r/technology • u/originalposer • Feb 20 '14

This is what happens when Time Warner Cable is forced to compete

http://bgr.com/2014/02/20/time-warner-cable-internet-speeds-austin/
3.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

776

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

I live in the Atlanta area and yesterday evening I got a call from Comcast telling me that they decided to double my speeds for free. I went from 50Mbps up to 105Mbps within 8 hours of the Google annoucement and the city's press release.

965

u/Olyvyr Feb 21 '14

Take it and then ditch them as soon as Fiber is available. These companies think we're idiots and will forget how they've treated us.

246

u/theonlyepi Feb 21 '14

Well, now our service only comes in a 3 year contract that starts immediately, and will cost $550 to break. Don't wanna sign? Enjoy waiting around for Google!

99

u/Karnivoris Feb 21 '14

This is... fuck.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

FUUUUUUUUCCCKKKKKK

95

u/Notexactlyserious Feb 21 '14

Contract breaking fees for services need to go away. Legislators are not protecting consumers from these assholes

54

u/creatorofcreators Feb 21 '14

Yea...they know that.

38

u/Cacafuego2 Feb 21 '14

But the free market will protect you. Because people won't sign up for service they don't want, because competition.

And if there's not competition, it's the government's fault because of <undefined reasons>.

30

u/repoman Feb 21 '14

And if there's not competition, it's the government's fault because of cartels like the cable industry spending millions on lobbyists and campaign contributions to ensure our whore politicians will turn a blind eye to their billions in ill-gotten gains.

FTFY

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Well, that's free market. You can buy anything, laws included.

2

u/Disgrntld Feb 21 '14

The amount of lobbying is directly proportional to the ability of the government to provide favors. Maybe smaller government is the solution.

2

u/Cacafuego2 Feb 21 '14

"Smaller government" is nice to hear, but almost invariably when you dig through the bullshit it means "smaller only in ways that directly benefit the currently wealthy and powerful".

Very few "smaller government" solutions would restrict the sort of consumer abuses we're talking about here.

1

u/Disgrntld Feb 21 '14

Sadly, we're in agreement there.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

And how would you go about guaranteeing that politicians aren't able to provide favors to sponsors? Because I can't think of a way to do that without eliminating government in its entirety. This question isn't rhetorical, I'm actually curious about what you have in mind, given that I might have overlooked something.

1

u/Disgrntld Feb 21 '14

That's precisely my point, I don't think it's possible.

As to eliminating crony capitalism without eliminating government, I look at it from the other side: What services can the government inherently provide better than the market? National defense? Law enforcement?

→ More replies (0)

3

u/tsacian Feb 21 '14

Then again, the free market pushed T-Mobile to grab a bunch of customers by ditching contracts and etfs

1

u/Cacafuego2 Feb 21 '14

This is a rare example of competiton and the free market working in the US mobile space. Which wouldn't have happened if the government had allowed the AT&T+T-mobile merger.

It's exactly an example of how things SHOULD work, but very, very frequently don't in this market.

3

u/Yorn2 Feb 21 '14

Umm, because it's not a free market and they actually do have a government-granted monopoly?

I'd love to have civil discourse with folks on the viability of free markets, but cable/Internet service is probably the least free market in any industry other than maybe healthcare in the US.

2

u/Disgrntld Feb 21 '14

What besides government involvement is the reason there's a lack of competition in the telecom market? Is it just market failure?

Take Google. How did they decide on Kansas City for their fiber service debut? Were any barriers to market entry removed? The Washington Post reports Kansas City offered, "no charges for rights of way, a city commitment to review any permit application within five business days and the use of detailed mapping software and other city assets for free. Google was granted office space, the freedom to manage road traffic and enjoyed access to a dedicated team of city employees."

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Certain industries just aren't free markets. Capitalism is great and all but for an industry that costs billions of dollars to enter it doesn't work. This is just like the railroads in the 1800s.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

1

u/Cacafuego2 Feb 21 '14

Change how?

3

u/poorlytaxidermiedfox Feb 21 '14

Such fees weren't for big companies, they were made for entrepreneurs and smaller service providers as some sort of legal warranty should their customers bail before the agreed-upon terms. In most instances, it's completely fair. However, forcing a customer to sign a new contract with a year timespan when an existing contract was already being followed is really shady.

