Klarth

join:2005-09-16

Oronogo, MO ·Mediacom

1 recommendation Klarth Member Mediacom I think you're giving them too much credit. Shortly after the e-mail notifications started rolling in, the thread popped up here and numerous on Mediacom's support forums. It took a while for their social media team to have their talking points regurgitated to them, but they now include the "This doesn't affect 97% of users" line, showing they went with the approach of claiming if you happen to use Netflix, Hulu, etc instead of Mediacom's content, you're the anomaly.



Additionally, since Mediacom's infrastructure is so underdeveloped in areas, if you can't get their Ultra tier, you are stuck with a much more restrictive cap.



The final gem on the top of this change is that you have to sign up for a separate e-mail address with Mediacom to even view your usage, and so far even know they are making this change (though they have stated they will send snail mail letters at some point). The account that you use to view/pay your bill online is not connected to viewing the meter.

GLIMMER

join:2004-01-17

Fisher, IL GLIMMER Member Re: Mediacom and att is not there biggest rival. its frontier in most areas

Chubbysumo

join:2009-12-01

Duluth, MN ·Charter

Ubee E31U2V1

(Software) pfSense

Netgear WNR3500L

Chubbysumo Member Re: Mediacom said by GLIMMER: its frontier in most areas

In most areas, it depends on whos there. Here, they have 2 areas of service, and one of them has CenturyLink, and the other has Centurylink(labeled Qwest). No one has even heard of AT&T or Verizon DSL up here, and is only familiar with their Wireless services. everyone has heard about how mediacom is the shittiest company around tho.



Karl Bode

News Guy

join:2000-03-02 Karl Bode to Klarth

News Guy to Klarth

I think you're giving them too much credit. Shortly after the e-mail notifications started rolling in, the thread popped up here and numerous on Mediacom's support forums. It took a while for their social media team to have their talking points regurgitated to them, but they now include the "This doesn't affect 97% of users" line, showing they went with the approach of claiming if you happen to use Netflix, Hulu, etc instead of Mediacom's content, you're the anomaly. slightly less crap than other justifications I've seen, where the carrier insists that paying more "improves your customer experience," or trots out the congestion bogeyman even though the industry itself has admitted congestion isn't an issue and isn't why they're doing this. Don't get me wrong, I still think their justifications are crap, they're justcrap than other justifications I've seen, where the carrier insists that paying more "improves your customer experience," or trots out the congestion bogeyman even though the industry itself has admitted congestion isn't an issue and isn't why they're doing this.

Klarth

join:2005-09-16

Oronogo, MO ·Mediacom

Klarth Member Re: Mediacom



»Re: 250gb limit



I really hope we can at least expose them for this behavior, like I said in the other thread, I doubt they even feel shame at this point. Around here someone that actually utilizes a broadband connection has to deal with the realities of rural cable companies. Even companies like CableOne and Cox have backed off on these caps, but now Mediacom is going the wrong direction. I'm afraid it looks like they have that spell in their deck as well...I really hope we can at least expose them for this behavior, like I said in the other thread, I doubt they even feel shame at this point. Around here someone that actually utilizes a broadband connection has to deal with the realities of rural cable companies. Even companies like CableOne and Cox have backed off on these caps, but now Mediacom is going the wrong direction.



Karl Bode

News Guy

join:2000-03-02 1 recommendation Karl Bode News Guy Re: Mediacom Too bad. Never mind then, I'll edit the piece, thanks. Socking customers with these hikes is one thing, but insulting customer intelligence just adds insult to injury.

34764170 (banned)

join:2007-09-06

Etobicoke, ON 1 edit 34764170 (banned) Member Re: Mediacom Their own customer service reps and customers don't even know what the word bandwidth means and use it improperly. No wonder there is so much confusion. They're saying to their customers we've sold you a connection but you're not allowed to actually use it.

iansltx

join:2007-02-19

Austin, TX ·Time Warner Cable

iansltx to Karl Bode

Member to Karl Bode

...and their tier caps actually scale up with price in a reasonable fashion. You may have to upgrade a tier if you use a lot of data and aren't paying a lot per month, but after 999GB you really want a business class connection anyway, and I'll bet Mediacom would be happy to sell you one.



Any way you slice it, these caps are more sensible than Comcast's various trials, Suddenlink's caps, or TWC's attempts.

Klarth

join:2005-09-16

Oronogo, MO ·Mediacom

Klarth Member Re: Mediacom I agree, for what it's worth. Personally, I don't really need a 50mbps line (but respect people who do), but like you say it's the cost you pay for the cap that you do need. I also personally think that 1TB is a reasonable cap (again, your mileage may vary). That part is OK, but the problem is when they don't offer their Ultra tier in many areas (well, that and insulting our intelligence with such transparent lies as to why they are adding caps). Though that said, like you say, there are worse companies out there, for now.



