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 (People who signed up for the $70 deal before it was rescinded will still get it for three years, as they're under contract.)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.

Comments

Not at all surprising

[nitehawk214]

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.

Re:Not at all surprising

[the_Bionic_lemming]

They never made the offer to the poor communities around here.

In fact the offer was only made to richer and more prosperous cities around chicago, and I'm White and ive in Park Forest Il.

LMAO, Naperville? A budget plan? I worked in Naperville, and drove past Very Expensive (over million) homes right next to the old downtown area.

And here we have a choice between 50 bucks a month for at$t's lowest teir (with mandatory cable switch rental) or 50 bucks a month for low speed and having to call every six months to complain about being pushed up to 80 bucks a month.

nothing cheaper. Unless you go with the fly by nights that use a "Fair Use Policy" that slows you down to 28.8 k if you're lucky.

Re:Not at all surprising

[freeze128]

Yes, this behavior is expected, but not for the very cynical reasons you give. You see, it's actually a *GOOD* thing that comcast is limiting its gigabit service to certain areas. Allow me to explain: In the past, comcast has sold its internet service everywhere it could. Since there is a finite amount of bandwidth in the universe, this means that they often oversold their internet service, and their customers suffered for it.

Now that comcast has upgraded their peering connections, and has started to sell their gigabit internet (which has NO DATA CAP), they are doing the right thing, and preventing the overselling of their internet service. This is the behavior that we want to encourage.

Re:Not at all surprising

[PPH]

Whatever happened to all that dark fiber companies were installing?

Re:Not at all surprising

[ls671]

It became light insensitive because it wasn't used and nobody saw that coming...

Re: Not at all surprising

[Joe_Dragon]

CSN Chicago I think is $3-$5 a sub.

Re:Not at all surprising

[Chas]

Uh. No. The Gig-E service still comes with a 1TB data cap unless you pay the extra $50/month.

Re:Not at all surprising

[Holi]

Wait, if it HAS NO DATA CAP, then why do they charge and extra $50 for unlimited data?
from the summary:
"it came with unlimited data, which normally costs an extra $50 a month"

Re:Not at all surprising

[jittles]

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 actually just signed up for this $70 gigabit internet yesterday, as an existing Comcast customer. They said I was the first subscriber in my specific area. Perhaps they're limiting the number of sign-ups at that rate? I don't know. And I know for a fact that you can qualify as a new customer with comcast when you've not had service for 6 months. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the state of our internet in the US, either, and especially not the customer service of comcast, but you really don't have to make anything up. Comcast will shoot themselves in the foot without you helping.

Re:Not at all surprising

[cayenne8]

They never made the offer to the poor communities around here.

And this surprises you why exactly???

I mean, how many people in a poor neighborhood are going to be able to afford an extra $70/mo when they're already having problems affording the actual basic necessities in life, you know...food, shelter, etc....?

Re:Not at all surprising

[cogeek]

You forget, Internet access, cell phones, cable TV are all considered basic necessities these days. I truly do not understand how my entire generation and those before ours managed to survive without those things.

Re:Not at all surprising

[tlhIngan]

You forget, Internet access, cell phones, cable TV are all considered basic necessities these days. I truly do not understand how my entire generation and those before ours managed to survive without those things.

Well, cellphones replaced landlines, but phone service is considered a necessity, landline or cell. And it was even for your generation where people called other people and everyone was expected to be reachable at a phone number. Heck, it was so essential that they made landlines for public access (aka "payphones") so people could make a phone call. Cellphones have displaced these payphones. If you need to make a phone call and your cell battery is dead, it's almost impossible to find a phone you can use.

These days, Internet access is also a necessity as many things can only be done online. In the past, you could do it over the phone or in person, but the latter is not available as offices close and get consolidated so you can no longer visit for support. If you're lucky, phone support might be available, but it's often farmed out to some call center in India handling dozens of companies. This leaves the only option as internet support - for downloadng materials, contacting support for many companies, applying for jobs. Hell, companies are even doing e-Billing where they send you bills by email, no more paper bills.

