Comcast Starts Selling Electricity In Pennsylvania

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Comcast is selling electricity now? Now all they need to do is start selling TVs and computers and they'll have a lock on damn near everything you do. :eek:

Earlier this year we noted that Comcast was toying with the idea of getting into the electricity business in their home state of Pennsylvania. That effort has now gone live, with Comcast teaming up with a unit of NRG Energy to effectively bundle electricity with Comcast's suite of phone, cable, broadband, and home security services.
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This bundling crap is ridiculous, and all it does is help monopolies/oligopolies disguise the true price of things. There is absolutely no reason to bundle electricity with these services.

Although on the other hand, if the FTC sees that as just providing a utility now, that could be a positive.
 
I don't see a problem with it. It just gives you more choices.
 
Aren't there some states that forbid public utilities from providing broadband?

And could this development be leveraged into an opening for other public broadband initiatives?
 
Chas said:
Aren't there some states that forbid public utilities from providing broadband?

And could this development be leveraged into an opening for other public broadband initiatives?
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Yes.

My city has limit to limit fiber installed by the electric utility. All of it is dark and unused, because legislators were bought to pass a law like you mention...public utilities are forbidden from competing with private companies.
 
Next up is water and its associated caps, then air and its associated caps. :eek:
 
Wine said:
Next up is water and its associated caps, then air and its associated caps. :eek:
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Haha. Some companies will only reduce the amount of air per breath when you reach the cap instead of shutting it off and/or charging overages per breath.
 
Skripka said:
My city has limit to limit fiber installed by the electric utility. All of it is dark and unused, because legislators were bought to pass a law like you mention...public utilities are forbidden from competing with private companies.
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Ahh, the invisible hand of the market. I wonder if Adam Smith foresaw the way corporations would behave given enough power...paying off city officials and taking away the public's right to use public utilities paid for with the public's tax dollars.

Imagine what it would be like if three trucking companies owned 90% of America's roads and charged outrageous tolls on them, and they had elected officials passing laws ensuring that the public couldn't build public roads.
 
fattypants said:
Ahh, the invisible hand of the market. I wonder if Adam Smith foresaw the way corporations would behave given enough power...paying off city officials and taking away the public's right to use public utilities paid for with the public's tax dollars.

Imagine what it would be like if three trucking companies owned 90% of America's roads and charged outrageous tolls on them, and they had elected officials passing laws ensuring that the public couldn't build public roads.
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Good post.
 
fattypants said:
Ahh, the invisible hand of the market. I wonder if Adam Smith foresaw the way corporations would behave given enough power...paying off city officials and taking away the public's right to use public utilities paid for with the public's tax dollars.

Imagine what it would be like if three trucking companies owned 90% of America's roads and charged outrageous tolls on them, and they had elected officials passing laws ensuring that the public couldn't build public roads.
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How do you think the legal notion of public utility came to be?

The Charles River Bridge case at the Supreme Court. Because exactly what you used as an analogy used to be allowed until Tawney via judicial activism created public utility.
 
Are they going to throttle your electricity if they don't like what you're doing with it?
 
Skripka said:
How do you think the legal notion of public utility came to be?

The Charles River Bridge case at the Supreme Court. Because exactly what you used as an analogy used to be allowed until Tawney via judicial activism created public utility.
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You got me curious, so I looked up the case. I found it hilarious that, following the decision, many corporations and captains of industry felt that, in light of the decision, corporate rights and property had no legal protections. To quote Wikipedia, " Chancellor James Kent wrote in the Whig magazine, The New York Review, "A gathering gloom is cast over the future . . "

Fortunately for our corporate overlords . . . that didn't play out, did it?:rolleyes:
 
*Hi, I just moved to the area and like to setup electric at my house.

*OK sir, would like the phone/internet, phone/cable, or cable/internet package to go along with it. We also have the phone/cable/internet package 10% off.

*I just like to have power hooked upped.

*I'm sorry sir, you have to have a bundle package with electric.

*OK, I'll just go to another power company.

*I'm sorry sir, we're the only one in the area.

