Netflix CEO Has Words For Comcast

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Despite all the missteps the CEO of Netlflix has made in the last year, I think this is one thing all of us can agree with him on.

Asked whether the cable companies are "pressured" by the enormous amount of traffic that Netflix customers generate, Hastings sarcastically said, "That 92 percent Comcast operating margin is really under pressure...There is no pressure." Hastings couldn't or wouldn't hide his skepticism about the high costs Internet service providers claim come with delivering Netflix videos over the Web.
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Stop reminding me I have to deal with Comcrap and their AWFUL customer service and bandwidth caps.
 
fact: bandwidth is ultra cheap.

isps need to just let customers download all the shit they want.
 
I think I'm going to subscribe to Netflix, just so that I can help rack up their unsubscription numbers.
 
Metrocall said:
Stop reminding me I have to deal with Comcrap and their AWFUL customer service and bandwidth caps.
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Pay a little more, get Comcast business with no caps and amazing support staffed by people who actually care.

I almost have a little sympathy for Comcast on the residential end, because they have to compete with $14.95 DSL plans and people who don't know the difference between 1.5Mbps and 25Mbps. Broadband is broadband right? :rolleyes:
 
GotNoRice said:
Pay a little more, get Comcast business with no caps and amazing support staffed by people who actually care.

I almost have a little sympathy for Comcast on the residential end, because they have to compete with $14.95 DSL plans and people who don't know the difference between 1.5Mbps and 25Mbps. Broadband is broadband right? :rolleyes:
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Is any level of Comcast business better than the residential? Or do you have to run up to 'premium' or something?

It occurs to me that I've been telecommuting for 4 out of 5 work days a week anymore (because I can, and...why not? 80% of our department is already geographically scattered around the country and telecommute 100% of their time...including my boss...so I might as well, too). Getting a more reliable internet connection and speed would be...very welcome.
 
GotNoRice said:
Pay a little more, get Comcast business with no caps and amazing support staffed by people who actually care.

I almost have a little sympathy for Comcast on the residential end, because they have to compete with $14.95 DSL plans and people who don't know the difference between 1.5Mbps and 25Mbps. Broadband is broadband right? :rolleyes:
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One thing I learned is to never give companies any rope, otherwise you'll find them hanging you with it.

#1 ISPs like Comcast having been buying up more and more copyrighted content lately. So they have a lot of interest to protect in those properties.

#2 Cable companies don't ever compete with each other. EVER! So the only real competition for cable companies is DSL or fiber like FIOS. Fiber is hardly has any coverage, and like you said DSL is hardly considered broadband. The is mainly because cable companies literally own certain sections.

#3 Bandwidth is cheap, but ISPs wanna make is sound like it's costing them a fortune and barely able to keep their business running. This is a huge lie. Cell phone companies are doing everything they can to limit this bandwidth. It's costing them pennies.
 
dderidex said:
Is any level of Comcast business better than the residential? Or do you have to run up to 'premium' or something?

It occurs to me that I've been telecommuting for 4 out of 5 work days a week anymore (because I can, and...why not? 80% of our department is already geographically scattered around the country and telecommute 100% of their time...including my boss...so I might as well, too). Getting a more reliable internet connection and speed would be...very welcome.
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We made the switch over to business class quite some time ago. Even at the lowest "package", the service is outstanding and the network speeds are great - up and down. No caps, no worries.

If you telecommute - I would look into it. You may be able to write it off. We write ours off as a business expense (side business), and it's great for working from home.
 
GotNoRice said:
Pay a little more, get Comcast business with no caps and amazing support staffed by people who actually care.

I almost have a little sympathy for Comcast on the residential end, because they have to compete with $14.95 DSL plans and people who don't know the difference between 1.5Mbps and 25Mbps. Broadband is broadband right? :rolleyes:
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QFT. I am on the 22/5 package, and it is worth every penny. The support for Business class is definitely much better, and when you do have an issue that needs a truck roll, they will send someone out within hours and not days.
 