In the past, we had many options. And they send bills through the mail, which many companies stopped doing as it's cheaper by email. So yes, in the past we survived because companies still gave options. They took then away with the Internet making it cheaper and faster to connect with people, thus leaving the old methods in the dust. Hell, getting a paper bill is often a chore because they can't even do it.

Re:Not at all surprising

[cogeek]

The things considered basic necessities in the US are luxuries lots of other places: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org...

Re:Not at all surprising

[poofmeisterp]

Whatever happened to all that dark fiber companies were installing?

When Google backed off of their fiber expansion, well, I don't need to anything more. I was going to have gigabit (read: 500-700mbit) fiber near my place of living a year ago, now it's almost certainly not going to happen. MaBell stopped saying that expansion was happening and also stopped honoring non-FTTN requests the day before the Google slowdown news made it to /.

Probably because they're already effectively

[waspleg]

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.

Sale ends - News at 11!

[JoeyRox]

Hate to be snarky but is it really news that a temporary offer on discounted internet service is no longer available?

Re:Sale ends - News at 11!

[msauve]

It is to the person who submitted the article, who is now pissed that they didn't take the offer when it was available. It's not news, or even interesting, to anyone else.

Re:Sale ends - News at 11!

[thegarbz]

Actually to those of us who don't live in the USA, watching you guys get screwed over by corporations is most definitely interesting. For the benefit of our international readers could you explain the concept of data that is not unlimited? It's such a foreign concept in much of the world.

In Seattle...

[110010001000]

...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.

Where are the open markets?

[buss_error]

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?

Re:Where are the open markets?

[CrimsonAvenger]

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?

Being blocked by the political Party that controls Chicago? And the State of Illinois?

Completely irrelevant to this case, however. A limited time discount is ending. They do that - that's what "limited time" means....

They cancelled in neighborhoods where the truck

[Anonymous Coward]

...returned with bullet holes in it. They don't really care about the employees, but the CEO has this thing for the trucks...

Re:They cancelled in neighborhoods where the truck

[budgenator]

...returned with bullet holes in it. They don't really care about the employees, but the CEO has this thing for the trucks...

Aren't most Independent Contractors?

They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[FictionPimp]

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.

Re:They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[Kozar_The_Malignant]

And yet you're whining about being ignored....

Re:They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[ixidor]

its the accompanying upload speed. think things like owncloud, plex. allowing remote streaming. 50 down, 10 up, wont stream remotely to good.

Re:They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[FictionPimp]

It's a combo of many things.

4K video streaming (26mbps per stream recommended)
Multiple users (each wifi device can get 150-300mbps)
Upload speed (everything lives in the cloud now)
Improved support from comcast (they actively monitor my connection and have proactively fixed issues)
More overhead to handle congestion (when I had 150mbps I'd sometimes slow down to 50-75mbps, now I slow down to 500-600mbps)
I get a stipend from work (so it's about as expensive as the 50mbps plan)
Big numbers on speed tests (So I feel like a big man)

Re:They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[budgenator]

Nobody wastes Mod Points on Anonymous Cowards, most rarely reply to ACs. If you want a conversation, login, otherwise you're just background noise. The only exception is if you're revealing some insider information you don't want traced back to you.

Re:They mention south bend, IN but that's BS

[SScorpio]

I thought Comcast's 1Gbps service still only had 40-50Mbps up. AT&T offers 1Gbps up and down with their fiber, though you are forced to use their equipment.

I don't normally max out the line, but have a real upload speed is nice for online backup services.

Napertucky

[PopeRatzo]

As a lifelong Chicagoan, I can tell you that giving Naperville gigabit ether and unlimited data is a bad idea.

why not the mt prospect super headend systems?

[Joe_Dragon]

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.

Because they see the writing on the wall

[aldousd666]

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.

I've got gigabit in Crest Hill, IL

[Chas]

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.

Not many actually need this speed

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Response to costs or money grab?

[sabbede]

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.

What the Comcast rep meant to say

[ausekilis]

"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."

Well yeah

[HalAtWork]

Competition springs up, offer deep discounts until competition folds, remove discounts. Profit.

Translation

[clonehappy]

$70 offer still available where Comcast faces competition from WOW or RCN.