[telecom] Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons

Most of these are not even remotely necessary. You can do totally do without "an iPad or a similar device" (I do), and while I don't travel as much as expense-account journos do, I have never had the need for a portable wireless hotspot. (If I did, I would turn on that function in my smartphone, which costs closer to $80 a month for a relatively minimal but unlimited-data postpaid plan.) I have cable, but television is not by any means a necessity of life.

-GAWollman

RE: Price-gouging cable companies are our latter-day robber barons [telecom]

Service cell towers? 97% profit? Wow ... the industry sure has changed since I was a cable guy!

If a cable company is indeed making 97% profit, that implies that the other 3% covers all other costs. Little things as payroll, employee benefits, programming fees, retransmission-consent fees, internet connection charges, administrative overhead, advertising, customer care, customer billing, maintenance, public relations, government relations, insurance, legal services, rent and lease expense, utilities, vehicle expense, franchise acquisition and compliance, franchise fees, copyright royalties, FCC registration and compliance, operation and maintenance of video-signal reception and processing facilities ("headend"), operation and maintenance of cable modem termination system, distribution and maintenance of video converters, distribution and maintenance of cable modems, outdoor distribution facilities ("outside plant") extending from the headend to every customer's premises, utility-pole attachment fees ("pole rental") for aerial outside plant, contractor-hotline ("one-call") notification services for underground outside plant, verification of the technical integrity of internal wiring inside customer premises (even though the company may not own it), access control (accurately connecting each subscriber), detecting and prosecuting unauthorized connections.

And yes, "servicing cell towers." Many cable companies rent tower space to PCS carriers, so obviously they have to maintain them. But does the writer actually believe that cable companies use cell towers to distribute their signals?

Neal McLain Retired Cable Guy

If you read Susan Crawford's "Captive Audicence" you'll see she lays out what it really costs the providers to provide the service. For net service it's not ever 3% of what they charge you. So they could essentially charge you $10 a month for good net service and still make a profit.

And I'm hoping Google eventually wires up the entire U.S. It would put a shot across the bow of the likes of Verizon, at&t, Cox, Comcast et al. I mean, you've got options with Google like pay a $300 construction charge and get 3mbps/1mpbs service in perpetuity. Or pay for higher bandwidth.

But it would FORCE in my case Verizon and Cox to play nicely.

So what does Google actually charge per month for an internet connection? Since I don't live in the KC area, there's no way I can "pick a plan" from their website.

I've heard that Google also offers a cable-TV like television service. What does that cost per month?

Neal McLain

Huh? Gigabit + TV $120/mo $300 waived construction fee Gigabit Internet $70/mo $300 waived construction fee Free Internet $0/mo $300 construction fee (one time or $25/mo for 12 mo) . Free internet is: Up to 5Mbps download, 1Mbps upload speed No data caps Free service guaranteed for at least 7 years

That's interesting! I'm currently paying $70 per month for 6Mbps DSL. I wonder how the cost of providing the service costs out. What was total construction cost? What percentage "penetration" is achieved (how many people subscribe)? What is upstream cost? What is maintenance cost? What is ROI? Is this a good business investment? Can others do it?

Harold

Interesting indeed.

I suspect there's a minimum contract period for customers that sign up for a package that waives the $300 construction fee.

Back in my cable TV days, we charged an "install charge," with no specified contract term. But marketing people were continually coming up with "free install" sales promotions, so the de-facto install charge was essentially zero.

Every September, when 10,000 or so college students returned from summer vacations, we'd have to do hundreds of installs in a week. But students rarely stayed in the same place more than a year. I never thought that selling cable TV to college students was much of a money- maker, but under the terms of our franchise with the city, we were required to do it. Students not only got free installs, they were continually tampering with our facilities, often paid their bills late, and sometimes skipped town without paying the final bill.

A $300 "construction fee," with a minimum contract period of one year, would certainly have put a stop that that kind of nonsense.

Neal McLain