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Comcast Launches Streaming Service and Unveils Pricing For 2G Fiber
An anonymous reader writes: Comcast has announced the release of its Gigabit Pro service which offers speeds up to 2 gigabits per second. The service is $300 a month (agree to a two year contract and get the early promotional price of $159 per month) with a $500 installation and activation fee. The new service is only available in the Jacksonville, Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Florida area. This announcement comes on the heels of the $15-per-month "Comcast Stream" launch. The live TV and streaming video service does not require a cable TV subscription, but live TV channels can only be watched on customer's home internet connections.
Sorry, I meant to say dial-up with a Hayesmodem 1200 and a terminal emulator, manually doing the AT DT stuff from memory.
I wanted to make a 2G (bandwidth) vs 4G (cell network) joke, but decided to pop up with some actual useful information instead.
Currently Comcast has this in their contract:
"For upgrading from Performance to Blast!®, ranges based on area, from $10.00 to $12.00 more per month (subject to change)"
This is an additional service charge ON TOP OF the higher price already charged to get faster internet service. That's right, they're advertising one price, and then tacking on additional fees for that bandwidth. Just for having faster bandwidth, you're forced to pay an additional $10+ on top of the already higher rate.
So, what is the premium "Blast" or "2G" fees going to be with this new service? Sure, the base rate is already an outrageous $300... but this is Comcast, who is actively tacking on hidden fees to customers outside of the usual regulatory fees.
Only in America can we roll out a service so very few will pay for* while, at the same time, big chunks of the nation are still unable to get any sort of broadband connection at all. :| The ISP's know where the money is so that's where they concentrate their deployments. At least make SOME effort to get bare minimum broadband access to everyone before you start selling the network equivalent of a sports car.
I would love to see Broadband Internet treated like the POTS lines of yester-year as part of the Title II requirements. Quit letting the monopolies cherry-pick their regions for deployment and force them to deploy into the areas where Capitalism loathes to go. ( In your best Yale or Harvard voice " You know. . . where the poor people live." ) Hey Verizon, hows that FIOS roll out coming along that you promised everyone ?
Threaten to go all 1984 on their ass ( referring to Divestiture here ) or nullify all non-compete laws when it comes to Metro Areas rolling out their own networks.
It's amusing just how fast big ISP's can deploy high speed networks when a Metro area says " Screw it " and starts deploying their own.
The ONLY way I'm ever going to see true competition or even competitive pricing is if I'm lucky enough to live in an area where Google has plans to deploy their infrastructure. That seems to be the only motivating factor if you're a large ISP these days. OMGGOOGLEISGONNASTEALOURBUSINESSCUSTOMERS DO SOMETHING !!!!!
So the best thing we get out of Comcast is to roll out a service that's completely ridiculous in price. I wonder if you get a discount if you allow them to spy on your traffic like AT&T does ? ( Yes, I'm sure they all do it, but AT&T is the only one admitting to it and offering a discount for the privilege )
*Because:
a) It's Comcastic and ( one of, if not THE worst ranked ISP in the US )
b) It's $300 / month and ( hahahahahahahahah . . . . no. See A above )
c) No way in hell it will be unlimited usage ( regardless of their claims ) without some data cap or throttling mechanism
Do rabbit ears provide 2 gbps internet? Why are they even an option here?
Does Comcast provide 2 Gbps internet? Note the words "up to" - they are very significant, and changes the meaning from "you will get 2 Gbps" to "you may or may not get 2 Gbps, but never more".
30 Mbps satisfies "up to 2 Gbps".