The Average Cable Bill Has Increased More Than 50 Percent Since 2010 (streamingobserver.com) 193
According to new research, the average cost households pay for cable is now up to $107 a month -- that's a 50% increase since 2010 when cable bills were $71.24 a month. When compared to last year, it's only a 1% increase, "thanks in large part to increasing fees for things like regional sports licensing and taxes," reports Streaming Observer. From the report: Leichtman Research Group's data was gathered through a telephone survey of 1,152 households from throughout the United States. The research found that 78% of American households still subscribe to a paid TV subscription. That percentage is down from 86% in 2013, 87% in 2008, and 81% in 2004, but 78% is still a pretty high figure given how high cable costs continue to rise each year and how affordable streaming video services are in comparison.
Average cable internet bill has gone down 100% (Score:4, Informative)
Re: Average cable internet bill has gone down 100% (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe if they didnt bundle crap channels with basic packages, people may be more inclined to keep cable. Do I want OWN, Lifetime, FYI, Hallmark or any of that crap? Nope.
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I don't think they get it. I can't just demand more money from the people who pay me. Well, I can, but it rarely works out the way I think it should :-D
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Well, if you don't like it, you can always get cable from another provider.... ...well...err....uh...how about....
In most of the US they have a monopoly. If you are really lucky you can switch to the other ripoff cable provider in your area.
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"In most of the US they have a monopoly."
I guess this is true if you don't count DirectTV, Dish, Sling, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube or one of the many other providers with regular new/old content.
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Touche!
I don't watch much TV so I forgot about most of them. I do have Netflix and access to YouTube. I think Netflix is superior to cable but was not aware that it offered cable (other than shows that used to be on cable).
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"thanks in large part to increasing fees for things like regional sports licensing and taxes,"
100% of this rate increase, at
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so thank you to all the fucking 'cord cutters' that raised the rates for everybody else.
our bill went from $110 with all the premiums and extra tiers and '1 tier higher than slowest' internet to $140 with NO premiums, no extra tiers, about a dozen LESS channels in the base package than there used to be, and slowest-available internet.
so $30 more for less, and 15x4 + 10x2 + 5 + 20 = $105 for what we gave up = $135 + 110 = $245 to get what we had. that's well over 100% increase since 2005 when we had to start
Re:Average cable internet bill has gone down 100% (Score:5, Funny)
so thank you to all the fucking 'cord cutters' that raised the rates for everybody else.
You're quite welcome.
so $30 more for less, and 15x4 + 10x2 + 5 + 20 = $105 for what we gave up = $135 + 110 = $245 to get what we had. that's well over 100% increase since 2005 when we had to start downgrading services.
You're welcome to join us and become a cord cutter too. We have cookies.
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Say your cable company makes these offers:
In a situation like this, what's the benefit of cutting TV?
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Say your cable company makes these offers:
In a situation like this, what's the benefit of cutting TV?
Eventually the benefit is that's a great market for a competing ISP to enter.
Competing ISP such as an MVNO? (Score:2)
Comcast appears not to allow third parties to offer service over its last mile. Competing ISPs are MVNOs, which insist on limiting my household's Internet data transfer to a handful of gigabytes per month. A startup company seeking access to lay its own fiber over city rights of way would probably end up unable to satisfy an unreasonably rapid citywide buildout schedule. I'm aware that some cities require franchisees to build out the network over the whole city in order to ensure that the service reaches le
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To be another brick in the wall.
Broadcast TV is dead. Cable bundles are dead. They're just barely hanging on because of folks like you (and my wife) won't stop giving them a way to make the books show that TV can still turn a profit, and that people still want it.
We don't want it. We want on-demand. We want a back catalog. We want to binge a series. We want more than 22 minutes of content in an hour. We want a fucking search function.
The sooner TV dies, the better. And before some asshat blubbers , "But mah
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We don't want it. We want on-demand. We want a back catalog.
A valid criticism of satellite television. But cable offers a fairly large selection of video on demand, but the studios won't let the networks offer all episodes of all seasons because that would unfairly compete with DVD box set sales.
Youtube Live is already a thing.
Not in my ZIP code, according to YouTube TV's signup form.
The ESPN and individual sport broadcast apps are a thing.
And the first thing users see is "Sign in with the username and password issued by your participating multichannel pay TV provider."
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Say your cable company makes these offers:
In a situation like this, what's the benefit of cutting TV?
