I live in Austin and have Time Warner Cable, my bill is roughly $173.00 per month. This is includes Internet (30 Mbps down/5Mbps up) and basic cable (no premium channels).

For people living in Austin, I doubt we will see increased speeds or better price offerings from AT&T/TWC until the day Google Fiber is available to significant portions of the city's population.

If you're paying $173/mo for that internet and actual 'basic cable' - big 4 + pbs/shopping/church - you are being abused and should cancel immediately.

That sounds overpriced given any definition of basic cable I can think of.

That's what I'm thinking too. Soon I plan to dispute my bill before the annual increase, or threaten to cancel and switch to AT&T.

There's no need to be that extreme - just call them and ask for a lower price, you'll get it.

If they push, tell them a neighbor just signed up at a lower rate or similar, you'll get a big decrease of your bill pretty quickly.

Why wait?

They're offering new customers your exact service for less than half of what you're paying. Definitely get on the phone and threaten to leave:

http://imgur.com/rIrcxmJ

My roommate works in retention at TWC. GP can definitely call and get that cut quite significantly. GP may not even have to threaten to leave -- just ask them to see if any promotions are available for that area. If they don't or don't offer enough of a discount, then threaten to cancel, get transferred to retention, and likely get an even better rate. The reps definitely have limits in what they can cut you down to, but $173/mo for basic cable and the 30mbps connection is pretty far from what they can get you down to.

Holy shit, are those prices normal for Austin? Everywhere I've lived (Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee) I've paid roughly $40-50/month for just internet from Comcast that's also a bit faster than yours.

I've always been on promo deals, but even the "regular" price is $70-80.

TWC in Cary, NC for 5/30 service (nothing else, just Internet) is $72.38/month. And they just sent me a letter saying rates are going up.

My only theoretical alternative is AT&T but last I checked they don't even know my address exists (my house was built in 2004).

Meanwhile Wilson, NC built out its own network after getting fed up with broadband providers not willing to service her citizens. Of course that won't be happening elsewhere in NC since TWC successfully lobbied the state legislature to prevent other towns from doing so. Anyway, here's the pricing in Wilson http://www.greenlightnc.com/about/internet/

    20Mbps Internet-only	$39.95
    40Mbps Internet-only	$59.95
    60Mbps Internet-only	$79.95
    100Mbps Internet-only	$104.95
    1Gbps Internet-only 	$154.95

All symmetrical. Much better than anything from TWC or Comcast or AT&T.

My hometown in the Chicago suburbs attempted to build out their own fiber network to provide service to residents sometime in the mid 2000s. I was in high school at the time, but I still get so damn angry thinking back on Comcast's explicit lobbying and campaigning against it. They sold the older population in town that it was this huge gamble.

I can still picture the signs Comcast put in people's yards. They were bright red, had dice on them, and said "Don't gamble with our tax dollars." There were letters to the editor in the local papers on both sides, but it was clear from almost the beginning that too few people understood the value of municipal fiber, and the vote didn't pass.

Today, my parents have barely functioning UVerse.

Also, your internet option is super gross, that's really too bad. I recently moved for work to a more rural area, but thankfully the same package was available.

I'm in Austin. I pay 48ish for 15 down 3 up.

TWC is ridiculous on price. My complex was wired for it but they would only sell me "business class" rather than consumer. I instead got U-Verse (18 down / ?? up) for $45 per month.

Define "normal." If you let your rate increase after your promotional period ends, then yes, but it only takes one phone call to retention to get that back down.

Right, but I don't think the average person does that. I haven't paid their "normal" or listed rate, but I imagine the typical family just pays.

I don't have any particular insight into it, so I don't know. I imagine TWC does, though, but I don't know how keen they would be in sharing that.

Basic cable runs over clear QAM and can't be blocked per FCC rules. It gets broadcast over the line unfiltered if you have Internet. So if you are paying for it, stop.

Wrong.

The FCC caved on this recently. [1]

This isn't just a hypothetical situation. Comcast in Oregon now encrypts the OTA network channels. [2]

[1] http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57533637-38/fcc-allows-cab...

[2] http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/cable-tv/limite...

Time Warner has announced that they will be increasing speeds and maintaining the current price structure[1]. New speeds are expected to be available Fall 2014.

[1] http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140220006003/en/Time...