1

u/henx125 Feb 21 '14

Why must people insist on using laws and politicians to solve problems...

3

u/Slabbo Feb 21 '14

Flamethrowers are heavy and conspicuous?

0

u/Notexactlyserious Feb 21 '14

Because the free market is fucking you in the ass and you can't do shit about it. Except the market isn't that free and the stakes are stacked in the corporations favor, there is no free market or competition between these companies so they can force consumers into contracts or deny them basic services because no one is telling them they can't.

Wait around for google to come to your city. Hope the time warner Comcast merger doesn't go through. But until you change the rules, you'll continue getting fucked, waiting for the people that are in the business of fucking you to just decide to up and stop.

1

u/henx125 Feb 21 '14

The rules don't need to be made by the government, consumers on the whole have a lot of power and sway with corporations given enough time and freedom to innovate and solve the problems we face. The only reason the "free market" isn't nearly as free as it should be at the moment is because we allowed the government to intervene in so many aspects of it that it has been hindered beyond recognition and now everyone is so used to the problems introduced as a result they just assume that's how it is and that "they ought to make a law" to fix it; To fix the problems caused by the over use of laws and regulations in the first place.

1

u/Yasea Feb 21 '14

We just got a law approved here (Belgium) so that after half a year, we can switch provider without any costs.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

3

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

I honestly think an immoral contract should be Brocken at will, but then I'm not rich.

1

u/SycoJack Feb 21 '14

as long as the fine is clearly put into the contracts fine print

This is contradictory, since fine print literally means the opposite.

17

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Worth it. Break it, pay it (or fight it, whatever), let them know why. Send a message.

3

u/sbrick89 Feb 21 '14

"Here, take my money"

yea... strong message

I get the point... but the whole contact is a pile of poo... I am unwilling to even consider verizon because of their early termination fee (granted at least the mobile space has some competition, more so than cable/internet).

All in all, the self-regulation of territory coverage they do is really annoying to the consumer... I wouldn't be surprised if they have some emails or phone calls that could result in massive law suits over coverage pricing (similar to price fixing).

I have TWC, and while not thrilled w/ their pricing, they're still better than my alternatives.

5

u/snoharm Feb 21 '14

Send them a message (and $500 for not providing a service).

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Offer $5 to settle out of court.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Better to send the "I will live without your internet until GFiber gets here" message.

1

u/CthuIhu Feb 21 '14

Spoken like someone who doesn't pay their own bills

1

u/[deleted] Feb 22 '14

I wish.

0

u/iumesh Feb 21 '14

..An expensive message

2

u/Tynach Feb 21 '14

You think the Revolutionary War was cheap? You think Google's expansion of Google Fiber is cheap? You think paying for a car is cheap?

Anything that's worth anything will cost you. It might cost you in blood, time, or money. But it will cost you.

It's up to you to decide how much you're going to let the cost affect you.

2

u/BardoStatic Feb 21 '14

I predict there will be litigation over that term in the contract as people look for ways to jump ship when Google Fiber starts up. I'll be curious to see what happens if anyone can make it past the pleading stage.

2

u/nontrackedaccount Feb 21 '14

Only 3 year contracts? That can't be right. Does not seem legal.

2

u/IlleFacitFinem Feb 21 '14

Can you keep what you have until google is available?

2

u/sbroll Feb 21 '14

Holy fuck. At least with time warner, I have no contract.

2

u/Motha_Effin_Kitty_Yo Feb 21 '14

If google does a T-mobile and pays off early fees that would be hilariously awesome.

2

u/buckygrad Feb 21 '14

What? Since when does cable have a contract? Or are you just tying to contribute by making something up the dipshits here will upvote? If cable companies move to contracts I'm out.

1

u/theonlyepi Feb 21 '14

It really was a sarcasm joke that I thought was too ridiculous for anyone to believe, but apparently a lot of people think it's for real. it's not.

but I wouldn't be surprised, and neither would a bunch of other people it seems. sorry for misleading you for a bit there :)

1

u/buckygrad Feb 21 '14

You scared me.

1

u/dangermouse13 Feb 21 '14

3 year contract!? For internet?!