The benefit is that you are not paying all the taxes, franchise fees, box rentals, and other assorted bullshit they add on to the price. I'd rather pay $99.99 and not have to pray that they don't suddenly throw in some fee - just because - from one month to the next. I cut the cord five years ago and the cable company has probably spent several hundred dollars in that time on postage and high quality marketing materials I receive every other day begging my return. They offer all sorts of wonderful deals
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They MUST pay the content providers for the programming/channels they carry.
A lot of which they recoup by selling ad time on those channels. Typical retransmission agreements allow cable system operators to replace a few commercials per hour.
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You're welcome to join us and become a cord cutter too. We have cookies.
And Netflix.
After not having cable (or satellite) TV for about 15 years, when I have a chance to experience cable TV these days, I can't imagine paying for it. You have to watch shows when they are on, instead of when you want to? Every show is interrupted every 6 minutes for 3 minutes of commercials? I wouldn't want that if it were free.
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so thank you to all the fucking 'cord cutters' that raised the rates for everybody else.
Is that the sound of your PVR's hard disk crashing or the world's tiniest violin?
It's your own fault, not the cord cutters. They are giving you less stuff for the same money, and you are accepting that. There is no down side for them, some people pay more and people like you pay the same for less.
That's why prices aren't going down. If more people ditched cable TV they would be forced to offer a more attractive, competitive product.
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Comcast. The good, the bad, and the ugly. (Score:5, Informative)
I had been a Comcast customer for years. I had Internet, Phone, and Cable TV service. Rate was about $180/month. Two year contract.
The Internet service is excellent. Not only is it fast and reliable (wasn't always but they fixed things) but they actually do IPv6 right.
So last year (about 18 months ago) they decide I must be too pleased some it's TIME FOR A FLEECING!
My contract is up. I want to renew. NOT AN OPTION. I say what do you mean you can't. I'm using it right now. Yes but the 3-service deal is no longer offered. You have to get the 4-service deal. It is called "quad play." In addition to the other services you get home security.
I say I don't want another security service. I have ADP and have invested $1500 in sensors that would be thrown away if I changed now. Not to mention I would have to purchase more sensors.
I won't bore you with the details but the choices boiled down to this: 1) ditch Comcast (and I lose the Internet service i depend on for my business). 2) Get the three services I have been using which will cost about $100 more than what I have been paying, or 3) get the FOUR services for about $40 LESS -- FOR NOW -- than I have been paying.
Now get this. I say ok I'll take the quad play but I'll just not use the home security. So no need to schedule the installers --- hold your horses right there son. We WON'T give you a new contract until AFTER our installers show up to your house, burn a half day of your time, and certify that the service is installed. And there is this wireless pad thing that has to be in the house somewhere.
I bitch enough that the gal gives me a "free" camera.
So now I have two security services running at my house -- I never arm the Xfinity one but I do use the camera which is pretty well implemented. I have to feel grateful that they didn't make me unplug the ADT system.
Somehow the monthly bill has creeped up on me. Now it's $225/month not including the occasional movie my wife buys. Instead of $40 less I was pitched I am now paying $40 more.
That's my Comcast bitching for today. Thanks for listening.
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What is it you get out of having a land line and cable TV that makes you put up with this? What do you use them for?
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Many professional and collegiate sporting events and political news-and-opinion shows are exclusive to traditional multichannel pay TV (that is, cable and satellite). They are not available over-the-top on the Internet.
In addition, many cable system operators offer only lower Internet access speeds (per second or per month) to Internet-only subscribers. Someone who doesn't watch TV but wants Internet access faster than a pittance of GB/mo must subscribe to TV that he or she doesn't watch in order to become
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Research YouTubeTV
A couple days ago, YouTube TV's signup form told me YouTube TV is not available in my ZIP code.
Hulu Live
No C-SPAN, no The Weather Channel. My roommate watches Washington Journal on C-SPAN, and the live stream on C-SPAN's website is available only to authenticated subscribers to participating multichannel pay television providers.
DirectTV Now
The $40 per month plan lacks The Weather Channel, and I doubt the $55 per month plan would save anything compared to the difference between Internet only from Comcast and Internet plus TV fr
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Is leaving Comcast behind worth moving to a different state?
