cdru
Go Colts
Premium,MVM
join:2003-05-14
Fort Wayne, IN | [Insert witty subject here]
You mean competition is good? There's a shocker. |
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djrobx
join:2000-05-31
Valencia, CA
1 edit | NRTC
Didn't Pegasus customers beccome DirecTV customers last year? Are customers in those regions still paying higher prices?
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\\ROB - a part of the SCB local network |
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Damon85
Premium
join:2004-12-25
Louisville, KY
| Isn't it obvious?
Integrate the fact that incumbents are attempting to ban towns like Hudson from wiring themselves with fiber, and what is the choice for rural America? Stay in the dark -- or move into an urban area where they can take your money for cheap. They want your money, but you can't expect them to put forth too much effort to get it.
The bag of chips is just out of arms reach and they're too fat to get off the couch. The bag of chips, therefore, is commanded to move closer... |
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crazyboykc
join:2003-01-30
Gardner, KS
| reply to djrobx
Re: NRTC
I am having this problem now with Time Warner doing this EXACT thing to their customers in the small town where I live. I know others that live in larger cities around me that can get more features and pay less for their service through Time Warner. Just wait, there will be a time when I leave their ass for another provider because of what they are doing. |
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TKJunkMail
Enjoy the sun
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Avalon, NJ
 ·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·Comcast
| Multiple reasons for no cable-cable competition
There are multiple reason there is no cable to cable competition:
1. Political corruption - the city/municipality/township pols signed an agreement to only allow 1 cable franchise exclusive right to run cable in exchange for donation to their campaigns.
2. It isn't economically profitable for another cable company to wire a locality and try to get business thru lower prices or better offerings. And for many small/poor communities this is the major reason.
3. Semi-monopoly status of the cable industry where there are now very few players because of mergers. The incumbent players find it more profitable to just carve up the territories rather than to compete against each other.
The only competition cable TV will get in entrenched areas is either thru satellite(but prices aren't really that much lower) or thru telecomm providers. But telecom competition will take years before they make any real headway. And when they do, I'll bet prices won't be that much better. And cable will just lower prices in those areas where real competition exists. But 2010 will be the date before this really starts happening. So for now, cable users are stuck, unless they decide to go to the trouble of switching to satellite. But only the really outraged or really mistreated cable customers will go to that trouble.
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My Web Page
My Blog
Join Red Room Forum |
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chesney09
Premium
join:2004-07-26
Redford, MI
clubs:
| Southeast Michigan competition
A descent portion of the Metro Detroit Area has 2 cable companies. WOW ((Wide Open West)Built by Americast/Ameritech) and typically ComCrap. It is amazing at the price difference when you look at areas that have access to choose and those that don't. It is a MAJOR amount of difference. The problem is that the new Cable company that builds out a whole new RF Trunking Network has a hard time getting the penetration it needs to sustain itself. WOW has RAVED about customer service, but fights to win customers over from ComCrap for whatever reasons. I remember when it was rolled out in a new city.. The response would be IMMENSE but Comcast would just offer them a boat load of free service to come back.
So, as competition is good for customers it is quite hard for a business case. |
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KoolMoe
Aw Man
Premium
join:2001-02-14
Annapolis, MD
clubs:
 ·Verizon FIOS
 ·Speakeasy
| reply to TKJunkMail
Re: Multiple reasons for no cable-cable competitio
We have two cable options where I live. Unfortunately service from the slightly lower-priced option kinda sucks. So I'd like to move to satellite - but that requires a satellite box at every outlet.
We have two TVs which have cable boxes so they can get digital cable. But my HTPC and one of my computers both have TV tuners. I don't have cable boxes for those - so I can't get digital cable BUT basic analog cable works perfectly....which is fine for those two computer's needs.
I do NOT want to have to connect satellite tuners between the coax and tuner for those computers. So unless I can get 'basic service' without a tuner box, satellite is not an option for me...
At least I have two cable companies to choose from. I just wish the lower-priced one was decent. Otherwise it's Comcast which is 1) expensive and 2) a monopoly I don't want to support.
Ah well.
KM
--
Corn-on-the-cob is how it comes out of the ground. They should just call it corn, and every other type of corn, corn-off-the-cob. It's not like if my arm were cutoff they would call it "Mitch", and then re-attached, call it "Mitch-all-together". |
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DonLibes
Premium,ExMod 2001
join:2003-01-19
| reply to cdru
Re: [Insert witty subject here]
The rate jiggling you speak of is handled that way *everywhere* in the US. The FCC permits cable companies to raise their regulated rates subject to appeal by the LFA. If the cable goes ahead despite the appeal and the appeal is successful, the cable must pay back the customers.
Bottom line is that LFA's almost always pay a consultant to analyze whether regulated rates are too high. The outcome should be no surprise. |
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Jetta392
Premium
join:2002-07-14
Martinsville, NJ
1 edit | no subject
. |
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Gunslinger03
join:2004-07-09
Chesapeake, VA
| reply to Damon85
Re: Isn't it obvious?
It should be obvious, but most of the people sheeple socialists on this board think government is the solution to every broadband problem. This is because there are not many good economics classes in our government-run schools. Coincidence? |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| Show me where :urban: America has it different
Except for a very few areas where overbuilding was the rage in the early 1990's, there aren't ANY places where there are two cable providers, rural, suburban or urban. They are almost ALL "One Cable Company Towns". I live in a very affluent Chicago suburb and Comcast is all we have, and that ain't changing.
