyone that wanted broadband signed up for a cable modem. So (very) recently, Verizon started trying to roll out DSL and guess what; most of their potential market no longer needed their service, as their Cable modem was great. The residential DSL around here seems to have taken the lower bandwidth, lower price and cable, but still faster than dial-up approach.
Where as Time Warner only needed to announce they could deliver broadband to get potential customers (literally) calling them begging for service, DSL providers are begging for customers to sign up.
DSL is dropping prices (and bandwith.) Cable just raised their rates ($5) and doubled the speed of their pipe and modem connections.
Ma' Bell missed the boat big time. The slashdot summary talks about lowering rates. That's only the ugly step-sister. Cable prices (and service) are going up where I live.
-Pete
Soccer Goal Plans
While I applaud our broadband overlords, I do take issue with the high cost. For me, broadband through Comcast is the only option. I expect to see Dick Cheney join MoveOn.org before I expect DSL in my neck of the woods. The local power company just started providing cable TV and theoretically will provide broadband within a year or two, but I'm not holding my breath. Right now I'm averaging $45 a month for HSI and that's insane.
My other problem with Comcast is their spotty CS. We here in Connecticut just went through a weekend of 50% packet losses and unexplained disconnects. Calls to Comcast resulted in suggestions to power cycle my modem. The problem was obviouisly my fault even though the top thread over at broadbandreports.com was about widespread problems in my state. The patronizing ignorance of most of their alleges techs was astounding.
He took a duck to the face at 250 knots.
Infrastructure costs to the ISP are several times higher for cable than dialup or DSL. Also, there's value to the customer in providing faster connections.
That said, after watching my third web host lose data for me (yes, they said they did daily backups and I believed them) I decided to host my own domain, pitched my cable modem and found a provider that gave me a 768k SDSL pipe for the same price as my cable modem.
Comcast's pipe is four times as fast downstream but my pipe is considerably faster upstream - fast enough for me to host my own web and mail and pitch the web host. My DSL provider gives me a synchronous connection for $45 a month and doesn't care if I run a server as long as I don't exceed his rather generous bandwidth allocation. For me it was a win-win situation.
If the market will bear higher prices I guess it's reasonable to expect people to charge higher prices. Sad, but true.
we see things not as as they are, but as we are.
-- anais nin
When I see US people talk about the cost of their broadband, I'm always shocked. Sure, we have some providers that are sub-par, but right now, I've got Bredbandsbolaget ADSL2+, offering up to 24Mb/s downstream and 1Mb/s upstream(I've reached around 22Mb/s down at most right now), no bandwidth cap, and I can host a non-profit, non-commercial server, and it costs around 45-48/month.
What do you think your digital cable box with 1000's of channels does all damn day with that bandwidth? Set up spam from China? Wouldn't suprise me much to be honest.
Dialup sucks ass. It's only used by those who can't get Fiber To The County or so, for the most part. I remember one customer yelling at me years ago because a sales rep said I'd go out there and install a cable modem and internet setup even though he lived some 10 miles from the nearest fiber optic node and didnt even have hard line ran near his zip code. He had a phone though. Imagine the trouble I'd got in for suggesting that he go through a competitor to get dialup.
Thats just a small testament to how lucrative that market is. They need every penny they can get and there is a huge job market for fiber splicers and installers alike. Problems only arise when there is only one company offering broadband in a given location. For years in mine we saw ads like "Time Warner Cable - Your Only Choice" with a big fuckin smile across it on bus stops and billboards.
There are of course the huge issues of how that bandwidth is used. Ideally we wouldn't NEED all that expensive head end multiplexing with GW/hr power consumption if there was not:
- spam
- media pirating
- worm ridden windows boxes
This is where a large part of the cost seems to emanate. The ISP doesn't even really care about how much you DOWNLOAD, its what you UPLOAD, and 2 of the 3 above are good examples of what problems should be dealt with first. I know you gotta upload it to download it guys but usually people who upload aren't real concerned that its going to cut into thier 56k modems QoS capabilities.It seems here we find the core of many many issues present in today's communications' agendas.
You are about to give someone a piece of your mind, something which you can ill afford...
Why is the question relevant? Although they provide access to the same thing, the infrastucture, support costs and underlying service differ enough that there SHOULD be a cost difference. I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but to me the guy just said Lexus are selling like crazy, now when will they have Chevy prices? And I'm not a business mind, but if sales (demand) are up, what motivation would there be to lower costs to your competitors' inferiour service?
