Comcast Won't Give New Speed Boost To Internet Users Who Don't Buy TV Service (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Last week, Comcast announced speed increases for customers in Houston and the Oregon/SW Washington areas. The announcement headlines were "Comcast increases Internet speeds for some video customers." Customers with 60Mbps Internet download speeds are being upped to 150Mbps; 150Mbps subscribers are going to 250Mbps; and 250Mbps subscribers are getting a raise to 400Mbps or 1Gbps. Comcast says speed increases will kick in automatically without raising the customers' monthly bills -- but only if they subscribe to certain bundles that include both Internet and TV service.

"Cord cutters are not invited to the [speed increase] party," the Houston Chronicle wrote. "Only those who bundle Internet with cable television and other services... will see their speeds go up at no extra charge." Presumably, Internet-only customers can get the new speeds by paying more or by bundling their Internet subscriptions with video.

Comments

This is normal and normally not evil

[williamyf]

I live out of the USoA.

All telecom providers which offer triple play, offer special perks, benefits and plans for users which use two or more services, as opposed to people which use just one.

All banks give you special perks if you receive your monthly pay in their account via direct transfer. Also, they give you special perks and benefits if you pay your bills via automatic drect transfer from their account. (Domicialiacion, is called).

Airlines give you special perks if you are a corporate subscriber.

Is only normal that if you have more than one service with comcast (that being cableTV + Data) you get some perks ("free" speed increase) that other people have to pay for. As some other poster said, if you have NO use for the TV service, pay just $10 for the speed increase, instead of paying $100 for the "useless" TV service (and then get the "free" data speed bump). If, OTOH, you already have the TV+Data service, enjoy your free "$10 data gift card"

If you still can not wrap your brain about it, just imagine if you were a grandpa/grandma, who only uses the TV service, and the data is there for when the grandchildren come visit. Try then to bitch about that instead of giving you a $10 discount on the "useful" TV service, they are raising the speed of your "useless" data package...