*FUCK!
 
fattypants said:
Ahh, the invisible hand of the market. I wonder if Adam Smith foresaw the way corporations would behave given enough power...paying off city officials and taking away the public's right to use public utilities paid for with the public's tax dollars.
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Adam Smith: "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices."
 
New: The Comcast X10000 Set Top Box. FREE. Free HBO for life.

Requires 25amp 240V dedicate circuit. Installation cost not included. Always on. Save 10% with the Bend Me Over Five Ways Bundle!
 
sfsuphysics said:
How many choices do you have for electricity there?
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Do people really have choices when it comes to electricity anywhere? I've never had a choice. Pretty much the same with internet. Right now, I have a choice - phone company or wireless. I'm on wireless now because DSL sucks here (so does wireless, but less sucky).

No bundles, just honest pricing throughout. I don't want to pay $100 for phone and get internet for $20. I want things priced right from square one. No bundles, no secret pricing handshakes, just up front honesty from a company. Never going to happen. Ever. I accept that... :(
 
Ur_Mom said:
Do people really have choices when it comes to electricity anywhere? I've never had a choice. Pretty much the same with internet. Right now, I have a choice - phone company or wireless. I'm on wireless now because DSL sucks here (so does wireless, but less sucky).
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Strangely enough some people do have a choice for who supplies the electricity, granted the distribution is all the same (i.e. you don't get a different power line brought to your house if you switch providers) but the costs do change. Not that it changes any dramatic amount mind you. But the point being, what if I don't want any Comcast packages? Is my electricity going to be more expensive per kWh because I'm not bundled with phone, internet and TV?

If I was betting man I'd say Comcast is trying to regulatory rules here, I mean didn't they already dodge the idea that they were not considered to be a telecommunication service?
 
Ur_Mom said:
Do people really have choices when it comes to electricity anywhere? I've never had a choice. Pretty much the same with internet. Right now, I have a choice - phone company or wireless. I'm on wireless now because DSL sucks here (so does wireless, but less sucky).

No bundles, just honest pricing throughout. I don't want to pay $100 for phone and get internet for $20. I want things priced right from square one. No bundles, no secret pricing handshakes, just up front honesty from a company. Never going to happen. Ever. I accept that... :(
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Pennsylvania electric deregulation, a complete disaster by many accounts, is going to allow such shenanigans to happen. This winter with the cold, the shale gas boom, and the number of formerly coal-powered power plants switched to cheaper natural gas, many people got slapped with multi-thousand dollar electric bills out of nowhere. The kind of bills that can ruin a person's financial stability for decades if not the rest of their lives. These companies are taking advantage of consumers and it is very, very wrong.
 
Chas said:
Aren't there some states that forbid public utilities from providing broadband?

And could this development be leveraged into an opening for other public broadband initiatives?
Click to expand...
For closing it.

The only other way to get internet into the homes on a competitive scale to cable, is through the powerlines, but if Comcast owns that too then forget it.
 
Can you not edit posts anymore? I hate to keep posting and I would have put it all into one if I could...am I just missing the "edit" link?

The article I posted a second ago said:
John M. and Adele M. Wargo read their electric bill three times before it sank in — they owed $1,776 for just one month.

The Wargos are just one of a number of families reporting bills of more than $1,000 because of a spike in variable electric rates.

The couple knew its bill would be high for January. The Wargos’ raised-ranch house on Ringtown Mountain Road has electric heat, and it had been a cold month. But Mr. Wargo, 80, said the last few years, their bill had been about $600 during winter months.

They knew when they signed up with Pennsylvania Gas and Electric in September 2012 that they were agreeing to a rate that could vary with vwholesale prices, Mr. Wargo said. But for most of the past year-and-a-half, the rate had been in line with PPL’s.

They paid $671 for December. So when they got their most recent bill for nearly three times that amount, they immediately called the company.

When they were interviewed about a week later, Mrs. Wargo said they imagined they would have to pay the full bill. But that same day, Pennsylvania Gas and Electric returned their call and offered to send a $547 rebate check within four weeks.