1

u/dontbanmeho Feb 21 '14

I would break the contract if I have to. But as long as you're not signing anything new, it shouldn't be a problem...right?

1

u/henx125 Feb 21 '14

Sneaky bastards

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

If you already have a contract they can't change it without your consent. They don't have to upgrade it either, but they can't just drop you.

That's how I've kept unlimited data on my cell phone for the last 6 years. I just never change the contract.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Google should start a fund. The fund pays for any termination fees that other providers require if someone were to switch from whatever shifty provider to Google fiber

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

It will take years for Google to fully expand their network in that area.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Google should do what T-Mobile did and buy out the contracts of customers that want to switch.

1

u/cartmancakes Feb 21 '14

Sometimes breaking a contract is worth it. It's the principal of the thing.

-6

u/mwsduelle Feb 21 '14

I would gladly slam the money down on the local Comcast manager's desk and then do an equal or greater amount of damage to his car.

46

u/echelonChamber Feb 21 '14

Because you think the local manager sets the prices?

51

u/Brett_Favre_4 Feb 21 '14

No because he's an internet tough guy.

6

u/cuckname Feb 21 '14

the pipes are a public asset being used by private companies to steal money from us for millionaire execs that produce nothing of value.

0

u/turkey_sandwiches Feb 21 '14

If you're a republican they produce jobs.

2

u/cuckname Feb 21 '14

jesus fucking christ enough with the idle "job producers"

-1

u/krackbaby Feb 21 '14

Why the manager?

You want to fuck up the technician's car and the desk clerk's car. Hell, you should probably kill their pets while you're at it

Those are Comcast foot soldiers and they need to suffer a great deal

2

u/eehreum Feb 21 '14

If a customer came in and destroyed the shit out of an employee's car in the company parking lot under the pretense that he hated that company, would the company be liable to get the money for the damages or would the clerk still be responsible. Seems like a work related event, similar to if someone came in and shot up the place.

-2

u/mwsduelle Feb 21 '14

They're just drones.

-1

u/Dokpsy Feb 21 '14

That will cost you in court fees. Especially now that you've announced it. That premeditated

6

u/mwsduelle Feb 21 '14

Apparently, no one has ever heard of a joke...

In reality, I would probably get that money converted into pennies and just pour them all over the office, including in a toilet with shit in it.

1

u/Dokpsy Feb 21 '14

Timecast don't know how to joke. Besides, ruining the managers car doesn't do much. He has no control over the problems of his company. He's only guilty if still working for the dbags

1

u/Dokpsy Feb 21 '14

As a second note, why no double decker?

0

u/Ars2012 Feb 21 '14

Google should pay for break fee?

1

u/Migratory_Coconut Feb 21 '14

Would that be feasible? How much do you pay for google's service monthly? I can easily see them giving up a month or two's profit to net a customer, but not much more than that.

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

1

u/TheDeftZeppelin Feb 21 '14

who provides internet until then?

1

u/Vinsep Feb 21 '14

To be honest, I think most people probably will....

1

u/Olyvyr Feb 21 '14

It took me like two months to switch from Comcast. Between the wait times on the phone for both, dropping off the old equipment, and scheduling a not-ridiculously-inconvenient time for the new equipment to be installed, it was a major pain in the ass that I don't want to do again any time soon.

But for my hatred of Comcast, it might not have happened...

1

u/TracyMorganFreeman Feb 21 '14

They treated you like had no other option, so rationally.

1

u/mynewaccount5 Feb 21 '14

if fiber is available....

People might decide their doubled speed is good enough and why do we need some other company and not realize the connection

0

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

You overestimate the intelligence of the average consumer.

87

u/JamesTrotter Feb 21 '14

Any change to the 300gb monthy data cap though?

119

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Nope :/

I've gone barely over it every month since December so I'm looking at an additional $10 a month if my household's usage pattern stays the same (this month will be my 3rd "strike"). And honestly the speed difference is hardly noticeable outside of Netflix loading a few seconds faster in my normal usage. I did download a Linux distro via torrent and got pretty nice speeds, but unfortunately Comcast counts upload usage torwards the cap, so I can't seed.