Karl Bode

News Guy

join:2000-03-02 1 recommendation Karl Bode News Guy Re: Mediacom Whether a cap is "reasonable" doesn't really change the fact that these companies are using a lack of competition to impose rate hikes on already pricey tiers (by global developed country standards). They can already push excessive users on to business tiers. All these caps do is encourage upselling and abuse, especially if your only competitor is a low-quality DSL provider that offers capped 3 Mbps DSL.

iansltx

join:2007-02-19

Austin, TX iansltx Member Re: Mediacom Well, yes.



On the bright side, they're mainly competing against providers who have DSL as their bread and butter. Which is more than can be said of the likes of Comcast in many areas (ahem, Verizon).

88615298 (banned)

join:2004-07-28

West Tenness 88615298 (banned) to Karl Bode

Member to Karl Bode

said by Karl Bode: Whether a cap is "reasonable" doesn't really change the fact that these companies are using a lack of competition to impose rate hikes on already pricey tiers (by global developed country standards).

Please. Look at TV. Some people have cable, TWO satellite companies and either u-verse or FiOS as options. Not to mention OTA and internet viewing. Yet good luck getting cable, satellite or U-verse/FiOS under $70 a month at regular price. So having 4 pay TV options( and the threat of cord cutting via OTA and internet viewing ) has not done a thing to lower pricing. What makes you think having more ISPs in an area would be any different?

TBBroadband

join:2012-10-26

Fremont, OH TBBroadband Member Re: Mediacom It works but only in select areas with select companies.

34764170 (banned)

join:2007-09-06

Etobicoke, ON 34764170 (banned) to 88615298

Member to 88615298

It works elsewhere and in other countries.



RyanThaDude

Indiana's No. 1 Zero

join:2004-01-24

Walkerton, IN RyanThaDude to Karl Bode

Member to Karl Bode

Exactly. I have no other choice as CenturyLink won't offer us DSL because of being too far (even though I live in a populated town), and we have no other means of higher caps since they don't offer any higher speeds other than 20mbps. Very anti-competitive, shit service. It's been the WORST company I've dealt with, for sure!

34764170 (banned)

join:2007-09-06

Etobicoke, ON 34764170 (banned) to iansltx

Member to iansltx

Except there is no relation between the speed of the connection and the amount of traffic transferred. There is zero justification for caps. Caps have nothing to do with congestion management. If they didn't want congestion to happen then they shouldn't be overselling the nodes to squeeze out more profit.

iansltx

join:2007-02-19

Austin, TX ·Time Warner Cable

iansltx Member Re: Mediacom There is a positive correlation between the speed of someone's connection and the amount of data that they transfer over it, probably because there's a positive correlation between price and amount of transfer used, all else equal.



Yes, caps low enough that people hit them are a revenue source. If you don't like it, you should build your own ISP and find out what the cost of last-mile bandwidth really is. The same economies of scale that make you reluctant to do that also allow Mediacom to come up with a number that represents the overall cost per GB that crosses their network, and it's not as close to zero as you might think.



Also, in an ideal world (not saying this is happening with Mediacom) higher-end users pay for the network upgrades for the node. A bunch of 10M users would probably be just fine with a couple of DOCSIS channels bonded per node. Add in a few 50M and 105M high-end folks and you now need four, six or even eight channels. Those line cards cost money. So Mediacom matches incremental revenue to incremental expenses and makes a profit.



Would they be able to add in as much profit in a more competitive environment? Nope. But it's downright scary to become a new competitor in wireline communications, unless you're coming in with a tech that others can't match without significant effort. Marginal costs for the incumbent, sans upgrades, are just too low. So it takes someone with balls like Google to do this these days.



ITALIAN926

join:2003-08-16 ITALIAN926 to Karl Bode

Member to Karl Bode

As far as caps, one day, it will be the norm for all companies. What will ISPs do when speeds are so fast, and wireless tech reaches so far, that one subscriber can open his network for his entire street? So, on this persons wifi, hes supplying IPTV / Torrents, data, and VoIP for everyone. Todays speeds are tomorrows dialup, and the ISPs wont be able to allow 1 subscriber on each street.



The only way to prevent such misuse is usage billing.



Breaking a TOS? Yea, that works real well, and good luck enforcing it.



Eagles1221

join:2009-04-29

Vincentown, NJ Eagles1221 to Klarth

Member to Klarth

3mbit for 28 a month isn't overly bad and 150 GB isn't so rotten for mid range use as long as you stay with SD video

88615298 (banned)

join:2004-07-28

West Tenness 88615298 (banned) Member Re: Mediacom It's not like you'd be doing much HD viewing at 3 Mbps anyway.

