[1st-mile-nm] Fwd: Comcast Sneaks in Another Billing Line Item and “Earns” an Additional $1 Billion

[Richard Lowenberg]

I recently noticed newly increased charges on my AT&T Mobility bill,
for (monthly) one-time charges, government fees and taxes, plus
surcharges and other fees.   AT&T support staff could not or would not
explain what these unspecified charges actually were, when I called,
other than saying that they were more government fees.

Following is a posting from Joly MacFie, with the Internet Society in
NYC, regarding new Comcast charges.   Not personally having Comcast
service, I wonder if 1st-Mile subscribers having Comcast service,
have been similarly billed?

RL

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Comcast Sneaks in Another Billing Line Item and “Earns” an 
Additional $1 Billion
Date: 2018-07-01 12:15
 From: Joly MacFie <joly at punkcast.com>

COMCAST SNEAKS IN ANOTHER BILLING LINE ITEM AND “EARNS” AN ADDITIONAL $1 
BILLION

My Comcast bill arrived today with a sneaky new $2.68 charge,
$2.50 for leasing one (and only one) set top box and $0.18 for
the remote.  This new billing line item, like the many others Comcast
has introduced, adds to its bottom line with no additional capital
expenditure.  It shows how resisting the obligation to return to
accepting set top box free, “cable ready” sets was a smart strategy.
Now Comcast can charge for a device rental that it used to provide free
of charge (for the first one), because consumers cannot access its
service without one.

             Remarkably, the FCC never got around to replacing its
CableCard “solution” with a viable, consumer-friendly update.  For
their part, cable operators never followed through on a “commitment”
to offering “true two-way” consumer access using increasingly
versatile and intelligent television sets to handle rather simple
upstream commands to the cable operators’ Headends.

             Of course, Comcast subscribers now can use their own set top
boxes, such as a Roku, but the company has a perfect, profit maximizing
strategy for that as well: charge $9.50 a month and rebate $2.50 for
“subscriber supplied equipment.” Brilliant and incredibly greedy at
the same time.

             I am well overdue for a return to Over the Air Reception
(“OTAR”) of broadcast television even in my quite rural locale,
centrally located in the middle of nowhere: State College, PA.  Comcast
all but wants me to do this, so it can concentrate on its transition to
being a vertically integrated broadband venture combining its owned
content and conduit.  Besides, broadband has far greater profit margins,
none of which have to be shared with content providers through
retransmission consent.  Actually, revenues flow the other way as when
Netflix agreed to compensate Comcast for content carriage.

             Subscribers of Comcast should revolt, but I suspect few will
even notice the increase.  What’s a few dollars more, especially after
Comcast’s now $8.00 “Broadcast TV Fee,” some of which flows to the
company’s NBC stations?  Comcast also has a “technology fee” that
most high definition television subscribers have to pay.  I guess the
company can justify this recurring line item as helping it recoup the
costs for upgrading networks to handle high definition signals.

             You really should examine the line items in cable television
bills.  Few companies can quantify and foist onto customers their
estimate of having to comply with government regulations and pay local
governments franchise fees.  But my bills has line items entitled
Franchise Fee and FCC Regulatory Fee.  I call these costs overhead, but
Comcast frames them as “fees” that they can pass through to
customers.

             Finally, I have reached the tipping point where gouging
nudges—makes that pushes—me to old school technology. I expect
Neighborhood Homeowners Association opposition to my outdoor antenna.
Maybe I can assert a First Amendment right.


---------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Lowenberg, Executive Director
1st-Mile Institute     505-603-5200
Box 8001, Santa Fe, NM 87504,
rl at 1st-mile.org     www.1st-mile.org
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