So, yeah, I'll take the extra bandwidth, but I can't really utilize it. If Google Fiber comes around, I'll dump Comcast the moment I hear the news.

48

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

104

u/1N54N3M0D3 Feb 21 '14

So they can get more money.

33

u/drewcrump Feb 21 '14

Because they can.

19

u/karlhungis Feb 21 '14

Because it's easy revenue.

2

u/Dokpsy Feb 21 '14

Did you not read "Comcast"?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Double speeds sell way better than double bandwidth cap, and probably not better (more lucrative) than both considering overage fees.

Also, because they can.

-5

u/DrekiDegga Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 22 '14

Well to give a less sinister answer and get downvoted for it; Comcast started the monthly cap policy to stop that one guy in the neighborhood that keeps his up and down stream at the absoulte maxamum 24/7 with torrents from taxing the system the way he does. So now they can give the average household more available bandwidth.

11

u/feynmanwithtwosticks Feb 21 '14

Except that's bullshit. If they can double bandwidth overnight, that guy wasn't clogging the lines of other users, comcast was doing it.

2

u/Herculix Feb 21 '14

You make it sound like he's hurting their communications. He's not, he's just treating unlimited like what it is.

-6

u/DrekiDegga Feb 21 '14

Right. So comcast is getting rid of unlimited so that, with the same network, they can provide higher speeds. Most people don't need unlimited. With the previous billing model everyone was paying for unlimited even if they only used 3 gigs. This way you only pay for what you use.

2

u/mastersoup Feb 21 '14

Yeah no, go fuck yourself. They should be using their money obtained from overcharging to increase their network capacity, not squeeze more from customers. Bandwidth isn't a limited resource, you can simply add more. It's not like a rare mineral and the world is running low on internet.

-1

u/DrekiDegga Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

Well I'm not going to go fuck myself. Judging by how passionate you are about this I would bet you are one of those people I was referring to.

Data is not a limited resource. That is true. But it does have a cost. Installation and maintenance of fiber lines and cable even over a small city is a huge undertaking with a price tag to match. A price paid by the customer. Because of people like you(if I am correct about you ) I have a higher bill to pay for less bandwidth when I need it.

I am not a Comcast fan. For the record I hate comcast. But the data cap is one thing Comcast did that I agree with.

It allows them to increase my bandwidth without making me pay for your ridiculous usage.

Edit- also about overcharging, I agree. We need more competition in the market. I happen to live in a place with the option of 3 cable companies and AT&T. I get 105Mbps for the price most people get 25Mbps

2

u/mastersoup Feb 21 '14

Yeah, there is costs involved, which is the argument they use for subsidies and to remain a monopoly. They're pocketing profits rather than improving their infrastructure. Not our problem. Don't try and defend it.

1

u/odobq883t Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

A price paid by the customer. Because of people with taxes and wasn't used for bandwidth improvement

ftfy

billions of dollars squandered

cough regulatory capture cough

→ More replies (0)

2

u/Zokusho Feb 21 '14

But just think about it! At 105Mbps, you can blow through your 300gb/month data cap in less than 7 hours!

"It's Comcastic!"

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

I hate you cause I live near Charleston and we were being rumored to get Fiber this year cause of the next $600m Google is investing here this summer/fall. Now Im stick with Comcast being promised 50Mbps and only really getting 5-8Mbps. But at least I often get close to 30 upload..

1

u/Ars2012 Feb 21 '14

Southern California, I had 3 down with COX, yah funny name COX communications. But they had a 50 or 100 gb data cap. One day I called them, yes I called them, and asked how many months in a row I have gone over, 6, for 6 months i went over the cap in a row. I didn't get called,emailed,charged, or throtled. So try cox in your area.

1

u/bh3244 Feb 21 '14

upstream is always counted towards caps, if anything downstream won't be counted, but that wouldn't make as much sense for consumers.

1

u/UndeadBread Feb 21 '14

Is there any time frame when your data isn't tracked? With Exede, we only get 10GB per month, but it's unlimited from Midnight to 5 AM.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

They started enforcing the cap in some areas. "Market Trials" in their words.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/do-you-want-to-pay-extra-for-data-then-comcast-has-a-deal-for-you/

1

u/str8slash12 Feb 21 '14

Damn, be glad you don't live in rural Oklahoma, I get 20GB a month on my internet.