Cobra11M

join:2010-12-23

Mineral Wells, TX Cobra11M to Klarth

Member to Klarth

ha sounds like Suddenlink!, underdeveloped and charge $$ for overages



rebus9

join:2002-03-26

Tampa Bay 1 recommendation rebus9 to Klarth

Member to Klarth

said by Klarth: I think you're giving them too much credit.



If this was really about reducing impact on other users... "We have a small subset of customers that are using a very large portion of the available bandwidth, which can have a negative impact on the other internet users in the surrounding area," says a Mediacom employee in our forums reading from a script. "By curbing this behavior, other customers can benefit with faster speeds."



Heavy downloader hits ___GB, throttle to 75%. Next ___GB, throttle to 50%. And so forth, until they're down to a couple of Mbps.



Just follow the money trail. It's more profitable to bill for overages than throttle down heavy users. +1If this was really about reducing impact on other users...... they would have gone to tiered throttling.Heavy downloader hits ___GB, throttle to 75%. Next ___GB, throttle to 50%. And so forth, until they're down to a couple of Mbps.Just follow the money trail. It's more profitable to bill for overages than throttle down heavy users.

34764170 (banned)

join:2007-09-06

Etobicoke, ON 34764170 (banned) Member Re: Mediacom Or simply not oversell their network in the name of squeezing more profits. That is what results in congestion.

Os

join:2011-01-26

US Os Member CenturyLink CenturyLink is the telco in most of IA (former Qwest). Mediacom owns IA.



Mediacom might be the worst of all the cable companies. Pathetic TV offerings with metered billing. For all the problems with Atlantic Broadband here with their TV, at least they're not metering their customers. Yet.

silbaco

Premium Member

join:2009-08-03

USA silbaco Premium Member Re: CenturyLink Centurylink is the telco in the large cities in IA, not IA in general. There are nearly 150 telcos in IA and Windstream has a very large footprint.

88615298 (banned)

join:2004-07-28

West Tenness 88615298 (banned) Member 999 GB more than enough While no caps would be best if one is seriously griping about "only" having 999 GB then perhaps going outside every once in a while would do them good. And their caps for lower speeds are better than what other ISPs with caps offer. Charter gives you 500 GB for their 100 Mbps tier and 250 GB for their 30 Mbps tier. People on still on their grandfathered 15 Mbps or 3 Mbps plans have a 100 GB cap.

your moderator at work hidden : Personal attacks

shpatb

join:2013-07-16 shpatb to 88615298

Member to 88615298

Re: 999 GB more than enough Charter doesn't enforce caps in Wisconsin from what I've seen, I use over 500 gb a month and my family uses over 500 gb a month as well and have never received anything from charter. I have a lot of friends that are heavy users and never have had any cap problems either.

tmc8080

join:2004-04-24

Brooklyn, NY tmc8080 Member now they come for your broadband Ready to write your politicians now?



I tend to think some municipalities are waiting to become like Detroit... give in to the special interests so much (whatever they may be) that you leave nothing but a sad state of affairs in its wake..



Iowaman5

@mchsi.com Iowaman5 Anon At least there caps are better than the others. I am on the 50 Mbps and run about 500 to 600 gigs a month. Some of the caps the other cable company's have would kill my bank account.

Cobra11M

join:2010-12-23

Mineral Wells, TX Cobra11M Member Re: At least there caps are better than the others. Suddenlink would love to have you as a customer!, haha



thedragonmas

Premium Member

join:2007-12-28

Albany, GA ·VOIPO

Netgear R6300 v2

ARRIS SB6180

thedragonmas to Iowaman5

Premium Member to Iowaman5

im so sick of them double dipping. it should be unlimited data with limited speed, or unlimited speed with limited data. and this b.s. move is just that. freakin exp basic is $75/mo, the only reason they did this is because of people like me, basic cable $30, who uses streaming, granted i havent in a while but i was just about to get hulu plus to get the shows i CANT get elsewhere because i dont sub to the exp basic package.. yeah if you try to use say "gold" for adult swim it logs in to your cable acct, sees your not paying for the channel then bounces you out. yet, you can get the same content on places like hulu+..



that really is what this crap is about and im irate about it. but there aint a damn thing i can do about it if i want internet.



ok well i can shoot off a few snail mail letters to my congress critter for a lot of good that will do. (mainly because no one else does it)



P Ness

You'Ve Forgotten 9-11 Already

Premium Member

join:2001-08-29

way way out 1 recommendation P Ness Premium Member WE have a small amount of people using what they pay for.... so we must put a stop to that



Iowaman5

@mchsi.com Iowaman5 Anon Re: WE have a small amount of people using what they pay for.... That's what I'm saying. I pay for 999 gig's and I'm going to use what I need to use.



winsyrstrife

River City Bounce

Premium Member

join:2002-04-30

Brooklyn, NY winsyrstrife Premium Member Any rollover? On those monthly GBs the customers are paying for?



