Why don't cable/internet providers have to compete for your business? (Huntsville: real estate, house)

[mom2rdhds]

Can anyone explain to me the deal with cable companies not having to compete for your business? In my neighborhood we can choose from AT&T (which has a max internet speed of 12mbps) or WOW. It seems as though the different companies took a map, said this neighborhood is WOW, this one is comcast, etc. Is this an Alabama thing? What's the point of companies advertising if you can't "choose" them. It's like there are little monopolies which allows prices to keep going higher and higher.

[cooldiver]

Originally Posted by mom2rdhds

Can anyone explain to me the deal with cable companies not having to compete for your business? In my neighborhood we can choose from AT&T (which has a max internet speed of 12mbps) or WOW. It seems as though the different companies took a map, said this neighborhood is WOW, this one is comcast, etc. Is this an Alabama thing? What's the point of companies advertising if you can't "choose" them. It's like there are little monopolies which allows prices to keep going higher and higher.

Most cable companies have exclusive franchises, just like the copper wire phone companies have exclusive franchises.

It is quite rare to have cable companies competing at the same service address. Huntsville is quite fortunate to have both Comcast and Wow, though the history there is that some time ago Huntsville solicited Cable Alabama (which became Knology then Wow) to come in and compete with Group W (Comcast's predecessor).

A few years later, Comcast bought Group W, slashed prices, and Cable Alabama bled money.

Cable Alabama agreed to sell out to Comcast and the city of Huntsville denied the purchase. Cable Alabama sued Huntsville and won some money. The link below is a lengthy read, but has some interesting history.

CABLE ALABAMA CORP. v. CITY OF HUNTSVILLE, ALA. | Leagle.com

The dual cable franchise was Huntsville only, so the areas outside of Huntsville (including Madison) get one cable provider and one copper wire phone provider.

I do wonder if both Wow and Comcast both provide service to new areas of Huntsville, or if areas needing new service are carved up between them.

David

[djmaxwell]

Originally Posted by mom2rdhds

Can anyone explain to me the deal with cable companies not having to compete for your business? In my neighborhood we can choose from AT&T (which has a max internet speed of 12mbps) or WOW. It seems as though the different companies took a map, said this neighborhood is WOW, this one is comcast, etc. Is this an Alabama thing? What's the point of companies advertising if you can't "choose" them. It's like there are little monopolies which allows prices to keep going higher and higher.

First off, no it is not an Alabama thing. It is more common than not.

There are a couple of things that affect this. First is the franchise agreement with the local government. This is needed to access the right of way to lay the cable. They used to be exclusive until 1992. So now the bigger thing is cost. It isn't cheap to build out the cable plant. The ROI is probably pretty low building out into a neighborhood that already has a cable provider.

[guxu]

You are lucky. In my neighborhood we can choose WOW or ... WOW. But with the upcoming AT&T and Google fiber, we will see what they will offer.

[writerwife]

In my neighborhood it's either satellite or dial up. Ugh.

[TurkeyRuben]

In my neighborhood it's WoW, WoW, and WoW. AT&T fiber is building out, and after they have cut at least 6 water connections up and down the block, I'm not so sure anybody wants their fiber.

[maillemaker]

I have never lived anywhere where there was more than one cable provider choice.

Maybe when Google Fiber comes in we will have a choice.

Steve

[snatale1]

Originally Posted by mom2rdhds

Can anyone explain to me the deal with cable companies not having to compete for your business? In my neighborhood we can choose from AT&T (which has a max internet speed of 12mbps) or WOW. It seems as though the different companies took a map, said this neighborhood is WOW, this one is comcast, etc. Is this an Alabama thing? What's the point of companies advertising if you can't "choose" them. It's like there are little monopolies which allows prices to keep going higher and higher.

Former Cable Guy here, I started as a Technician and ended as a Maintenance Tech (guys who work on the networks and wire neighborhoods). I'll try not to be too long winded, but say enough to get the point across.


I'll start with being competitive. Most Cable operators ARE competitive believe it or not. As a subscriber your not even remotely seeing what goes into you having your service. For you to have Cable, Phone and Internet your Operator (cable co) is running 3 different networks simultaneously. It's only when it goes out for distribution that it gets combined giving it the appearance of being some simple thing. Fist theres all the Headends that pull all the feeds from the Satellite dishes (which they pay a service fee for just like we do) and all the incoming data streams from online providers which turn into both TV channels and OnDemand selections. Then theirs all the equipment that modulates all of those individual feeds into a channel for your cable box to understand as well as direct streaming for all the data only stuff. Then theirs the huge data network that your using for your Internet service, HUGE amounts of data centers, trunk feeds from their providers (which again, they pay for) all the systems that integrate their services together, all the systems that monitor traffic so you don't have data issues when others across the network start hogging bandwidth (not the same as peak time slowdown) and then of course the telephone services, which require all the modern day equipment that a phone company has. Then of course the thousands of miles of coax cable and fiber optics as well as line extenders, battery backup systems, and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of hardware that make up the cable system you see when you look up or at that little green box on your lawn. That's BARELY touching on it BTW! But to be quick add in the salaries of the thousands of people maintaining it, fleets of trucks, fuel for those trucks, real estate to hold all this stuff, fees they pay the government and thousands of people to answer phone and fix the thousands of problems that happen all day long everyday that most aren't aware of, I could go on for ever, it's pretty bad. It's actually amazing that the already insane prices are as low as they are.

As far as selection of companies go, blame your local licensing authority. Typically your City or Town, possibly your County if your in a rural area. If there is enough population to make money where you are, then the companies want it, it's your local auth keeping them out, many times it's all the free handouts that end it. Many people tell the cable companies they want free service installed in all public bldgs, schools etc, sometimes it's worth it, sometimes not. In the case of rural area's, there's just no money to be made and a bad choice financially.

Right now where in a bad place because people are streaming insane amounts of data trying to replace cable with streaming sources (I know I am) but what this does is take away cable customers and then it beats the crap out of the data network, so the operators are loosing hundreds of millions in CATV customers, but having the data side trashed from the increased traffic which is why Internet prices keep going up! When insane amounts of people rely on Hulu, Netflix, Amazon etc THEIR operating costs are slim to none, they just gotta house the video for you to stream, it's YOUR cable company that has to provide the network to get it to you, so the company looses subscribers and has to keep upgrading their system (spending money) so you can get what you used to pay them for, from somebody else. Vicious circle.

[JJ270]

Get the Sprint Unlimited LTE Plan for $60 and get an Android phone with Cyanogenmod loaded. Turn on tethering.. now you have affordable high speed internet.

[weaverra]

Originally Posted by JJ270

Get the Sprint Unlimited LTE Plan for $60 and get an Android phone with Cyanogenmod loaded. Turn on tethering.. now you have affordable high speed internet.

Until they figure it out and permanently ban you from their service for violating the terms of service, which may not be a bad thing after all. Oh and they might slap you with fees for the service that you stole from them.