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Charter Fights FCC's Attempt To Uncover 'Hidden' Cable Modem Fees (arstechnica.com)
Charter is trying to convince the Federal Communications Commission to backtrack on a plan that would force cable providers to charge a separate fee for cable modems, an anonymous writes, citing an ArsTechnica report. From the article: Charter is unusual compared to other cable companies in that it doesn't tack on a cable modem rental fee when offering Internet service. But FCC officials don't think that's good for consumers, because the price of Charter Internet service is the same whether a customer uses a Charter modem or buys their own. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler's latest proposal for new cable box rules would require companies to list fees for equipment used to access video. The FCC is clearly hoping that Charter will create a separate fee for cable modems and lower the base price of Internet service by a corresponding amount, thus letting customers save money in the long run by purchasing their own modems. (Separately from modems, Charter already charges monthly fees for the use of its TV set-top boxes.) "As part of the proposal, all pay-TV providers are required to be fully transparent about the cost consumers pay for leased equipment used to access video programming," an FCC spokesperson told Ars. "The goal is to uncover hidden fees and give consumers the ability to make informed choices. If a consumer chooses to purchase their own equipment at retail, our rules would require they no long have to pay for the built-in cost on their bill. We look forward to input from the Commissioners on this aspect of the proposal."
If I were Charter, I would embrace this. I would make the base internet price the current price, then tack on $10/month to renters of cable modems. I would include a letter in the bill that says, "The FCC has mandated that we start charging for the rental of your cable modem...yada yada, it's the government's fault your rate just went up."
They'll make a killing and not really lose many customers. The FCC is creating a golden opportunity for them.
Maybe that's true, the same thing happened to me: alleged backwards compatibility didn't stop Comcast from causing my DOCSIS 2.0 (Linksys BEFC-MU10) modem to stop being able to connect. The DOCSIS 3.0 replacement (Zoom 6341j) I bought worked.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if Comcast intentionally configured their network to reject connections from DOCSIS 2.0 modems even if they were supposed to still work, in hopes that some people who owned modems would start renting (or just to punish people for having the audacity not to rent). It's just the kind of thing those criminal, corrupt fuckers would do.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
The static IP thing has to do with how static IPs are managed. The modem needs to be configured to participate in routing (RIPv2). That configuration includes a shared secret key, that the cable company can't share with customers for security reasons. Keep on hating though.. And to comment on the bring your own modem thing, the cable company must do frequent software upgrades to it's CMTSs just in order to keep up with the ever increasing demand for bandwidth. Those upgrades should be lab tested ahead of time. Having a large population of XYZ brand modems to test against causes that testing process to be much more complicated, or even impossible. This lack of testability, and lack of relationship with the modem vendor (cable company didn't but the piece of shit, you did), often results in the experience of "that damn greedy cable company broke my modem". Keep on hating though. What the cable company doesn't want to happen, is for their software/hardware upgrades to make their phone ring. It costs them plenty to answer the calls - 3 or 4 calls to their call center costs roughly the same as they would pay for a modem.