Comcast leaving cord cutters with relatively slow internet
In a case of if you need it, you can’t have it, and if you don’t need it, it’s yours, Comcast is boosting speeds in some areas for people with their bundled TV services, but if you don’t have that, too bad. In other words, they’re giving the people who don’t need it and probably won’t make use of it faster service.
This comes as Comcast, and other cable TV/Internet providers are hemorrhaging customers for services that let consumers choose a la carte options, and of course not have to deal with Comcast’s nightmarish customer service. (Any guesses who has two thumbs and has already been on with Comcast three times this morning for work internet?)
What it boils down to is that even giving the bundled customers infinity speed is not going to affect Comcast negatively in the least. A corded TV user will download the same gigabyte or so they use throughout the day at 60 megabits as they would at 60 gigabits, however someone who’s cut the cord and is streaming will probably use more as they’re able to stream on multiple devices (20mbit is about what Netflix considered 4K last I checked).
But, if you aren’t bundling their services you’re being left behind.
Cord cutters probably being a smarter group probably can math it out that if you’re getting 60mbit you’re still fine for two 4K streams (especially with Amazon’s current decreasing video quality,) so who this is going to corral to Comcast’s other services remains to be seen.
But if you’re a cord cutter in areas that are expecting speed bumps to the next tier, chances are you’re not getting it.
Why you would use broadband to prop up failing networks as opposed to simply sane licensing and fair pricing of content produced by those networks is still beyond me. Speed with a requirement of paying for a bundle which would negate the usefulness of speed is… well, it’s Comcast.
[Ars Technica]
