I wonder how long before ISP's will switch to a per use billing scheme like power.

[purbeast0]

i'd prefer they do tiers than flat out $x/gb.

 

[Aikouka]

I don't know. What are other people in our part of NJ (western Morris County) paying? We cut the cord last year, we have no video services from them, and no VOIP. I have standard tier 25/5 service.

Holy cow... if you don't live in the middle of nowhere, that's absolutely ridiculous pricing. I pay around $85 for 50/10 Internet (Blast!) + HD Cable + extra channels.

 

[notposting]

Don't forget, if they want to really, really, get into metered billing, someone should really start verifying their meters. Too many stories of bandwidth in use while people are gone (modems off, even) etc. Bet the ISP's would LOVE to have all the state Weights and Measures Departments looking j to their meters.



And as for the ISP's that would try it and then cry about the attention...mwahhahah.

 

[SparkyJJO]

I don't know. What are other people in our part of NJ (western Morris County) paying? We cut the cord last year, we have no video services from them, and no VOIP. I have standard tier 25/5 service.

You're getting ripped off big time. I live in the country and on promotion I'm paying $55 a month for 30/5 with Time Warner. Normal price after the promotion is $65. Granted, different market area and company but still...!!

 

[Markbnj]

Are you saying you pay $155 per month for only 25/5 Comcast Internet service, with no TV?

That's my last bill, and we have no voip or TV services on our account. I believe the service tier is 25/5 but I'm not looking at something that says that. It's what I consistently get when I measure it. My wife set the service up over ten years ago, and she was also the one who finally decided to cancel the video portion.

I honestly don't have a clue how their pricing works, but I am pretty sure that unless you also live in this part of NJ any comparisons are meaningless.

 

[Markbnj]

You're getting ripped off big time. I live in the country and on promotion I'm paying $55 a month for 30/5 with Time Warner. Normal price after the promotion is $65. Granted, different market area and company but still...!!

Well this is kind of the point, isn't it? How am I getting ripped off when there is only one choice of provider? There is no market to compare them to. Saying you pay x over in some other place from some other provider is meaningless. If you live near me and pay less for more then I could feel I was getting boned. Otherwise I have nothing to compare to. Comcast can charge whatever it wants because there is no reasonable alternative. Actually we just got a new tower near us and finally have 4G that is faster than our Comcast connection, so that puts an upper limit on what they can charge, obviously, but it's still a functional monopoly.

 

[Blanky]

Well this is kind of the point, isn't it? How am I getting ripped off when there is only one choice of provider? There is no market to compare them to. Saying you pay x over in some other place from some other provider is meaningless. If you live near me and pay less for more then I could feel I was getting boned. Otherwise I have nothing to compare to. Comcast can charge whatever it wants because there is no reasonable alternative. Actually we just got a new tower near us and finally have 4G that is faster than our Comcast connection, so that puts an upper limit on what they can charge, obviously, but it's still a functional monopoly.

Yep, and it is another example of why these fucking companies need to be regulated. For most people there is a total monpoly on broadband in their area.

 

[Carson Dyle]

That's my last bill, and we have no voip or TV services on our account. I believe the service tier is 25/5 but I'm not looking at something that says that. It's what I consistently get when I measure it. My wife set the service up over ten years ago, and she was also the one who finally decided to cancel the video portion.

I honestly don't have a clue how their pricing works, but I am pretty sure that unless you also live in this part of NJ any comparisons are meaningless.

Yeah, that sounds a little like it something that you've just ignored for ten years. You could be right about the pricing being highly unusual due to your location, but I've never heard of Comcast's billing being anywhere near _that_ variable.

I'm looking at my December Comcast bill right now, where they list pricing for all of their services and bundles... The price here for the 25/5 Performance tier with no TV service is $66.95/month.

 

[Markbnj]

Yeah, that sounds a little like it something that you've just ignored for ten years.

No, that's not the case. My wife is pretty vigilant and she has renegotiated with them a few times, and at least she would have to have a look at it when she canceled the TV part last year.

I certainly leave open the possibility that we're stuck in some ridiculous tier and they're all laughing in Port Murray every time the bills go out. But unless someone else in my direct area chimes in and says "OMG I'm two miles from you and paying $75 for the same thing" then I don't really have any relevant info. Just impressions. Comcast was stitched together from dozens of local cable providers, and I know for a fact that their pricing is highly variable regionally. Hell, this conversation is just further evidence of that.

 

[Carson Dyle]

No, that's not the case. My wife is pretty vigilant and she has renegotiated with them a few times, and at least she would have to have a look at it when she canceled the TV part last year.

I certainly leave open the possibility that we're stuck in some ridiculous tier and they're all laughing in Port Murray every time the bills go out. But unless someone else in my direct area chimes in and says "OMG I'm two miles from you and paying $75 for the same thing" then I don't really have any relevant info. Just impressions. Comcast was stitched together from dozens of local cable providers, and I know for a fact that their pricing is highly variable regionally. Hell, this conversation is just further evidence of that.

Do you have access to your old bills? Either paper or PDFs. You should get one periodically that lists pricing, as I mentioned above. It would be interesting to see what each of the tiers costs where you live.

I encourage you to ask whether or not what you're paying is unusual in the Comcast HSI forum over at BroadbandReports.com. Something ain't right.

 

[jpiniero]

Comcast usually charges something extra - like $15 or $20 if you only have Internet. (Or you can think of it as a discount if you bundle)

Yep, and it is another example of why these fucking companies need to be regulated. For most people there is a total monpoly on broadband in their area.

Does the phone company in your area not offer internet?