The Wargos have decided to once again switch suppliers. They’ve signed up with YEP energy this time. Mr. Wargo said it promised a fixed rate of 8.88 cents a kWh for two years.

But at the end of those two years, it converts to a variable rate.

“I guess I’ll have to go shopping again,” he said. “If I’m still around.”

Businesses hit, too

It’s not just residential customers feeling the pain of large bills this winter.

Ron Hileman, president of Speed and Sport on Route 11 in Montour Township, said he’s paying the price for not paying attention to his bill at his Yamaha dealership.

In December 2012, he signed up for a fixed-rate plan with Blue Pilot. For a year, he paid a rate under PPL’s rate of about 8.5 cents per kWh.

But that ended in December 2013. On the next bill, Blue Pilot hiked Speed and Sport’s rate to 44.9 cents per kWh, and the company’s monthly tab jumped to $3,452.

Hileman said the graphics division of his company never switched over. For the same month, he says its rate was 8.44 cents.

At that rate, the main store’s bill would have been about $606, or roughly $2,800 less.

Hileman has since switched back to PPL after briefly changing to a company that promised savings of $250 a month.

When he received the paperwork, it turned out that rate would last for only a month before it too turned variable.

“I’m never straying again,” said Hileman, 77.
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jpm100 said:
For closing it.

The only other way to get internet into the homes on a competitive scale to cable, is through the powerlines, but if Comcast owns that too then forget it.
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What about Google buying up dark fiber?
 
Blue Pilot hiked Speed and Sport’s rate to 44.9 cents per kWh
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Tell me that's not profiteering...there was no market pressure to make the rate that high, it's just greed.
 
TwistedAegis said:
This bundling crap is ridiculous, and all it does is help monopolies/oligopolies disguise the true price of things. There is absolutely no reason to bundle electricity with these services.

Although on the other hand, if the FTC sees that as just providing a utility now, that could be a positive.
Click to expand...

Lord, save us from the simple minded who think the regulators are going to save us. Regulators are the near invisible bag men of the corrupt.
 
Chas said:
Aren't there some states that forbid public utilities from providing broadband?

And could this development be leveraged into an opening for other public broadband initiatives?
Click to expand...

Yes, but I'm not sure if this would affect Comcast. My only knowledge is the case in Lafayette LA. That was a municipal (i.e. government run) electric company. The incumbents fought it for years, but ultimately lost, but not with forcing LUS to segregate electricity funds from broadband funds (which is ironic, because there are no such restrictions on Cox or AT&T).

Of course laws vary from state to state. If you've got a local electric company, and you like the way they're run, then Municipal fiber is worth fighting for. In the case of Lafayette, LUS was created, because nobody would provide electricity to the area and they got into Broadband, because Cox and AT&T weren't getting the job done and they already had some infrastructure to build off of -- it took 4 or 5 years to fight it in court and around a year or so to build out the network..

For those interested, Lafayette and Chattanooga are to places have seem well run. I'm sure there are others I'm unaware of. Chattanooga gets props for upgrading to Gb service. I don't think Lafayette can do that anytime soon, but I also don't think there's many that need it either. A 25-50GB symmetric connection is more than enough for me, but YMMV.
 
Wine said:
Next up is water and its associated caps, then air and its associated caps. :eek:
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tumblr_m5u239fTZx1r3biis.png


This.
 
buzzbomb said:
http://www.pressenterpriseonline.com/daily/022814/page/1/story/more-area-residents-suffer-variable-rate-sticker-shock-with-bills-topping

In a financially-depressed area like this, a $1700+ power bill will destroy a family's finances. It might not sound like a lot to you (or to our glorious lawmakers in Harrisburg) but it's huge to many of us.
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Seriously? You guys are getting $1700 power bills? And even after switching to cheaper natural gas for generation?

Are your utilities private or public? If this is a private company, there simply HAS to be a case here.
 
Curious as to how the billing is for that....

kW x kb per second, / 24 hours, x number of channels, squared by the number of boxes...

yea... that sounds about right..
 
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