Comcast To Offer Pay-As-You-Go TV, Broadband Service (dslreports.com) 43
An anonymous reader quotes a report from DSLReports: Comcast plans to roll-out prepaid cable TV and internet services later this year in portions of Illinois and four other states. According to a company announcement, Comcast's Xfinity Prepaid Services lets users sign up for TV or internet services and renew service for seven or 30 days at a time -- instead of paying by the month. A one-time setup fee of $80 includes equipment and 30 days of service, with users paying $15 for an additional seven days and $45 for an additional 30 days. "We want to create an easy, pay-as-you-go option for people who want more flexibility and predictability when buying our services," said Marcien Jenckes, Executive Vice President, Consumer Services, Comcast Cable. "And our partnership with Boost Mobile will give Xfinity Prepaid customers even more places where they can conveniently sign-up and pay-as-they-go."
Uhh... (Score:2)
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7 months have 31 days.
How many have 28 days?
(ALL OF THEM.)
Your friend... (Score:2)
a solution for people like my friend, who have a 60 dollar window each month between paying all their bills and adding to their debt.
Your friend should not be buying Comcast's crap, even in a good month.
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NOBODY should be on cable any more unless they live somewhere where there's just no signal. For everyone else, cable is obsolete.
In the early eighties, cable was a good deal. All your local stations without snow, ghosts, or static, and a dozen good, ad-free extra channels.
Now? TV has gone digital, which banished ghosts, snow, and static. Meanwhile, on cable they even have ads during the actual programming, and the stations like Discovery and History have gone completely to hell. Discovery used to be science
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If it doesn't, then they finally have a solution for people like my friend, who have a 60 dollar window each month between paying all their bills and adding to their debt.
And that is why your friend is IN that situation... because they are $60 away from being in debt, and using that last $60 to buy fast Internet.
He/she will NEVER be free of it, because of their decisions...
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12 * 30 = 360
So the difference is 5.24 days per year...
In each month, the difference will be 0-2 days above or below.
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Ambiguity is removed... and you get more service if you sign up during the last 3 days of January.
Re: Uhh... (Score:1)
HOW much to start-up? (Score:3, Insightful)
$80 ??
are you insane?
I'll stick with torrents.
go fuck yourself, comcast. I'll use you for data, but I see you are still in dreamland when it comes to voice and video.
Re:HOW much to start-up? (Score:5, Informative)
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Yeah - they even recompress high-profile events like the Superbowl. The grass looks all swimmy and even on a good set.
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back when digital first came out and people were experimenting with OTA vs sat vs cable - it was obvious that OTA was pretty decent and everything else sucked badly.
what's the point in high def if its all motion smeared?
damn.
its why I prefer spinning media to streaming, for the most part. amazon video is actually pretty good, but most other streamers really compress things way too much.
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I still see those compression OTA too like when it shows rains, action scenes, falling confetti, etc. :(
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Jesus (Score:4, Interesting)
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Please. It's something they do because they want to charge people more for the same service. It has nothing to do with customers not paying bills. That's what *contracts* are for.
Fcc rules on cable card's and owned HSI hardware (Score:3)
Can you take that prepaid box and use it on your post paid account? to get out of paying that $2.99-$10 /mo fee?
What you get per prepaid and later move to post paid do now have this box for free + the main box as part of the base rate?
What if you want want a cable card? Under the law they must give you one and refund the cost of there hardware.
What if you want to add something like HBO? under the law they must let you add stuff like HBO to any base plan. Even if just to get a lower HBO promo price then HBO standalone.
There site says you own the box but they may not let move that owned box to an other plan
The cable card law says
Pay only for equipment you have. Your operator must give you a discount on any packages that include the price of a set-top box if you choose to use your own CableCARD-enabled device. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(5).
Use your own set-top box without extra charge. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(5)(C). Your cable operator may charge you to lease a CableCARD or tuning adapter, but may not charge you an additional service fee for using your own digital-cable-ready television or set-top box.
Receive all "linear" channels (channels other than "on-demand") in your subscription package. This includes premium channels and specialty channels. For some channels delivered using a technique called "switched digital video," you may need a second device called a "tuning adapter." This device is typically provided at no additional charge to CableCARD customers. FCC Rule 76.1205(b)(4). CableCARD-ready devices currently cannot receive your cable operator's Video on Demand services.
There line of BS makes there rant about how people own there own boxes is bad after seeing the FCC ideas that would allow customers to buy the cable boxes rather than leasing them from cable co. Seem like there are playing it both ways to rip people off. May at least the can get them to list the fee as outlet $9.50 box rent $0.50
What about per paid internet why are forced to buy there hardware for the internet plan and can't use hardware that you own now?
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CableCards don't work, deliberately. Comcast doesn't care, because they know the FCC won't do shit to them.
The prices stated are for internet or TV, not both (Score:1)
Too Little, Too Late... (Score:1)
It is a step in the right direction, but we have already cut the cord.
Never going back.
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Full and true a la carte TV would prob
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Odd, where do you live? Plenty of baseball and basketball OTA here in Springfield, IL, a pretty small city. If I want to watch a baseball game that's canle-only, well, that's what bars are for. Lots cheaper than cable.
The phrase "traditional cable or satellite" amuses me, as I was six before Sputnik (long before satellite TV) and thirty before I ever had cable. Growing up in a large metropolis (St. Louis) we only had three channels, now I have twelve in a FAR smaller market.
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LOL. Merkel better get right on that. But she has more pressing things to do, like let 100,000 more "refugees" in to further destroy the country.
Mr Trump, you can't hide behind the AC tag here, we can spot your populism-shrouded, bigoted, and blatantly off-topic views a mile away.
So they are being obtuse on purpose, right? (Score:3)
Because people want ala-carte, not pay as you go. I swear businesses really are trying to be stupid.
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People want cheaper service... They think ala carte will do that, but if it doesn't end up being cheaper, then they really DON'T want it.
Prepaid cellular service was a big factor in getting prices down. Fees couldn't be hidden remotely as easily, and people could switch from one service to another at any time without concern about 2-year contracts.
It's possible that prepaid TV service will start to reform the cable industry in the same ways. It certainly can't hurt, as they're under attack by Netflix and
Rephrased (Score:2)
"We want to get as much business from poor people as we can, even the ones whose service we shut off all the time for not being able to pay their bills in full and on time. And they'll bitch to us and about us less when their service runs out, just like with the "pay until you're too broke to pay for a while" cell phones they've become accustomed to. This low-end service is better (for us) than low-income customers giving up on our expensive services completely because we've priced them o