FCC weakens net neutrality rule in a prelude to larger rollbacks

Re:FCC weakens net neutrality rule in a prelude to larger ro... by DaiPlusPlus on Friday February 24, 2017 @06:02PM (#13728748)

A strange thing I've noticed about telecoms in the US is that prices never fall - instead consumers just get more value and are constantly upsold higher-value offerings - this is not a bad thing in itself, but whereas in the UK and most of Europe I can get a a few gigs of 4G/LTE data for my phone for about €10 - something you'd have to pay $50+ for in the USA. The same goes for home internet - the cheapest non-promotional rate in my area is $45/mo for 10mbps, but pay $20/more and you get 100mbps. Why isn't there a sub-$30/mo offering? I believe these prices remain comparable to what they cost (sans-handset subsidy cost) over the past 20+ years.

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Re:FCC weakens net neutrality rule in a prelude to larger ro... by cr0sh on Monday February 27, 2017 @02:55PM (#13747356)

> The same goes for home internet - the cheapest non-promotional rate in my area is $45/mo for 10mbps, but pay $20/more and you get 100mbps. Why isn't there a sub-$30/mo offering?

I know that Cox has some kind of "low speed, low price" offering, that I believe is under $30/month - but they kinda hide it on their site; I think you have to explicitly call and ask for it. See here (scroll near the bottom):

https://www.cox.com/aboutus/policies/speeds-and-data-plans.h...

Note the "Starter Package", then note the package one level up ("Essential"). If you click on the link next to the "Starter Package" for pricing, you will be taken to another page - where the lowest shown tier is for the "Essential Package". But I'm pretty sure you can get the "Starter Package" if you call first.

There's also this for low-income families:

http://connect2compete.org/cox/

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Re:FCC weakens net neutrality rule in a prelude to larger ro... by cstejerean on Friday February 24, 2017 @08:41PM (#13729486)

Because the business model of the carriers is built on a fairly high ARPU of about $45-55. They need to protect that average revenue per user, so they don't really care what they sell you as long as they get the revenue. At first it was voice minutes. Then as those got cheaper more of the money was made on domestic roaming and long-distance charges. Then those went away and they replaced them with SMS charges. Then revenue shifted to data. At this point data makes up about 60% of the revenue, and I suspect this number will only continue to rise.

The only way for that ARPU to drop considerably is if a new player enters the market that can significantly undercut the existing players, because none of the existing players are willing to see that number drop by half or more. I don't believe such a new entrant will materialize anytime soon due to the high barriers to entry. I suspect the cost of building and operating a wireless network in the US is too high to support a carrier operating on a fraction of the ARPU.

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