AnonMan

@comcast.net 1 recommendation AnonMan Anon Regulation? So because GAS and POWER and WATER get regulated because they are by usage when does internet get proper regulation to guarantee that the data is accurate?



What's to stop you from using 200GB and them saying 300GB and your cap is 250?? Monitoring it yourself is useless too because it's your word vs. them. They will claim your cheap router or firewall PC doesn't compare to the 100k equipment they use that is inaccurate.



Where does it end?

How is this any different from me opening a store, selling something for $5 and I say, well you still owe me one more $1 even though you gave me $5.. It should be just as much of a crime...



To make caps more fun, I can make your usage climb with you having nothing turned on but your modem... Just flood it with useless traffic... Like already happens on the net... It's like paying for spam text messages when you pay per msg.



elios

join:2005-11-15

Springfield, MO 1 recommendation elios Member Re: Regulation? pretty much how i feel

if they want to have metered service then they must be classed as a ultiltiy and regulated as such and meters must be checked just each states weights and measures just like all other meters used for sales



buzz_4_20

join:2003-09-20

Biddeford, ME buzz_4_20 Member Nothing Higher than 999gigs...

»www.plupien.com/May.png Awe Crap....



IAMU

@iamu.org IAMU Anon Mediacom competition Many of you may not be aware of the fact that Mediacom DOES face strong competition in a number of cities in Iowa. This competition comes not from CenturyLink, Frontier, or any other ILEC. It comes from municipal broadband utilities in several cities. Examples include Cedar Falls, where gigabit internet is available on their fiber-to-the-home platform; Spencer, where customers can subscribe to 100 Mbps down/ 10 Mbps up; and many others, none of which currently have caps. I would be curious to see if Mediacom will be enforcing caps in these municipal communities.

True

join:2013-08-08 True Member my 2 cents While i don't Like metered. at least this is more fair then most. Consider this compairson Amazon EC2 hosting who is generally considered good value by most web site ops. charged 12 cents per GB for anything more then 1 GB and less 10 TB a month. thats just the bandwidth cost. not counting CPU/Storage charges. $10 for 50g works out to about 20 cents a gig. Considering the extra support overheard of a ISP this is not too bad. and the packages prices from up to 14.5 cents and 19 cents per gig. Personal I would be interested to see an ISP offer pricing starting at like $15 bucks a month for like 80 gig cap and 15 to 18 cents a gig overage and everyone gets top speed (50mbps 100 mbps whatever). make it more like your power or water bill. Personally i run about 100-120 gigs a month and i consider myself a pretty heavy user of online games and online media but that just me living alone no other famialy members. user such a plan my bill whould be about $22 bucks a month over the 56 i pay now Families with 4+ active users would pay more just like i have a $22 buck a month power bill but my neighbor with 4 kids has over $120 a month bill.

afn06011

join:2012-10-15

Florida 1 recommendation afn06011 Member Congestion, and monthy data allotments. So I now have a data allotment I'll just use that allotment during prime-time (7 pm till 11 pm), and everyone else uses their allotment during prime-time.. You still have network congestion.

silbaco

Premium Member

join:2009-08-03

USA silbaco Premium Member Re: Congestion, and monthy data allotments. Indeed that is how it seems to work out in the end. It will stop those people who heavily torrent anime or go crazy on Steam during the middle of the night when no one else is online and network congestion is not an issue.

34764170 (banned)

join:2007-09-06

Etobicoke, ON 34764170 (banned) to afn06011

Member to afn06011

Caps have nothing to do with congestion management. It isn't the "heavy" users causing congestion. It is everyone combined.

SunnyD

join:2009-03-20

Madison, AL SunnyD Member To be honest, Mediacrap legitimately has congestion issues. When I was on Mediacom, things started out fairly decent. But they overbuilt rather quickly into traditionally Knology territory (which was even worse at the time), and it didn't take long for Mediacom to have significant congestion issues where I was. A complaint or two ended up putting me on another node, which alleviated things for a couple weeks until that node filled up. Primetime usage on Mediacom was basically worthless.



Of course attacking it from an infrastructure standpoint rather than a shareholder profit standpoint would probably serve their customers better, but hey... what do the shareholders care?



Blahblahblah

@mchsi.com Blahblahblah Anon College Towns? Ya this is going to go over reeeeeeeeal well in Iowa City and Ames, and the other college towns in the area...