Much like Apple's business plan (Score:3)
The plan: squeeze more money out of each diehard customer in a shrinking market. Obvious issue is, it makes the market shrink faster. One uncomfortable detail: the demographic of those diehard customers is increasingly on fixed income.
I can barely remember... (Score:2)
Wow. I can barely remember when I had cable (about 10 years ago), and my current house has never had cable service.
What particularly got me to cut the cord was the excessive sports fees the cable companies were paying and passing on to the consumer. Since I do not watch sports and since some cable companies owned sports teams (i.e. Comcast) were collecting the fees they were charging, I simply opted out. Besides, the only time I had free time to watch TV was when most of the cable channels were broadcast
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Without cable service, how do you connect to the Internet? Or did you choose your current house based on fiber availability? Or do you deal with cellular and its single digit GB per month of tethering?
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Or do you deal with cellular and its single digit GB per month of tethering?
It's not single-digit. VZ offers up to something like 18GB/mo (for $99/mo on a hotspot.) Still quite pathetic, though.
Phone company (Score:2)
My internet comes from the phone company. Ironically, there is no phone line because I use voip and cell for phone service.
Now, I wish I had a choice of internet providers.
Buy DSL, get phone line free (Score:2)
My internet comes from the phone company. Ironically, there is no phone line
So your phone company isn't selling you DSL and giving you a POTS line that you don't use at no extra charge? Because that's what some phone companies do, and it'd be analogous to what some cable companies do with their bundle structures.
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I live in a new development and the phone company only has provisions for fiber. (Not aware of any homes that have POTS). All houses have two sets of underground conduit---one that goes to the phone company equipment, and the other to the cable company equipment. If you want a phone service you can get it from the phone company or the cable company (at least one home in the development uses a VOIP service from the cable company).
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Availability of naked DSL doesn't necessarily imply that the phone company charges customers less for naked DSL than for DSL bundled with a POTS line.
Whoa (Score:4, Funny)
"The Average Cable Bill Has Increased More Than 50 Percent Since 2010"
Man, I'm glad I happened to be sitting down before I read that shocking headline.
Bye-Bye Comcast (Score:5, Interesting)
I was paying right at $200/mo for Comcast XFinity. About half that was for 150Mbit (downstream) Internet with no data cap (that's extra, of course). The other half was for STANDARD DEFINITION basic cable.
I'd happily have taken Google Fiber if it were available but AT&T GigaPower got here first. Now I have 1000Mbit down/800mbit up, HD cable channels (and many more than Comcast offered), three set-top boxes (only one with Comcast), and a DVR (none included with Comcast)...all for only $80/mo.
Is it any wonder people are ditching traditional cable companies?
Cable companies are just passing on cost (Score:5, Informative)
You probably are not going to agree but I work for a small cable company and some media companies double their cost per sub every time contracts come up for renewal. Cable companies make almost nothing on video these days. The exception is Comcast. Comcast owns several networks and the HITS platform. As for the rest of us the profit margin is hair thin. If it wasn't for internet sales most small cable companies would have went out of business years ago. When I started working for this company they had twelve systems. Ten years later that number is three. one of the three is actually three towns tied together by fiber. The captive market doesn't allow for true negotiations, so expect more of the same in the future.
Re:Cable companies are just passing on cost (Score:4, Interesting)
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Then there is something wrong in the market.
Yes, it's called lack of competition. The physical plant should be maintained by the municipality and the content and content management equipment should be owned by a plethora of providers.
At this point the only reason to sell cable is that a lot of people want to watch the same content at the same time, so you can broadcast it to them. As that becomes less true, it will make less and less sense to do that, and more and more sense to do everything based on IP.
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"Yes, it's called lack of competition. The physical plant should be maintained by the municipality and the content and content management equipment should be owned by a plethora of providers. "
No, thats not what it is. That municipality will still have to charge for content and infrastructure. Our state has one city owned cable company and they still have all the same problems that the rest of us have and their rates are in line with ours. The problem is that the content providers are not required sell
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Then there is something wrong in the market. Cable companies should not be willing to accept and pass on the kind of cost increases you describe.
The whole story smells like bullshit to me.
The only way a cable company would feel screwed and like they had to pass on the costs is if there was a competitor carrying the channel, and there usually isn't. They could just drop it and move on with life. Sounds more like they are a monopoly and can charge their customers whatever, so it makes more sense to just skip negotiating down the cost and instead just pass it along to customers.
