I pay Comcast ~$70/month for internet. I can get DSL cheaper, but only at lower performance tiers. It's decent service, I'm not too upset.
I pay Netflix $8/month.
Comcast may experience some creative destruction, but even with their physical infrastructure they really ought to be able to survive at those rates. I'm "sorry" they're losing their content business, but it's not as if they didn't have years of opportunity to figure out what to do about it.
Because they haven't gone up, yet. They just called us a few days ago to announce that they want to upgrade my speed from 12-ish to 20-ish, and they will send us a digital cable box for basic digital, for 4 cents more a month for a year (no typo, four-hundredths of a dollar). Presumably at the end of that year, the rates don't go down.
I assume, though I don't know, that they are doing this to finally get the analog cable channels off their network (which I approve of, they are a shocking waste of bandwidth even at SD), and are complying with their legal obligation to continue to broadcast the local stations to me even though I am only an Internet customer by "giving" me the digital cable box. I broadly approve of this. I am hoping they're trying to "hook" me back on digital cable and that I can get back to my original rates (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) by turning the box back in. Or... if necessary, switching to some of that DSL. (Or threatening to switch to DSL.)
I have the analog TV service -- because the final, discounted price is almost the same as the price for Internet only -- and I can say they've done a lousy job of providing that negotiated, legislated analog support. Noise, severe (upstream, I'm assuming, as the last leg is analog) digital compression artifacts, channels literally "freezing" for hours or a day before someone "unsticks" them. Flickering letterboxing.
They also eliminated two additional PBS stations that had been in the basic cable lineup here, prior to the digital conversion. The channels I most valued.
(At least I'm really subscribing for Internet service. But those depending upon the promised basic analog support are really being screwed.)
All this seems to be a combination of spending no money on the analog support, and pressuring customers to "upgrade".
It's interesting that you received the offer you describe. I've had nothing similar.
Technological trade-offs aside, I'm upset with them because, in my view, they have not adhered to the agreement they entered. And no regulatory body is making any effort to correct this.
And just how have my rates increased 24% in the span of six or eight months, without those same regulators asking Comcast WTF?
Although it's been some years, I've had my DSL experience with SBC/AT&T. And, amazingly, they managed to be yet worse.
(Three service calls -- each a half-day off work for me -- until they actually showed. Exterior, bare, twisted wire connections left dangling on the side of the building. Regular service drops. Phone support that finally admitted: We're outsourced; we can't even see the status of the tickets we file when you call.)
Sorry, this is way too long -- I'm venting.
At least the Comcast Internet service is fairly reliable. They just make you pay through the nose for it, and push similar tactics with their TV service.
Where I am, now, there is no good choice. (Not even a competitor's DSL, as -- last I checked -- AT&T refused to extend support the extra mile to my community of several thousand.
I have NO sympathy for either of these company's "laments". Based on personal experience, I believe everything they say is bullsh-t.
(Final tidbit: About a decade ago, SBC/AT&T received upwards of $1 billion in tax breaks and other incentives in Illinois in return for "universal service", then lobbied the legislature to change the law and let them out of the obligations they'd assumed in return for this largesse.)
Sorry for turning this into a long rant. But the lesson I've learned is to not believe a word they say.
I only do business with these companies because I simply have no other choice. A position a lot of other people are also in. Monopoly or duopoly, the resulting behavior is straight out of the textbook.
I pay Netflix $8/month.
Comcast may experience some creative destruction, but even with their physical infrastructure they really ought to be able to survive at those rates. I'm "sorry" they're losing their content business, but it's not as if they didn't have years of opportunity to figure out what to do about it.