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Comcast Takes $70 Gigabit Offer Away From Cities Near Chicago (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: When Comcast brought its gigabit cable Internet service to the Chicago area in August, it gave customers in some parts of Chicago and nearby towns the option of subscribing for $70 a month -- half off the standard, no-contract price of $140. Though the $70 gigabit offer required a three-year contract, it came with unlimited data, which normally costs an extra $50 a month on top of the $140 no-contract price. For Comcast customers, this was a good deal. But Comcast didn't make the $70 offer available throughout the Chicago area, and now the company has restricted it even further. The offer remains available in parts of Chicago, namely Uptown, Grand Crossing, the Loop, and South Loop. But Comcast has stopped offering the $70 price in all nearby cities and towns where it was originally available. The $70 price was briefly offered in Arlington Heights, Naperville, Plainfield, Waukegan, Tinley Park, Batavia, and Bloomington in Illinois and in South Bend in Indiana. In those areas, the $140 no-contract price is now the only option for new gigabit cable customers. (People who signed up for the $70 deal before it was rescinded will still get it for three years, as they're under contract.) A Comcast spokesperson said the company had been "testing" the $70 promotion in certain areas of Illinois and Indiana but decided to stop the tests in most of them. It's not clear why Comcast stopped the tests in these cities and towns, but Comcast told Ars that it often changes its promotions and thus could expand the $70 deal to other areas or offer new discounts soon. However, there are no expansions of the $70 offer being announced right now.
This is how cable companies work. They give big discounts to new customers, then fuck over their existing customers because they know its a duopoly (if not an outright monopoly) and rake in the cash.
Oh, you are going to switch to Verizon? Hahaha, go right ahead. Once they start fucking you over you are not going to get any special deals to come back.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
Save us Trump!
raping everyone else and have no competition. Where I'm at, in Indianapolis, I'm already paying ~$70 for less than 10% of that speed with a cap... The only other option here is Uverse which is even worse and not fast enough for me.
We didn't even get a promotion. I guess that's fair considering the hazard pay involved for being brave enough to cross our property line. ;)
Hate to be snarky but is it really news that a temporary offer on discounted internet service is no longer available?
Maybe it's because they are in markets where Google isn't competition anymore, you dumbfuck dipstick BeauHD
...I get 1Gbps at $60 per month. I guess I am lucky to live in such a city with such a good city council that implemented the Director Rules properly.
We keep hearing one political party chant "free markets" and "get big government off our backs!" - yet, where are their actions to implement their words?
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
...returned with bullet holes in it. They don't really care about the employees, but the CEO has this thing for the trucks...
As it should be. People will self repair if not too badly injured. The trucks... Have you seen body shop estimates recently?
We just (and I mean in the last month) got access to 1gbps internet from comcast in our area. There was no special price, if there was I would have gotten it, I was one of the first installs.
As a lifelong Chicagoan, I can tell you that giving Naperville gigabit ether and unlimited data is a bad idea.
You are welcome on my lawn.
why not the mt prospect super headend systems?
Unless it can't take the load as it is also the master headend for NW area.
When they know that people will be able to buy AT&T's streaming TV option and all they need is internet, but they will still want that 4k... they have to make sure people still give them their cut. This business model will eventually fail, and be replaced by one that settles for a smaller cut... but in the meantime... lookout. It's similar to death throes.
Speak for yourself.
Previously I was on their 150/20 service.
Now I'm pulling about 980/40 (Couldn't justify $300/month for bi-directional 2GB.)
I'm paying about $15/more a month than I would have been paying after the first year of the lower speed service (because you can't currently BUY a DOCSIS 3.1 modem, so there's rental fees).
I was never actually offered the $70 price.
Now, ask me if I have a problem with what I'm paying.
Nope.
Would I be happier if it were at a lower price point? Sure! I'm cheap! But if I have to pay $150 a month after everything for gig service? I'll take it. More important to me is the 40MB upstream speed. I work from home a lot. And I have to push files to our main office in Texas as well as to occasional clients. The faster I can push stuff to people, the better.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I got 1/1Gbit for 25€ thanks to strict government regulations. Suck it.
The same reason Google has slowed fiber expansion is the same reason Comcast has done the same with it's high speed product. People don't really need that kind of speed for internet access. Anyone who has download speeds constant above 30 mbps should be fine with any content they want to download. I ended up being talked into a faster package myself from Comcast but only because the teaser rate made sense. I won't miss the added speed when I revert back to my previous speed in a year. Unless you have a lot of users sucking bandwidth all at the same time, I think most people now realize your over paying for speed you'll never need.
After all, it is a major upgrade that likely requires replacing a lot of hardware, including the cabling. But it's Comcast, and they've never been accused of insufficient greed. Like when they tried to rip me off by "raising" a cap that didn't exist.
"Due to the overwhelming demand for our 1Gbps service at the $70 price point, we established that consumer *do not* want to spend $70 and would rather spend $140 for our great service."
Competition springs up, offer deep discounts until competition folds, remove discounts. Profit.
Twinstiq, game news
The real reason is probably that they feel Google fiber is no longer a threat and that with Trump being elected neither is the FCC.
$70 offer still available where Comcast faces competition from WOW or RCN.
Just fuck 'em.
I live here in Bloomington IL, am a Comcast customer, and that's news to me. Never advertised AFAIK.
What HAS happened, is that powers that be built out the town for fiber, and there are several fiber providers in town. It's a natural outgrowth to Bloomington being the headquarters of State Farm Insurance with massive data facilities here. We have a fiber line that was laid right across the street from our office. But all of the fiber sellers in town require you to pay the last x feet of buildout which can hit thousands very easily. And it wouldn't surprise me that Comcast offers it only to those directly adjacent to a fiber line / not even across the street.
While we are at it, screw Popeyes. They were offering a bucket of chicken for 8.99 and now they rescinded that offer and its 11.99 . Bunch of jerks they are.