Posted on 05/19/2012 6:14:24 PM PDT by AmonAmarth
Comcast’s plans to do away with its 250 GB data cap and charge users based upon usage marks the end of an era for cable TV providers, and for the online video industry. No longer will users be able to endlessly stream all the content their hearts desire. Not just that, but the fact that usage-based pricing is arriving at the same time that more, higher-quality content is appearing online could have a dampening effect on demand for services like Netflix or Hulu Plus.
Comcast, of course, says that its new, usage-based pricing policy is pro-consumer, and to a certain extent it is. The average broadband subscriber — those who only use up about 8 GB or 10 GB of data a month — shouldn’t necessarily pay the same as those whose usage goes above 300 GB in the same period of time.
But for those of us who are avid streaming video users, usage-based pricing models could change the overall value proposition of watching video on the Internet.
(Excerpt) Read more at techcrunch.com ...
The cost will only go up if you have Comcast.
I would not have Comcast as an interent provider even if they gave it to me for free. They suck, period. I do not know of anyone who has Comcast who does not have persistant problems with their service-loss of conectivity and outages-some of those events you can almost set a clock to. Way back in the good ol’ days when I played in a raiding guild on EverQuest when we would be raiding we would always take a break during the raid at about 7:15pm because we all knew that more likely then not the 14 people in the raid that were using Comcast would get lose their internet connections and go link dead. it was funny because these people all lived in different states and they woould all go link dead within 2 minutes of each other.
I once had Time-Warner and they sucked, too but that was before they passed the law that said that apartment complex owners could not ban you from having a satellite dish. I had no alternative to Time Warner before that because the county government gave Time Warner a monopoly. Once that law passed I dumped Time-Warner like a hot potato.
The thing that Comcast tends to forget is that there is no government mandated monopoly on interent providers as there is for cable companies. I would imagine that as soon as they do this their subscriber numbers are going to fall off a cliff.
I never used either Time Warner or Comcast as an internet provider. I have had ATT DSL and now have Uverse. In the last 14 years I have had sum total of 3 problems with connectivity. Three. Only one of those outages lasted over two hours, my Uverse modem bit the dust and I got a new one shipped to me by ATT which arrived the next day.
You represent one of the big reasons for this move by Comcast. I know quite a few folks who have gone that direction - internet only (use VoIP for phone service as well). There is more money in cable TV service than just the internet. If customers cancel their TV service - they "have" to make that up somewhere...
Kind of reminds me of how the cellular companies have moved away from "unlimited" data plans, and even those who still have them (like me - grandfathered in) see throttling of the so-called "unlimited" data after 3GB of data is used in a billing cycle. I'm curious how this fits the name of "unlimited".
I stream everything.
I have 4 kids that each have a tablet streaming various netflix shows simultaniously, while I may be streaming HD video on the TV or my computer at the same time. This is norm around here. I have no idea who much we actually use per month, but all my plans are unlimited so I don’t really care ( I am a grandfathered AT&T unlimited customer )
Actually - if the Cable (and Sat) providers would allow us to pick and choose what channels get pumped into our homes (and thus we pay for), then the Matthews and Oprah’s would dry up and blow away.
Just look at the crying Liberals who complain that talk radio is “so biased and right winged” - well - radio is a consumer product. People make their choice on what they want to hear by listening in. Why is it that Conservative talk radio leads BIG TIME? Because that is what the majority of consumers want to listen to. Air America - what a joke. The Libtards couldn’t drum up enough support. They even got a government bailout - to no avail. Nobody was listening to them, thus no advertisers to sponsor them.
What does it do for you movie-wise? I have Netflix streaming and the limited selections stink!
Probably your best bet, to find out whether you would like a Roku or not is to go to one of the channel sites and tour around.
I’m not sure of your particular taste, so I can’t really say.
We watch Kung Fu Theater but you may not like that.
http://streamfree.tv/apps/roku-private-channels/
Click at the top and you’ll get a good idea. Seems there are channels added all the time so even their list may not be complete.
My wife streams Russian TVoIP (in HD) on the living room TV, my kids watch children's programming on Netflix and I pretty much just watch Netflix as well. In a week, I doubt if we watch an hour's worth of regular cable. I've breached Comcast's 250GB ceiling in the entire 13 months I've had Comcast. To be fair, they never sent me any nastygrams or otherwise restricted my service. Last I checked, they removed the link that showed me my usage but prior to that, we always exceeded 300GB.
I knew it would only be a matter of time before the cable companies went this route, especially with customers like me who scaled back their cable plans while eating up GB by streaming video content.
I’ll go there. Thanks for the reply and the link netmilsmom.
Want to really burn some GB, try Veetle.com. Its like 30+ HD movie channels (of questionable legality-lol) They claim that since they are “chatting” about the new avengers, Battleship, dark shadows, etc movies then it falls under fair use clause.
No problem at all, my FRiend!
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