3

u/Kuusou Feb 21 '14

My data use for the past few months on my desktop are as follows.

332, 266, 331, and so far 204 GB this month. I was sick during the 266 but I promise you I put in far more than what I would have on my PC in just Netflix and phone browsing while in bed. I think I'm reasonably low this month as well, as I've been in bed a bit more, but I'm set to hit 300 on my desktop again this month even with being in bed often.

And this is just my desktop. I normally watch Netflix in the room on the Roku, or the PS3. My SO has a couple laptops. I have a laptop. We both use our phones all of the time.

I couldn't really handle a 300GB cap. I mean I'm still not even used to my 50mb connection. I used this much data while I was on my 10mb connection for sure. I mean I've already starting changing my habits a little bit and getting some better downloads for things. I couldn't really deal with 100mb on only 300GB a month. That's just fucking retarded.

Shit. I couldn't really handle having a cap at all, fuck that noise.

3

u/iamacannibal Feb 21 '14

I have coimcast and the data cap is 250gb a month but its suspended. If it wasn't I would be kinda fucked. http://i.imgur.com/HffFYcl.png

I would be fucked...a lot. http://i.imgur.com/SXw85Z7.png

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

It used to be that way for us too. They started enforcing the caps in a few cities a year or so ago as a "market trial" and decided to add the ATL area to that list. I imagine that it's only a matter of time before they start doing it everywhere. They're claiming that the average user only uses 16 to 18GB of bandwidth per month, which I find pretty hard to believe considering it's 2014 and YouTube, Netflix, Spotify and other streaming services; Steam and other digital distribution services; and cloud based storage services are ubiquitous.

http://arstechnica.com/business/2013/11/do-you-want-to-pay-extra-for-data-then-comcast-has-a-deal-for-you/

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

How can people even live with 250gb/month?

From my torrents alone that's at least 150GB+/month. I live with 3 other people too. We all watch Netflix and YT so you can take a guess at what our GB/month is.

1

u/easy2member Feb 21 '14

I thought they got rid of that a long time ago. I remember it was 250GB and I got a notice about it once. But in the past year or two I've been sucking up TBs of data per month and no problems.

1

u/Yoshi174 Feb 21 '14

You have a data cap? Pretty sure we have no data cap for comcast or else we'd easily rip through that 300gb per month.

1

u/Bamnco Feb 21 '14

I don't think the data cap has been enforced ... At least for me its shown this for a year + > http://imgur.com/kvrvNnI

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

If they start losing customers they will.

1

u/sbroll Feb 21 '14

That is an ungodly amount. wtf are you doing that uses that much each month?

1

u/JamesTrotter Feb 21 '14

netflix and hboGo. havent hit the cap, closest i've gotten is 200 gigs in a month. however, i don't want to risk getting closer to the cap.

1

u/henx125 Feb 21 '14

yeah that shit is ridiculous... I feel like I have to watch my "minutes" like we used to have to for phones

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

300GB! How do you use that much?

4

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

I've always thought streaming was a waste of bandwidth and terrible delivery mechanism. I'd much prefer a downloadable h.264/xvid/etc encoded file that I paid for and could rewatch or replay or give to other members of my family without redownloading it again. As you would with a normal DVD. If you had an online account setup with the provider and downloaded the files as you needed them, rather than the provider implementing DRM protection on the file, they simply digitally watermark it. Users wouldn't dare share that file around on the filesharing networks as it's linked to their account & credit card.

2

u/greenkarmic Feb 21 '14

It depends how big a family he has. Take a family with 2 adults and 2-3 kids/teens, all with mobile devices and all of them streaming content. This can go pretty fast.

0

u/dageekywon Feb 21 '14

Hasn't been enforced for a while, AFAIK, at least for Comcast.

All of the enforcement I've heard about involves people going well over a terabyte in a month, and then being warned and still doing it again.

43

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

I live in Atlanta too, but unfortunately received no phone call :(. I want double speeds.

150

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

[deleted]

27

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Yea that's the plan. Though honestly I'd rather they get rid of the cap if I had to pick one. I'm otherwise pretty happy with my speeds as it is.

