DoJ Investigating Cable Companies over Data Caps

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rsktek

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Can't believe we're going to have to back Netflix up, but looks like supporting them is the only way to get rid of these stupid, mental caps :/ so, I guess, go Netflix...
 

house70

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As much as I dislike govt. mixing in private businesses, a major shake-up of these com thugs is in dire need. They've split the market so each of them has a virtual local monopoly and we need to change this model.
 

the_crippler

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Lots of growing pains in an industry that has managed to remain in a walled fort for far too long. It's adapt or die time for them, and unfortunately, it's the consumer who suffers while they get their act together to move forward.
 

t2couger

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Cable companies need to grow up. I canceled my TV portion of my service because i am sick of paying the ever hiking prices on limited content and rampant advertisements. internet only is the way to go no advertisements and unlimited content is the way to go. If i could go around the local cable company i would unfortunately they have a monopoly in my local area.
 

kingbrodij

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f you time warner, 100% f UUUUUUUUU! Got me by the short hairs, no other choice in my NON RURAL area. (and I dont want a dish)
 

cscott_it

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Unfortunately, things like this is what Net Neutrality were trying to prevent. I think it's just a matter of time before they try to "prioritize traffic".

I have the same issue with my ISP - that if I use their package (SuddenLink), I can stream their service for without effecting my limit. Of course, to get that, I'd also have to buy their cable package.

Bandwidth caps are a terrible idea in general - it does nothing but promote stagnation within the industry.

I'm sure this idea came about like this:
"How can we make more money without improving our infrastructure or delivering a better experience?"
or
" How can we prevent spending costs on upgrading our infrastructure?... I know, we'll cap everyone and turn a profit by offering our services that don't count against their data package..."
 
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Cry babies. Wahhhhh, I don't like Cable but can't stand Dish. I want my wahhhhh.

Grow up people. It is the consumer who decided they can't live without some form of video or games flashing before their eyes. Stop complaining, cancel your services and go for a walk, meet some friends for a real cup of coffee at a real cafe, spend some time with your family if you have any other than some other fool on Facebook.

Don't sit there in front of your keyboard, waiting for a download stream of a video to fill your nearly useless brain.

TURN IT OFF, STOP GIVING THEM MONEY! What did you do before? Oh, I forgot, you were born with an iPhone attached to your ears, a tablet in your lap and a video game instead of parents.
 

TheKurrgan

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The entire television industry is in a panic now very similar to the record industry, and are struggling to find a way to stay profitable. Lets face it, the television networks were the content delivery system before, but now we all have the ability to get direct access to the content they are showing, and without *&*#ing advertising. Thats a big problem for them, and the cable companies are hardest hit because they make a living on serving content over a cable line, which is their primary business. They also offer internet service as a course of natural evolution as it is required for them to stay competitive with the "triple play" the telephone companies offer now as well.
Problem is, more and more people dont want the cable television service.
Comcast makes it difficult to get their non tv services without buying a "decent" TV Package.
I have the Blast Extra 25Mbit/6Mbit internet connection. It comes with a 250GB cap.
I come within about 75GB of it each month, never having gone over and never restricting my usage (A word on that, I do all of my heavy downloading at work on the fiber connection. I frequently sync lots of files and download about 900MByte a day during the course of that, but even still that wouldnt bust my cap but WOULD put me close)
At the end of the day, all of this crap is inevitable. We're all witnessing what could be call the end of a 40 year old multi billion dollar industry, and they arent giving up with out a fight. Frankly, I expect it to get much worse before it gets better, as it seems to be a growing trend for content providers to want to forcibly line their pockets with money via either litigation, or twisting the industry so you have no other choice.
 

waethorn

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At least in the US, your TV carriers don't own the channels. In Canada, the comm companies own all the TV channels, making mobile TV unfeasible because you have to subscribe to XYZ's mobile service to get their TV channels on a mobile device like an iPad. If you want all the channels, you'd be subscribing to all of the mobile carriers and changing your SIM all the time, because on a device like an iPad, you can only use mobile TV over cellular, not on WiFi....and then you have to deal with overage charges because the data caps are designed to be a money pit that favours the mobile ops. You can't watch US TV directly because when the US TV networks offer their TV shows to Canada, they sell the shows to Canadian TV networks who also claim exclusive distribution rights in Canada. So a TV show like American Idol is sold from Fox to CTV in Canada, and CTV claims the right to be the exclusive broadcaster of that show ANYWHERE in Canada. Fox doesn't keep any broadcast rights for that in Canada at all. So if a service like Hulu would like to enter the Canadian market, they would have to go to CTV, Global, Shaw Media, Rogers, etc., and re-purchase broadcast rights for all of the US shows they might want to show in Canada - if the Canadian network wants to sell them those rights. This is true of every country. Part of this reason is because your government favours your national TV and communication networks over foreign entities, so they'll make up laws that say that the national network needs to include so much domestic content (like the CRTC does) that it makes it near impossible for a foreign network to enter your market.
 

livebriand

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I cancelled my cable TV a few years ago and don't miss it one bit. Now if only I had a decent alternative to Comcast internet here... (it's that or 768kbps ATT DSL, in a suburb of the San Francisco area)
 
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shut up otacon72, no one wants to listen to you bend over for cable companies.
 

chewy1963

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[citation][nom]otacon72[/nom]Free bandwidth? Since when is it free? It didn't cost the cable companies anything to install the thousands of miles of wire and it doesn't cost them anything to maintain it? If they want to set a cap they have every right now. I have a 250GB monthly cap. If you use more than that you should pay for it. Streaming services are pointless while there are bandwidth caps in place..lol L3 is said to be going to start charging Comcast more because of all the bandwidth Netflix subscribers are sucking up every month. If you use over 250GB you should be charged up the wazzo.[/citation]

First of all, the original post meant free in the sense 'not used' not in the sense 'no cost'. Secondly, you obviously have a vested interest in the cable industry to make these ridiculous arguments.

This is just a business plan copied directly from AT&T mobile, cry lack of infrastructure as an excuse to cap services and provide another revenue stream. Frankly I can see the day when cable companies are nothing but an ISP. They fear that because then they might have to actually COMPETE in a marketplace!
 

Osmin

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This is just a business plan copied directly from AT&T
You are completely right in that AT&T should be investigated thoroughly. I have heard from many at work that they had given U-Verse customers priority in bandwidth over their DSL customers at peak times. Their DSL service was crawling at snail speeds without affecting the U-Verse neighbors. I have heard the same problems in other states where they just begin U-Verse service. Must customers will not know why their DSL service is suddenly slow to respond. U-Verse is just DSL technology with another name because it uses the same old POTS line instead of fiber to your door like Verizon FIOS does. AT&T was also the first to stop unlimited data plans to their cell phone service in a small market making the next largest provider follow suit.
 
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