ISP rant...

cycleman77

Senior member
Jan 16, 2001
352
0
0
WTH is cable internet services so frickn expensive? Where I live its about 40 bucks a month and I have also heard people complaining that they get charged more if they dont have the cable TV services (which I don't).
My dial-up is running at about 18 bucks a month. Speed cannot be the only reason why the cable guys are charging so much.
I really want MMDS to come to my area, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. MMDS is suppose to be cheaper than cable because it doesn't require fiber or cable, but I'll bet you that they will still charge you close to 40 bucks a month just because its "new".
BTW, I don't live "out in the middle of nowhere", but its pretty close.
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
38,241
4
0
So you're fine with $18/month for Dial-up, but think paying twice as much money for 50 times the speed is a rip-off?
 

If people want it, they'll pay for it. As for me, I want it so I'll pay for it. It'll come down in price as more people adopt the technology.

Dialup used to be expensive too. Home broadband just came into the mainstream about 7 years ago. Give it time.
 

cycleman77

Senior member
Jan 16, 2001
352
0
0
I'm not ok with my dial up. It is too much money for the crappy service I get. Unfortunately it is the "best of the worst", I guess you could say, in my area. I don't get disconnected as often as I did when I was with other services and I do connect at slitely higher speeds. I have never gotten a connection speed over 37.3. My connection is usually between 29.9 and 33.3.
 

mugs

Lifer
Apr 29, 2003
48,920
46
91
Add in the cost of that second phone line, and dial-up is just as expensive as cable.

Besides, with all of those people on high-speed connections, that means your cable provider has to pay for more bandwidth than if they had an equal number of dial-up customers...

Edit: Be grateful for what you have. There is no DSL where I live (4 miles from the central office :|), and only one-way cable. $40 a month for two-way cable is one thing, but $40 for one-way, plus another $20 for the extra phone line... no thanks. So I'm stuck with 56k until I move, or my cable company gets with the program (c'mon Insight, buy them out!)
 

PsychoAndy

Lifer
Dec 31, 2000
10,735
0
0
Originally posted by: cycleman77
WTH is cable internet services so frickn expensive? Where I live its about 40 bucks a month and I have also heard people complaining that they get charged more if they dont have the cable TV services (which I don't).
My dial-up is running at about 18 bucks a month. Speed cannot be the only reason why the cable guys are charging so much.
I really want MMDS to come to my area, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen. MMDS is suppose to be cheaper than cable because it doesn't require fiber or cable, but I'll bet you that they will still charge you close to 40 bucks a month just because its "new".
BTW, I don't live "out in the middle of nowhere", but its pretty close.

Ummm...time warner charges 40 for roadrunner to cable subscribers, and 50 for those without cable. What's wrong with that? It's not really that expensive.

And the reason why it's 40 bucks is because a.) i don't have an up/down cap or a monthly limit, and b.) because someone has to pay for the millions of fiber.
 

MikeMike

Lifer
Feb 6, 2000
45,885
66
91
i will pay basically ANYTHING reasonable right now to get off of my 28.8k dial up!!! i mean comon, i get d/ced around 3 times, once always at night when d/ling stuff. it SUCKS

MIKE
 

cycleman77

Senior member
Jan 16, 2001
352
0
0
I would be willing to pay 25...and maybe even 30 bux a month.

IMO, 40 dollars is too much for what you get.
 

BillGates

Diamond Member
Nov 30, 2001
7,388
2
81
People who don't work in the industry don't realize how expensive backhaul traffic is.
 

Epimetreus

Member
Apr 20, 2003
72
0
0
I might be more convinced I didn't work for an ISP myself; they tend to have terrible policies and simply do whatever they can get away with. For fifty dollars a month you'd damned well be getting some fast speeds or good service; whining about bandwidth when you're already overselling your allocation and cheaping out on hardware just isn't the way to go.
 

Eli

Super Moderator | Elite Member
Oct 9, 1999
50,419
8
81
Errr, I wish my cable was only 40$/mo.

It's 55$ here. Quit yer bitchin'.

Originally posted by: cycleman77
I would be willing to pay 25...and maybe even 30 bux a month.

IMO, 40 dollars is too much for what you get.

I think you need to quit hitting the pipe.

18$/mo for 56kbps is Okay, but 40$/mo for 1500kbps is "too much"? :Q
 

loup garou

Lifer
Feb 17, 2000
35,132
1
81
Originally posted by: cycleman77
I would be willing to pay 25...and maybe even 30 bux a month.

IMO, 40 dollars is too much for what you get.
You still make no sense. You're not willing to pay 2x as much for 50-150x the performance, not to mention the other benefits of cable (always on, doesn't tie up your phone)? It makes no sense, and the only logical conclusion that can be reached is that you are just plain cheap!
 

Savij

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 2001
4,233
0
71
Originally posted by: cycleman77
I'm not ok with my dial up. It is too much money for the crappy service I get. Unfortunately it is the "best of the worst", I guess you could say, in my area. I don't get disconnected as often as I did when I was with other services and I do connect at slitely higher speeds. I have never gotten a connection speed over 37.3. My connection is usually between 29.9 and 33.3.

Same problem across multiple ISPs... This sounds line a problem with your phone line to me. Do you have an extremely long extension cord for your modem? Sometimes answering machines and stuff will feed power (and cause line noise) to the phone line. Try disconnecting everything else in your house and see if you get better speeds. Could also try connecting your computer to a different phone outlet to see if just that one is damaged. If that stuff doesn't work, call the phone company and ask them to check your phone lines. Here in nashville all you have to do is call bellsouth and ask them to check for noise on the line. It takes about 5 min and they do it while you're on the phone with them.

-ss
 

Aceshigh

Platinum Member
Aug 22, 2002
2,529
1
0
You think you have it bad? The apartment complex im moving to won't allow you to have DSL and their cable internet which you have to use if you want broadband is 1mbps down/512kbps up and its $49.99 a month!
 

Kilrsat

Golden Member
Jul 16, 2001
1,072
0
0
Here in Charter Crapline country its 59.95 + 3.95 modem rental for the totally awesome 1500/128 service... so glad I'm moving in 2 months.