 

[Patranus]

It is pretty hilarious that Anantech thinks its network usage it reflective of the vast majority of households. Pricing of $1/GB would be a fantastic deal for almost every household in America.

 

[Carson Dyle]

It is pretty hilarious that Anantech thinks its network usage it reflective of the vast majority of households. Pricing of $1/GB would be a fantastic deal for almost every household in America.

Until you wake up one day to a monthly bill for $500 because your 14 year old kid discovered torrenting.

 

[Markbnj]

Do you have access to your old bills? Either paper or PDFs. You should get one periodically that lists pricing, as I mentioned above. It would be interesting to see what each of the tiers costs where you live.

Yeah I will definitely look into it and post what I find. I suspect that if we took a survey of actual pricing/tiers we'd be surprised by the variation.

Does the phone company in your area not offer internet?

Where we live we had Sprint/Embarq DSL available for awhile but it was horrible. I don't know anyone who is getting their network access through twisted pair around here. That was the fallback before Comcast built out back in 2002 and 2003. We heard rumors that FIOS was coming, but it never did, and then Verizon basically threw its hands up in the air over the ridiculous cost of negotiating with every single little burg and its corrupt leadership.

So there's one thing the country could do to shake things up: take control over broadband out of the hands of municipal governments. I can't imagine a single good reason for having municipal control over infrastructure at that level, other than to have an appeal/legal process if they think their interests are being compromised. Having municipal contracts with broadband network providers is madness. It should be state level.

 

[Aikouka]

It is pretty hilarious that Anantech thinks its network usage it reflective of the vast majority of households. Pricing of $1/GB would be a fantastic deal for almost every household in America.

You sure about that? Netflix alone will jack up most bills. One of my coworkers told me about how he got hit with Comcast's overage notification, and he thought it was his son doing something... until he realized that he had binged a bunch of TV during some of the snow that we had this past week.

 

[Zodiark1593]

I really hope those supporting usage based billing on this thread are simply trolling. If internet were to be regulated like a utility (except no actual resources are delivered) then the only hope for decent internet is moving to Europe.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Yea, the idea of metered internet is such a bad idea. I get that if you have a really high bill now, it may sound good, but it's only going to get worse as we move forward. Internet should simply be billed on speed and that is it. The caveat should be you ALWAYS get that speed, regardless of how much you use and data caps should be non existent.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Yep, and it is another example of why these fucking companies need to be regulated. For most people there is a total monpoly on broadband in their area.

Yeah, I'm sure the government will only have your best interests in mind

 

[Red Squirrel]

You sure about that? Netflix alone will jack up most bills. One of my coworkers told me about how he got hit with Comcast's overage notification, and he thought it was his son doing something... until he realized that he had binged a bunch of TV during some of the snow that we had this past week.

Yeah it's not that hard, especially if you have fibre internet.

I barely did any torrenting in the past few months. (new law in Canada that makes it illegal/enforceable now sadly) Still at 236GB in / 127GB out. That's just casual usage mostly. It adds up.

 

[Markbnj]

Just talked to my wife and I had it wrong. The bill I looked at was for two months. So we're paying about $77/mo. for 25/5.

 

[Carson Dyle]

Just talked to my wife and I had it wrong. The bill I looked at was for two months. So we're paying about $77/mo. for 25/5.

Whew... Glad to hear.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah, I'm sure the government will only have your best interests in mind

The government always has our best interests in mind. They are here to help.

 

[Markbnj]

Yeah, I'm sure the government will only have your best interests in mind

I'm generally pretty conservative, especially with regards to government regulation and economics. But I think it is a little reactionary, to say the least, to assume that government is never the solution to large issues. If it weren't for government intervention into markets we would all be renting little black phones from AT&T. Government may not always have the little guy's best interests at heart, but it's fair to say that large corporations are no better, and may be worse. At least in the case of a competitive market you can vote against corporations you don't like by not sending them your money. But when a corporation has an effective monopoly on their market who is going to moderate their behavior if not the government that allowed the monopoly to form in the first place? Do you really think that an unchecked monopolistic Comcast is going to act in our best interests?

 

[GregGreen]

Under the basics of net neutrality, customers of said data should only get charged once for the data, so we'd only get charged for uploads, no? We're already paying for the transmit of content through ads, service fees for said product, or the goodness of someone offering something for free.

In that circumstance, I'm certainly cool with $1/gig

If it's per gig like ISPs want to call it now, it'd have to start at ~4-6 cents per gig. That's what I pay now for my bandwidth (30mbit down + 5mbit up @ 100% usage for 30 days). $1/gig is what? A 20x increase in price? You gotta get it down to like 2 cents per gig to make it a good deal for the average person.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I wouldn't be at all surprised to see metered billing become the standard in the United States. I might not like it much, but it certainly wouldn't be shocking. Whether that happens is going to depend on what kind of competition arises for the cable internet providers. At the rate it's going now, I don't see significant competition for at least a decade, except maybe in a few scattered cities.

How metered billing is received (by normal users, not those who want to move 12TB every month in torrents) will have everything to do with the implementation. I could see a base rate that's based on connection speed, plus X cents per GB. Or a base rate with a built in soft cap, and then X cents per GB over that. That's how most people pay for their cell phone plans, so it woouldn't be at all foreign.

And I'm still not seeing how the FCC's net neutrality concerns will have anything to do with how ISPs price their services to end users. It's one thing to say that an ISP cannot charge Netflix or YouTube any more than anyone else to move their data, but the FCC will never say you can't charge one customer more than another for a faster connection or for more data.