If anything, rates will increase over time. Comcast has had an introductory offer where you pay $20 for 6 months, $30 for 3 months, then $40 for the remainder of the year.
That was enough incentive for me to sign up. I have been on dialup since the early 90's, and I must say.. 21.95/month for Earthlink dialup, Vs. 3.5mb cable for $39.95/month? I mean, figure that one out. Who in their right mind would choose the dialup?
I love the fact that more people are getting broadband. That just sets the stage for the "killer apps" which will make the promise of the internet come true.
Also, for any of you newbie comcast users, or want-to-be customers, please keep in mind that they will enforce the DMCA, if prodded by the right people. I've received a letter in the mail regarding a NAUGHTY TORRENT i used. They haven't seeked any legal action, but please, be weary of what you get and how you get it.
Technical Support for dumbass L-Users who should have never bought a computer to begin with - is much more expensive. They tend to stay in the dialup plans because they can't justify the cost of broadband. $10/month dialup plans exist for limited Internet usage. That's pretty cheap, and still gives you 10 hours / month for email and what not. Broadband is cheap - but not going to get cheaper. You'll see speed increases before you'll see prices drop. Example, charter's kick to 3Meg service. My DSL company just shifted all plans up by 256/256 without increases in price. So now I'm getting 1M/1M for the price I used to pay for 768/768k - $45/month. The 3 month deals are just a carrot - it's the big sharp stick that carrot is attached to that I worry about.
There several reasons why prices won't drop anytime soon:
- Networks expanding. Broadband means more bandwidth per customer. As more people use it, more websites get bulked up for broadband... more bandwidth used... more capacity needed.... then faster networks needed... websites bulk up more... cyclical
- Limited networks in competition. Most people don't have much broadband choice. Theres either cable (one provider), or DSL (if your lucky enough to live in DSL's short range).... soon power companies will join in, but the technology is still up in the air... and it's not cheap to implement, so I'd expect power companies in rural areas may jump in, but in areas where cable/dsl penetrated... doubt it. Most people have 1 broadband option. Lucky people have 2. Satellite is way to expensive for most people.
- It's a package deal. Cable networks sell packages. That's how they operate. Not ala Cart. They like to do services as well. That's why you have basic cable, premimum cable, sports packages, digital cable, HD TV packages, broadband packages etc. That's the business plan.
Mind you, in Canada the prices for broadband are pretty bloody cheap, so maybe that's why it costs less than unlimited dial-up and a second line. For those of you who live in that country below us and aren't familiar with the prices, Telus customers enjoy ADSL for as little as $28 USD/month (actually, less than $19 USD/month for the first year). When I moved down to Florida (I'm a snowbird), I was shocked at the Comcast prices -- so I shopped around, and BellSouth, Speakeasy, and all the others had the same price!
I wonder what sort of market factors are going on behind this huge price difference. I always thought steep competition lowers prices, but in Canada we have only one cable Internet provider and maybe two DSL providers. And low prices.
Standing at the very edge of my imagination, I peered into the inky void and realised -- I couldn't think up a new sig.
Annoyingly "Kickassthegreat" was right that prices will fall but they're way off on the reason.
First, providing high-bandwidth internet is expensive, period. Maintaining the cables and handling all that bandwidth comes at a big cost.
Second, Comcast recently increased their prices! This is with the fall of dialup - the reason being that a large fallout in cheap DSL providers had lead to the inevitable result - low competition means rising consumer costs with no additional benefit. My Comcast bill went from $30/mo to $60/mo Jan 1 2004 - my bandwidth was also doubled, but I rarely can take advantage of the additional bandwidth, so the benefit is primarily theoretical, while my wallet is very tangibly more empty.
However, competition is really picking up - just within my neighborhood in Boston, there are already 4 fiercely competing broadband providers: Comcast (best quality), RCN, Verizon, and BELD.net (BELD is a non-profit that doesn't advertise and has low visibility). It's causing price drops, finally - RCN recently cut their subpar cable modem service in half. The cheap offering will inevitably cut into Comcast's margins - I'm going to seriously consider RCN's low prices (and poor service) in September, though I'll more likely end up with BELD. That sort of price war will coast prices down, thankfully.
Outside the city I'm sure competition is much more sparse, and so, in the 'burbs, I doubt any price fall is going to occur - if anything, the cost of dialup will rise to near the levels of broadband to price gouge locked-in residents into the higher-costing broadband services, as the move away from dialup causes dialup companies to fail, competition to decrease and end with one provider: the broadband one. Enjoy bending over, suburbia.