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We charge cost on content and our cable operations bill hasn't gone up in 20 years. We lose money on cable TV. The internet department is supporting itself and TV and has been for 10 years because the customers would never stand for the price increase if we passed on the rate hikes of the content providers and a little for ourselves. We've just been passing on the content costs, watching our operations margin shrink to nothing, then slip into the red as we lose ground to inflation.
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For one month of cable television, I can have a year's worth of Amazon Prime which includes a number of benefits, _including_ unlimited streaming video. Cable's days are numbered.
This.
There's more than enough stuff on there to watch, from any genre you care to enjoy.
So unless you simply MUST have the newest shows when they are first broadcast, I don't get why someone would pay a cable company every month what they could pay Amazon once a year.
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Cable isn't going anywhere, you have to get that stream from somewhere. To get all the same content you get from cable would require more than a single online streaming account. By the time you purchase all of that content, you will pay the same amount. Once again this is all the content providers playing profit games with the different streaming services. If you can live without all of the latest and greatest you will be okay with just a prime account. You will however have to learn to live with the
Naturally it is because... (Score:3)
...they give 50% better service.
A tax on dumb (Score:3)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Internet Only (Score:4, Insightful)
The issue is bundling. They want you to buy more and more services so of course the bill goes up.
I have only internet service with the local cable provider. It's $90 a month for static IP and 25Mbit or so both ways. Years ago I was paying $70 a month for 256K both ways. Toss in Netflix and HBO NOW and it's over 100 a month for internet and TV.
The only reason people still pay for cable TV is sports. If you don't care about sports, it's not hard to get your bills down. The only necessary service is an internet connection. Everything else is a luxury.
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The only reason people still pay for cable TV is sports.
You don't have to!
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-tv-antennas,review-2354.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveTvLinks/comments/89krhr/sports/
Business Account (Score:3)
Do you not have a business account? Plenty of people have Internet-only business accounts for less than $225.
The Average Cable Bill Has Increased (Score:2)
It was a rip-off in 2010. Maybe it's because I grew up with the idea that, “Ok, TV is free, but you have to watch these commercials” that I could never bring myself to pay for cable TV. Like that frog in the pot on the stove, they slowly added commercials, then more commercials, and (apparently) increased the rates people paid at the same time. Now, people finally seem to be noticing that the water is boiling.
Mine has effectively gone down (Score:2)
According to the government's inflation calculator, $100 in January 2010 has the same buying power as $116.50 now - the amount I'm paying for cable has only increased a little more than that percentage (closer to 20%) in the same time. However, I get more channels, more in HD (and better quality HD), and have added premium channels to my subscription since that 2010 cost, so adjusting for inflation and service delivered, my cost has gone down.
Of course, I have two cable companies available (I've switched si
Cable Internet seems to be a different story (Score:2)
At least my Cable Internet is about the same price or actually less than it was, but for significantly faster speeds.
In 2010 I was paying TWC $65/mo for 15/1 mbit speed, and in 2013 was paying $85/mo for 30/5 mbit speed.
Currently in 2018 I am now paying Spectrum (who of course bought TWC) $70/mo for 400/20 mbit service. They keep upgrading my speeds at no cost increase.
My bill (Score:2)
My final Time-Spectrum bill was a whopping $200+! I chopped it in half by switching to Google Fiber with local channels only. Since then, I've added quite a few streaming services and it's STILL cheaper than Spectrum, and that's before cutting the locals, since Hulu Live gives me those.
Regional Sports Fee (Score:2)
They really need to get ala carte going or I am going t
You didn't cut the cord... (Score:2)
Cutting the cord means CUTTING THE CORD. NO SERVICES AT ALL. Course that probable means you're on cellular (5G/LTE/6G) and they're loving you even more...
Cut the cord! (Score:2)
One day I turned on the TV and discovered the cable was out. It took a few days for the service team to arrive and they soon discovered that a grader had accidentally cut the cable when it was resurfacing the back alley. At that point I realized that no one had turned on the TV for over 2 months since that was when they were doing the work...
I cancelled my cable immediately, bought a digital OTA antenna from best buy for $20 in order to get the local channe
Downloading (Score:2)
Going out with a bang (Score:2)
The cable companies see the end coming. Already everybody who is savvy enough to cut the cord, has done so, or is thinking about doing so. The rest will pay whatever the cable companies demand. It's in their financial interest to raise prices! Where are they going to go?
