I received an email from my ISP(Cableone) stating how they have kept cable tv rates steady for two years and due to operating costs, maintenance and increasing programming costs.....they are raising the "rental" rate on the cable modems one dollar a month...from 5 to 6.

I don't use cable tv....I have a dish....but I use their internet and the rates on that have increased in the past 3 years. I had cable tv up until a year ago...nothing special about their channel lineup for what they charged. When I dropped the tv part, my internet bill went up 10 a month but I knew that up front so no problem there.

Now my modem, which they provided me over 4 years ago, does nothing but connect me to the world wide web. It just sits there with a blinking activity light, allowing me to post this. That's all it does!!!

What does a cable modem have to do with increasing programming costs on cable tv?

I figure I should just unplug this modem and carry it back and tell them to give me a new one since they are increasing the rent.
I wish I could get DSL here. If it wasn't for my band's web page, I would go back to dial up...it's a heck of a lot cheaper!!

There....I'm through fussing! Thanks for reading!

 

You could buy your own modem for something like 70 bucks tops, you could probably find one even cheaper on ebay. It would pay for itself in 10 months, that's what I would do if I was in your situation.

 

Check Best Buy or Circuit City, they usually have a rebate on cable modems. The Motorola Surfboard is a rather popular model and with rebates, you can usually get them for $50.00.

 

Your cable company may not support any modems but their own, -call b4 you buy. They also may not make service calls for line problems. Remember that cable modems seem to quit working fairly often due to lightning and other things. Replacement costs would be your own responsibility. The cable company may make changes to programming methods etc that may make your modem inoperative.

 

They can't just blow you off if you have your own cable modem. They are responsible for making sure that you have service into the house, and thats it. The rest is your deal.

 

Shop around. In the meantime - see if you can enforce the original contract. It may have language in it that allows them to get away with it - if it doesn't, aim low and open fire!

A buck a month doesn't seem like much, but multiply by the number of subscribers and you can see that someone somewhere got real hungry for cash.

"Umm... I tell ya what - why don't we gradually raise the price to over two bucks a gallon?"

SOUND FAMILIAR?

 

I'd recommend buying as well. I bought mine the last time I moved, about 27 months ago, it was $60.00 and they were charging $5.00 per month for rental.

 

Holy cow!! 48 months x 5 = 240.00 and continueing for something I got free with a rebate.... Did it at least come with KY or are they billing ya for that too?

 

I have cableone also and they haven't increased the rate on my cable modem. Odd, i'd say. Then again, i'm on the coast too. What does irk me about Cableone though is in the 5 years i've had it, i continually have disconnect problems. I've had my modem replaced outright 4 times, and i'm still getting the issue. When they send the tech out to my place to check it they always say "Its probably because of the two spliters in the line. Hello boneheads, i've connected the modem straight to the cable line from outside and sat and watched it de-sync itself in under 10 minutes, without it being connected to the PC.

I just wish they'd get it fixed for me...it's getting really irritating.

 

Renting makes people rich; go buy a cable modem.

 

Desperado 18....the rent is going up this month the email stated. As for renting the modem, I have no problem with that but I can't see why we internet users have to subsidize the cable tv programming.

As far as service goes, I really can't complain about getting disconnected now. It used to be a problem when I first got the service but not now. I did have connection problems with a Netgear router that SP2 cleared up.

When they installed my service, they split the line before it came into the house and ran a separate line to my pc. They also had to install a larger amplifier on the pole outside to boost the signal because the modem wouldn't go online at all when I first brought it home and hooked it up.

 

Might be what i need them to do for me, is install a new amplifier. Strange though, the problem is intermittent and never occurs when the tech is around.

 

See if you can go through a different ISP like Earthlink. . . That may get you around the rental charge.

 

One thing about buying your own:

The next time the cable company upgrades their equipment from DOCSIS 1.0 to 1.1 or 1.1 to 2.0, you'll need a new cable modem to take advantage of the improvements and speed.

Plus, if the thing ever breaks, you're renting it, and they give you a new one. No warranty hassles, no down-time while you send the old one back and get it repaired/exchanged, etc. No "it's your fault, we're not warranteeing it" when the pole gets hit by lightning.

And, the cable company may not even TRY to help you with setting it up.

With a rented cable modem, you're covered for all of this.

I'm not even sure what I'm paying for the cable modem rental. But, I recently got a NEW modem for NOTHING with 100Mbit interface, so I can at least get the 15Mbps I'm paying for, and the old one while rated at 10Mb/s, could only do 5.5Mbps.

If I wasn't renting the modem, I would have had to buy a NEW one out-of-pocket to get the higher speed.

A dollar a month is nothing, and although I see your point, hey, buy one less bottle of Coke a month and that covers it.

art k.

 

Or just tell them that you would like to maintain your relationship with them, and that if they don't want to lose your business to their primary competitor, they will not increase your modem rental. Call the customer service, and explain that to the manager. If all else fails, you can take your disatisfaction, call their competitor, explain to them that you would like some "Incentive" to finally make the switch. Might be able to get something more out of it.