US Cable Support > Comcast HSI > We're talking about competition now

reply to GTFan

Re: We're talking about competition now

reply to GTFan

reply to GTFan
At my residence in North Portland, I basically have two wired options: Comcast HSI and the phone company's (CenturyLink's) DSL, which actually boils down to one option because DSL where I live is limited to 3 lousy Mbps.

I suppose Clear (the one and only reasonable wireless option) might be an alternative, but I have no idea if it would actually work, or what kinds of speeds I could expect.

reply to CableTool

reply to Papageno

reply to GTFan

reply to CableTool
In some areas, competition actually hurts the market. Groton, CT is one of the last markets to get upgraded by Comcast because the local overbuilder that's owned by the city competes with them there, so they don't have as much of the market. However, people in the adjacent towns, who are on Comcast's Groton system get screwed because they don't have the overbuilder.

reply to C_Chipperson

reply to C_Chipperson

What do I care in regards to talking about it or not?
No idea what the "cap" is. Its a Business plan. Im not going over whatever it is driving around all day.

What is competition in GENERAL should really be the discussion. Because to detractors, any "alternative" service you bring up isnt "REAL" competition.
That being said its easy to make a point..

But LTE is competition. If someone will switch from your service to another, you are competing with them. BAR NONE.

If you are looking for apples to apples in regards to service and offerings.. you most likely will not find that. Thats what makes services and choices different.

--
CableTechs.org/"Horrible People with Integrity"

reply to GTFan

Apparently, it's not that obvious. Great points.

This seems to be hitting some people on a personal level.

Ill say this- Im not trying to convince anyone of anything. Nor can I most likely be swayed in another direction. I work in this industry each day. An hour ago I was told if a certain issue isnt repaired the customer will drop us altogether and just use HULU.
Would you think Hulu can compete line for line with Comcasts Video? They cant. But for this customer they would be fine with HULU. So your saying I shouldnt view that as a threat or a competitor as I possibly lose a customer to it?

We are in different worlds. Every product out there that offers what my company offers is a potential viable competitor. You may not see it that way, not sure how many homes youve been in, how many varied needs youve met or how many options youve heard thrown at you.. but lets just settle at we are in two different worlds.

Now, I GET where you are coming from. I really do. But someone can drop Comcast or whomever their current provider is and make up the difference with different offerings by then end of the week.

And if you think the possibilities of LTE isnt a threat youve really got to re-examine the industry. If you think UVERSEs wireless converters were cool.. how does Wireless "cable" sound? No dish, no drop? Do you really NOT think that there will be a wireless BROADBAND option coming at some point?

One really has to look past what is happening in their town or on their pole or in their house.

I compete daily, in an industry that I am being told has no competition. Stings a bit.. but that is the side of the fence Ive chosen.
--
CableTechs.org/"Horrible People with Integrity"

My 2¢:

Here in the Denver area, we have "competition":

Comcast - Expensive, with multiple rate increases per year. Peering with Google appears to be an issue...YouTube will regularly buffer on Comcast where it won't elsewhere..and it's not my router that's the issue. That said, the service is faster (up to 105/??; I have 25/4) and less temperamental than the competition, particularly when you narrow things down to services whose costs are less than $5 per unthrottled gigabyte (so no 3G/4G/sat). Speaking of cost per gigabyte, I've gone over the cap a few times and haven't heard anything from Comcast. Maybe I'm special...or maybe it's because I'm paying for a high-end-ish tier anyway. Business class is available for more money, with lower speeds...and no caps.

CenturyLink - In some areas, they're comparable to Comcast in speed. I'm not in one of those areas. Actually, most people aren't. Here, speeds top out at 12 Mbps minus ATM overhead (so closer to 10 Mbps) on downloads and ~700k (after overhead is taken out) on uploads. Comcast's advertised speeds pick up where CenLink's leave off. At my apartment, the top speed I can get is 5 Mbps minus overhead. Plus the service isn't quite as reliable as Comcast. Yes, the two providers compete, but CenLink is too busy trying to sell phone lines to give a rip about performance, or so it seems. Disappointing, really.

Skybeam - The companies they bought might have been okay, and on paper their service is competitive with DSL/cable. In reality, I've heard nothing but bad things about them. As such, no one with any wireline option would pick them.

3G/4G - As a fixed service, it doesn't work due to very low caps, unless you use your connection very little. You'll either be throttled or pay a ton in overages. That said, Verizon and T-Mobile provide speeds comparable to a wireline connection (cable, not DSL). Sprint has an unlimited plan (via Millenicom) however its network is worse than DSL, and more expensive. CricKet throttled after a few gigabytes, and their network is unimpressive. AT&T is good but not great. Clearwire, for all intents and purposes, is vaporware at this point. Some places in Denver can get it, but indoor coverage issues abound and speeds just aren't that great.

Satellite - Who am I kidding? Even with ViaSat Exede, the service is unattractive due to latency and low caps.

You could say the Denver metro area has "competition", in that there are multiple paths to the Internet from any given location, via wires or otherwise. However the number of areas where Comcast directly competes with a comparable service is small. The "competition" that seems to be used here is this "comparable service" definition (e.g. non-buggy U-Verse, CenLink VDSL/bonded ADSL2+, DOCSIS 3 cable or someone's fiber competing with Comcast). Tons of places in the U.S. don't have that.

Some places feel this lack of competition's impact more than others...Denver (Comcast) sees regular rate increases such that you pay about the same for a comparable connection to what you could get four years ago, despite the march of technology (they've just changed tier names). Fredericksburg, TX (TWC) has rate increases as well, but the "bits per dollar" index is higher, so the effective monopoly is reasonable. Then there are markets like Austin where U-Verse competes with a DOCSIS 3-based cable overbuilder (Grande) and TWC, which also has D3. If people are in an overbuilt area, they tend not to complain about internet speeds or pricing. Those not in an overbuilt area wish they were.

reply to CableTool

reply to iansltx
Is YouTube a Comcast issue or a general problem? I've heard of that before, but I've also had issues with it at school, which is it's own ISP...

If I VPN into my (now former) college, YouTube doesn't have any issues. It's transit-dependent as far as I've seen. Then again, my school has access to National LambdaRail, TransitRail and Internet2 + Internet2 Commercial Peering Service...and Google is a peer of both Internet2 and TransitRail if I remember correctly. Need to check on that.

reply to CableTool