It's kind of like old-style telephone service. Only older people still have it, and they pay through the nose for it. But these older people have no idea how to set up or use a VOIP service, so they are stuck.
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Precisely.
There's next to nothing on television I want to watch. Internet service is adequate (and has been since my 2009 DSL line) for my tele-viewing needs.
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
There's next to nothing on television I want to watch. Internet service is adequate (and has been since my 2009 DSL line) for my tele-viewing needs.
^^^^^^^^^^^This this this
I was browsing at a friend's place who has a cable package of a bazillion channels...I went through about 100 channels and found nothing, literally nothing worth watching or paying for.
I have an Amazon Prime account, and between that and Youtube and PirateBay I don't see the need to buy cable. As Newton C. Minnow said waaaaaay back in 1961:
"But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland."
And nothing has changed except the wasteland is far bigger. Yippee.
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:4, Interesting)
I have an Amazon Prime account, and between that and Youtube and PirateBay I don't see the need to buy cable.
^^^^^ THIS :)
I cancelled my cable TV subscription and discovered I have a WIFE!? We started talking more, playing board games, card games, and taking the dog for walks together.
Damn, she's an interesting human. Fortunately I've realized what a soul-sucking waste of time television is before either one of us died of ennui.
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:5, Funny)
^^^^^ THIS :)
I cancelled my cable TV subscription and discovered I have a WIFE!?
The same thing happened to me. I'm considering getting a cable TV subscription again.
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You win the internet for the day, perfect response :) I'm going to use variations on that when I explain to visiting relatives why we have no TV service. She's gonna hurt me.
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"Playing board games" WTF, get a freaking life.
Pro Tip: Get a wife or girlfriend and maybe you won't be such a bitter cunt.
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:4, Interesting)
Yeah, lately it's been Catan, which isn't very good for just 2 players, but we get lots of practice in order to decimate our children and their significant others for when we all visit during the holidays. The kids don't watch much television either as they are rather active and socially well adjusted, and always rather busy.
On one recent game I played nothing but development cards and the robber, and won handily. The wife was so pissed I damn near had to leave the house for a while, and the dog was traumatized. That was a good game, for me :)
Our big family games usually descent into winners vs losers arm wrestling matches, pull-up competitions with taunting and talking smack, lots of dead-arm shoulder punching, and obligatory shots of tequila. The bruising usually fades by Easter.
Your idea of board games must be the kind that pacifists play, where everyone is happy, there's no strife, taunting, or name calling. Either way, sitting face to face with other humans is something that I suspect you haven't had enough of, based on your response. Try it, it might mellow out your temperament a bit. I'd invite you over, but I'm afraid you'd just get injured.
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Doesn't sound like you went through the OnDemand type service your friend has. I have every channel, between just the movie channels like FX, HBO, STARS, etc you're going to find something. Through TV it's got almost everything from the current season of any show, plus backlogs of tons especially on premium networks.
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Doesn't sound like you went through the OnDemand type service your friend has. I have every channel, between just the movie channels like FX, HBO, STARS, etc you're going to find something. Through TV it's got almost everything from the current season of any show, plus backlogs of tons especially on premium networks.
I appreciate the suggestion, but my goal in life isn't to watch more TV.
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The fact you mentioned Piratebay means you steal for part of your content watching, so no, you're not proving anything here.
Actually, PirateBay has a lot of perfectly legal stuff.
Shame on you for assuming that I'm "stealing" anything.
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Yes, but if you have cable/satellite, it comes with a DVR, so at any time you have the last X days worth of shows you like from 100 channels.
So there's 100 days of more craptastic junk that I didn't want to watch then and (still) don't want to watch now. How is that better?
Most of the time, I find it much easier to push 3 buttons on my remote
Most of the time I find it much easier to go outside or visit friends or have fun in my workshop or spend time with my wife and family.
Enjoy your remote; I'm sure the two of you will have many rewarding hours together.
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Way to many (Score:3)
Situation was not better with only 13 channels....
I've got a little black book with my poems in
Got a bag with a toothbrush and a comb in
When I'm a good dog, they sometimes throw me a bone in
I got elastic bands keepin' my shoes on
Got those swollen-hand blues
I got thirteen channels of shit on the T.V. to choose from
I've got electric light
And I've got second sight
I got amazing powers of observation
And that is how I know
When I try to get through
On the telephone to you
There'll be nobody home
I've got the obligato
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:5, Insightful)
Yet, my internet only package is ~$100 / month. ( My router, my cable modem )
What you pay differs VASTLY depending upon where you live and if any competition ( Fios, Google Fiber, AT&T Gigapower, etc ) exists in your neighborhood.