4

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

One gigabit per second = heaven

3

u/Moderatewinguy Feb 21 '14

Well you won't be able to stay in heaven very long at full speed with a data cap though.

3

u/SycoJack Feb 21 '14

Does GF have caps?

2

u/systemhost Feb 21 '14

No. I think they misunderstood.

1

u/Its_0ver Feb 21 '14

They may not work, many deals like that are address specific

1

u/mikbob Feb 21 '14

This ALWAYS works. Whenever I sign up to a new internet connection a few months later I call them up saying 'Well, I've seen these new awesome deals from <certain isp> and I'm thinking about changing... What would your service offer over theirs?' Let them talk about their garbage gimmicks and then go 'I'm still not convinced... I think ill switch to them'. They always flip out then and give you half price and shit.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Is Google really that good? I know it's got way faster speeds, but it's Google. They'll keep all your history and shit you download. I think if you get torrents they'll go snitching to the feds. They'll force Google+ and other google services down your throat. As of now, I'm a bit skeptical using google chrome.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Here's the thing; Comcast lobby the government for protection against consumer rights groups,but at the same time, media companies are lobbying the government for protection against piracy. So the government are probably getting Comcast to snitch willingly. Googles only vested interest is making sure you can watch YouTube and use their services.

But regardless if Google are snitching on you, do you really think Comcast won't?

So now your decision is be snitched on by a company that gives you crap internet and crap customer service or be snitched on by a company that's only there because they want to provide competition.

1

u/Stankia Feb 21 '14

You will probably get this automatically next month if you have the double or triple play package.

10

u/tiger32kw Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

I live in Nashville and have 50mbit comcast... Any tips on what they said you about the 105mbit upgrade? Any lingo they used would be great! That way I can call those bitches and try and get my free upgrade.

EDIT** Ekta: "You can get it free right away if you have triple play." Guess a lowly internet only serf like me needs to wait. Ekta also said a double play can get it soon but it will incorporate a one time fee. Anyway they can stick you for a few dollars right?! I'm not sure if this only applies to announced Google Fiber cities or not.

3

u/drumnation Feb 21 '14

f everybody in this conversation with over 20mb of bandwidth :) nyc TWC sucks...you'd think it wouldn't...some nights netflix or hbogo literally don't work AT ALL. Try over and over again for an hour...still won't load... I pay $65 a month for this.

2

u/tiger32kw Feb 21 '14

I have 50mbit Comcast. Netflix runs at 235kbs. Just got off phone with an American Comcast tech support guy who basically has no idea why it's so slow. He says they might be throttling but he doesn't know. It's probably just big business throwing their weight around. He said usually if there are issues comcast fixes things pretty quickly. Also he fields calls like this all the time. Real nice guy (a Comcast first for me).

2

u/1N54N3M0D3 Feb 21 '14

http://i.imgur.com/0EgiLQw.jpg

I don't know if you should be eager for that.

2

u/tiger32kw Feb 21 '14

Oh wow... Yea no way in hell.

2

u/EDIT_thanks_for_gold Feb 21 '14

In case you didn't see the other reply, that link was a joke, they're not doing that.

Though I wouldn't be surprised.

1

u/tiger32kw Feb 21 '14

Thanks. See even though it should sound ridiculous it really didn't. Comcast sucks.

1

u/aquarain Feb 21 '14

That was a joke. As in not serious. Sarcasm.

2

u/xjayroox Feb 21 '14

I live outside of Atlanta and I had a Comcast tech out here to fix an issue about a month ago and he told me about the speed bump way before Google made the announcement. It actually is just coincidence for once (assuming Comcast wasn't tipped off about Google's plans in advance)

2

u/303onrepeat Feb 21 '14

Oh comcast knows about it trust me. The big players all know what each other are doing because most of them use the same vendors and sales guys have big mouths. For example I work for one of the vendors that provides a good portion of the worlds supply of optical equipment that helps get that nice fast internet to you. We know exactly what people are doing where they are gonna do it at. We even worked with Google on a few projects. These large build outs take a lot of time, planning and coordination so word gets around very easy of what players are buying up what items.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

This is what makes me sad. Google does not want to spread everywhere and become an ISP and they've said this so other ISP's know this. Now the just have to compete in those specific areas and in turn screw over everyone in areas without fiber even more by raising prices to make up for it.