Someone also tell me how living in a rural area keeps you from getting satellite TV. I guess all those dishes I see on hundreds of dwellings "out there" are for catching raindrops?
Rural America has the same choice the rest of the country has. This is a non-story. |
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SpitefulCrow
Insert Witty Tag Here
Premium
join:2003-06-04
Berkeley, CA
| reply to Gunslinger03
Re: Isn't it obvious?
How clever of you. You've taken a macroeconomics 101 course at some college, I presume.
The private sector does not have the motivation to make their services universally available.
The government isn't efficient enough to maintain massive infrastructure like a nationwide network or even one for a large metropolitan area. However, small towns that have started municipal access networks have seen great success.
So here's how it should work:
Let the little towns that wouldn't be profitable to the huge telcos run munis. The telcos can then focus on providing better and faster service in major metropolitan areas to justify rate hikes and can also reinvest more in their core networks while maintaining a profit since they would then have substantially less last-mile to maintain out in the sticks. The federal government will never get involved, it'd be done entirely at the local level. Everybody wins. |
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Gunslinger03
join:2004-07-09
Chesapeake, VA
| reply to RadioDoc
Re: Show me where :urban: America has it different
I agree. This was selected because the pro-muni people (author included) think it proves somehow that a government run cable/telco would be so much better. And isn't it common sense to begin with? If you roll out billion a dollar network in an urban area and have two-million subscribers, versus a billion dollar network in a rural area with twenty-thousand subscribers, where do you get a better return on investment? Where can you afford to pass down a lower cost for the same or better services? Not to mention these same costs and investment apply to a muni just as they do a private company. But with a muni the local government can use taxes, fees, etc., to cover the shortcomings, and ultimately the people who didn't want the service(s) to begin with also pay. |
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chesney09
Premium
join:2004-07-26
Redford, MI
clubs: | reply to RadioDoc
There is in fact a section of Chicago Suburbs that have WOW(Previously Americast) in competition with the incumbant.
There is also a section of Ohio(Columbus and Clevelend(If I recall) that has direct competition with the incumbant cable company. |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
·WOW Internet and C..
| reply to chesney09
Re: Southeast Michigan competition
said by chesney09  : It is a MAJOR amount of difference. I wouldn't say major. I pay roughly $10 maybe $12 less for WOW than Comcast for similar services. The one thing that WOW doesn't offer that Comcast does is VOD. Sure its not the end of the world and I am living without it, but as time goes on, these smaller companies like WOW start to lag behind the larger competitor and end up not making the pricing worth it. They simply do not have the capital that the larger company has. Sure WOW has an awesome network here and good customer support(sure there are a few rouge CSRs that are a pain) but in the long run I don't think it will last. This is one of the main reasons why there is usually only one cable or telco company around, which is something most do not understand nor do they care to hear it. |
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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI | reply to chesney09
Re: Show me where :urban: America has it different
Also, there is a small corner of IN that has both WOW and Comcast too. |
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ib50MbSoon
Formerly TwoKDialup
Premium
join:2002-06-07
Coloma, MI
| Get the big fish first!
quote:
a consultant for ten grand to prove Comcast had been over-charging customers in the town by around $2 a month.
Maybe Hudson, MA should have their "consultant" look into their telco's ~$10/mo CallerID service or $5/mo call forwarding. Might as well go after the big abusers first. |
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FTCXtreme
join:2005-03-14
New Braintree, MA
| Hudson Really has it bad.
They're lucky that they have cable. In New Braintree we dont! Hudson is hardly Rural, They're semi-rural.
»www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.···dex=2989
Compare Hudson to:»www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.···dex=3053
Alot of a difference. I agree Comcast is evil but atleast they get broadband. |
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JTRockville
Data Ho
Premium,MVM
join:2002-01-28
Rockville, MD
clubs:
 ·LINGO
·Sprint Mobile Broa..
 ·surpasshosting
·Verizon FIOS
| reply to RadioDoc
Re: Show me where :urban: America has it different
said by RadioDoc :Someone also tell me how living in a rural area keeps you from getting satellite TV. I guess all those dishes I see on hundreds of dwellings "out there" are for catching raindrops? It's not just about TV. It's about broadband, and other advanced network services.
The US continues to fall further and further behind. Very few people have a choice in cable providers. DSL coverage is spotty at best.
Way out here in "rural" Rockville Maryland, my choices for residential broadband are:
1) A provider who is essentially unregulated, who has no competitors, or
2) nothing.
Clearly the market has failed.
Laura Forlano's asked an interesting question in an article published today at GothamGazette.com:
Is Broadband a Public Utility? A Right?
My response is now, and has always been: utility. I think the USA deserves better than what the market is capable of providing. |
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RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest
| reply to chesney09
Yeah I'm quite aware of the WOW nee Americast overbuild areas. Around here except for ~120K folks in Naperville they don't amount to much, and even that is a drop in the bucket. What about the other six million who are stuck with Comcast? Re-read my first sentence above. And just for your information, Naperville is hardly "rural".
I would venture a guess that the 2% referenced in the GAO study is about right. No sane private or public company would overbuild an incumbent cable operator at this point in the game, and a muni overbuild isn't any less crazy. |
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