If Google rolled in here tomorrow, Comcast would probably cut my bill in HALF just to keep everyone from jumping ship.
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It's funny how my cable Internet service went from $80 for ~10-15 megabit when it was a monopoly to $45 for 300 megabit within 2 weeks of AT&T laying fiber behind my house.
Though they still try to get me to rent a cable modem from them, because the 'substandard' modem I own wouldn't handle the speed, when it's rated for ~400 Mbps
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Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:4, Informative)
What made you think that was a proud proclamation? I read it as a complaint.
It seems like nehumanuscrede is complaining that their internet-only plan is $100/month, and that it should be much lower, and would be much lower if there were any competition.
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* the OLD actually-unlimited plan, with limited voice and text. Which is full speed unlimited data until 100GB DL, and then it switches to 0.0T since they drop you next month, so I hear. And if you heavily t
Re:How Do Poor People Afford Internet? (Score:4, Insightful)
We don't get cable TV along with it.
The problem with just internet (I'm one of those with just internet), is that the cost to have just internet has quadrupled in price over the same time period too.
I pay more for just internet than I paid for internet and cable back in 2010 (which is about when I cut out cable TV completely). If you're in an area with competition for broadband you have a little flexibility- for the majority of America living in cable monopolies- cost to get internet is ridiculously high for poor service.
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That's the fucking point: NO COMPETITION. You can drop tv all you want but you're getting internet from the same company who just jacks the rates on the internet service. We need competition. More companies providing the service.
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Inconvenient hours (Score:3)
Many public library branches keep inconvenient hours. By the time you take the city bus from work to the library, it may have closed for the evening at 6 PM. Visit on a day off? The branch near me is closed Saturdays and Sundays from the weekend before Memorial Day until Labor Day. (Source: ACPL.info)
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Many public library branches keep inconvenient hours. By the time you take the city bus from work to the library, it may have closed for the evening at 6 PM. Visit on a day off? The branch near me is closed Saturdays and Sundays from the weekend before Memorial Day until Labor Day. (Source: ACPL.info)
There are easily 50 or more places within 10 (probably 5) miles of my home with free Internet access every day of the week. I'm at the point that I'm shocked if a restaurant doesn't have open WiFi. There's a WalMart down the road with free Internet. The grocery store has free WiFi. The church has free WiFi. McDonalds, Arby's, Taco Bell, Panera, Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A, Olive Garden, KFC, Starbuck's and dozens of other local restaurants have free WiFi. The indoor mall has free WiFi. The outdoor mall has
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Drive 200 miles on icey roads to use library internet, what could be the problem with that?
Don't live 200 miles away from books
Pay tens of thousands of dollars for real estate near a library to use library internet, what could be the problem with that?
Lifeline phone with no data (Score:3)
Assuming that "Obama phone" means a phone issued to Medicaid recipients under the Lifeline program, which began under President Reagan and was expanded to cellular under President Bush: A Lifeline cellular plan probably includes metered voice and text and 0 MB data.
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Poor people in the US get free healthcare.
Sure, in some states. In others they only get free emergency care.
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What state doesn't offer Medicaid?
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What do you want? It's free.
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That's what "poor" means.
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More communities need to be doing this. We're not networked with our neighbors; it's totally crazy and inefficient. If one person has downloaded something from a data center hundreds of miles away, the next person should be downloading it from next door, not the same long-distance, super-busy network.
Re: Stagflation (Score:3)
If you're counting a 1,000 channel cable package as "cost of living", you're kind of an idiot.
Re: Stagflation (Score:2)
I include it as part of the "everything everywhere" that has been sharply rising in price for the last decade, while wages stayed stagnant.
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing that hasn't been skyrocketing are wages.
According to the BLS Employment Cost Index, September 2018:
Compensation costs for civilian workers increased 0.8 percent, seasonally adjusted, for the 3-month period ending in September 2018...Wages and salaries (which make up about 70 percent of compensation costs) increased 0.9 percent and benefit costs (which make up the remaining 30 percent of compensation) increased 0.4 percent from June 2018.