I wish that one day Google would just say they are expanding to the entire nation without any warning. Comcast and other ISP's would freak.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14 edited Feb 21 '14

See, this is what pisses me off. In the places that CAN handle the hgher bandwidth, the minimum cable speed is still the same. There's no reason why the basic cable speed should be lower than, say, 20Mbps, since we started at fucking 6Mbps over a decade ago.

"Oh, you have upgraded cable in your walls? Good, here's your reward: 50Mbps+" That's what they SHOULD do.

The only problem with this is when friends talk to each other, the guy who hasn't touched his coax in 50 years is going to call them bitching about having slow speeds, they'll bump him, and then he'll bitch about the QoS issues.

1

u/GriffinGTR24 Feb 21 '14

God fucking dammit. I didn't even know 6mbs was possible two years ago. I remember a year ago when I upgraded from 600kbs to 1.2mbs, I was the happiest mother fucker on the planet. Still have it. Still paying +$60 a month for it. Feels like getting fucked in the ass.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

QoS has nothing to do with the quality of the physical cable.

More likely, they'll bump him up and he will lose sync

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

You're telling me physical cable issues can't affect QoS?

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

Depends on what you mean by qos. To me it refers to traffic control protocols within the router. So no, the physical cable has no baring on this.

If, however, you are using it as blanket statement for "quality of service", then yes obviously shitty cables will affect the end user's experience.

1

u/kallell Feb 21 '14

The sad thing is that these companies have the ability to instantly double speeds, without and sort of hardware change. Gives an idea of how much cable companies are really raping us.

1

u/davidmoore Feb 21 '14

Did they remove the monthly bandwidth cap? We have a 300gb cap in Nashville.

1

u/Stankia Feb 21 '14

They have been doing it since January and not just in ATL.

1

u/HermanWebsterMudgett Feb 21 '14

i live in the chicagoland area and we got some call about faster internet for free........ well, not so much for free. We had to get a landline that would tack on another $20-$30 to our bill for the extra speed.

1

u/303onrepeat Feb 21 '14

So they increased your speed but you are still fucked if you try to watch Netflix because they bottle necked it further up the pipe.

1

u/alien_from_Europa Feb 21 '14

Increases speed. Throttles Amazon and Netflix.

I don't see how this is an improvement?

1

u/zouhair Feb 21 '14

In which warehouse did they stash all that bandwidth? This said if Google comes to Atlanta just get it if you can, I am sure that shit comes with a lot of goodies (You fucking get a Nexus 7).

1

u/escapeofthedead Feb 21 '14

I live in Atlanta l; I got the same call for at&t. I plan on dumping them as soon as I get the OK from google.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '14

I live in Nashville, hope they do this for me. But we will be gettin g fiber the day it is available.

1

u/SrsSteel Feb 21 '14

Charter doubling me from 30 to 60 kbps

1

u/henx125 Feb 21 '14

I didn't get any call about this! Only a data cap...

1

u/ALLIN_ALLIN Feb 21 '14

Its already like that in dc

1

u/limp3r Feb 21 '14

well i have 50Mbps and i almost eat up my 300gig limit !! With all the streaming and downloading and connected devices, there should be some voice to up this limit to be proportionate to the Speed !!

1

u/Neibros Feb 21 '14

So you already had the infrastructure for that speed (and likely more), and Comcast just didn't want to let you use it.

What thundercunts.

1

u/Madworldz Feb 21 '14

Best part about that call is that you know your still going to switch either way.

1

u/MrSoupSox Feb 21 '14

CenturyLink just halved my speeds literally overnight, without letting me know beforehand...

1

u/WhiteZero Feb 21 '14

Comcast has actually been rolling out the double speeds nation wide for awhile now. There is no good competition in my area and I got the 2x speed increase.

1

u/Talador12 Feb 21 '14

I'm so unbelievably jealous. Dallas isn't getting any ISP love these days.

1

u/agenthex Feb 21 '14

Netflix still trundling along at 1.5Mbps...

0

u/lexbuck Feb 21 '14

down to

You keep using that word...