GotNoRice said:
Pay a little more, get Comcast business with no caps and amazing support staffed by people who actually care.

I almost have a little sympathy for Comcast on the residential end, because they have to compete with $14.95 DSL plans and people who don't know the difference between 1.5Mbps and 25Mbps. Broadband is broadband right? :rolleyes:
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Can someone tell me how I go about changing from base residential broadband from Comcast to business? And what is the cost difference? Right now I pay $170 a month for cable, internet, and phone. I want to get rid of everything except the internet, and just stream netflix/whatever and maybe satellite. I live in the Atlanta area so I assume my area has the ability.
 
netflix is awesome, cable companies suck balls.

Cable companies will ruin Netflix, and idiots will blame Netflix for it all.
 
Ashbringer said:
#3 Bandwidth is cheap, but ISPs wanna make is sound like it's costing them a fortune and barely able to keep their business running. This is a huge lie. Cell phone companies are doing everything they can to limit this bandwidth. It's costing them pennies.
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Looks like another pulling stuff out of their butt.

That said, it could be a issue with shit rolling down hill. smaller ISPs have to buy bandwidth from somebody else, who normally buys it from somebody else.

I work for a small ISP. we aren't rolling in cash. We are using every cent that we can to upgrade stuff and we can't do it all.

Our prices haven't changed for what we charge our customers, but our cost to give them bandwidth is constantly go up. For the past 4 years our usage has almost doubled every year.

And the cost to upgrade equipment isn't cheap either. So you not only have the cost of keeping your bandwidth going to the ISP were it is needed for your customers, but the cost to replace all your outside plant to be able to keep offering more and more bandwidth.

That said, i know not all do work on upgrading their network like that. Also you have the larger ones that don't have to pay all the cost that the others would and don't have to put all the limits in place that they do. But to say that bandwidth is dirt cheap isn't correct.
 
Buxaroo said:
Can someone tell me how I go about changing from base residential broadband from Comcast to business? And what is the cost difference? Right now I pay $170 a month for cable, internet, and phone. I want to get rid of everything except the internet, and just stream netflix/whatever and maybe satellite. I live in the Atlanta area so I assume my area has the ability.
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I just did this - just call Comcast Business and make an appointment, and then cancel your cable/phone as soon as the business is installed. My wife wanted to keep phone, so I did Comcast Business Internet (15mbps) and Phone, costing me $97 a month. We were paying $208 a month for cable/phone/internet. I pay an extra $8 a month for Hulu and we have Amazon Prime streaming for $80 a year. The Prime Streaming is really free, though, since I've always had Prime for the shipping anyway ;) Picked up a couple Roku boxes for the streaming. I never watch live TV anyway, so Hulu + Roku works great and I save $100 a month.
 
fattypants said:
Oh wow, 100/10 is $370...in many civilized countries, you pay less than $50 for the same thing.

There is no excuse that the rates are 750% of what you can get it for in other countries. They charge that much because they can!
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You are paying a significant premium for the business package for that.
 
You know how much standard non-business class is here through Comcast?

73 fucking dollars a month.

Fuck Comcast.
 
Dosn't Comcast own a major network or motion picture studio? I mean dosn't this automatically make them full of crap. Also don't they give up their users info without question when asked for it?

I have delt with Qwest (now CentryLink) for years just because I hate Comcast as a company.
 
Mackowitz said:
I just did this - just call Comcast Business and make an appointment, and then cancel your cable/phone as soon as the business is installed. My wife wanted to keep phone, so I did Comcast Business Internet (15mbps) and Phone, costing me $97 a month. We were paying $208 a month for cable/phone/internet. I pay an extra $8 a month for Hulu and we have Amazon Prime streaming for $80 a year. The Prime Streaming is really free, though, since I've always had Prime for the shipping anyway ;) Picked up a couple Roku boxes for the streaming. I never watch live TV anyway, so Hulu + Roku works great and I save $100 a month.
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Groooooovy :D

ps, I have been with Comcast since 2004, I assume they don't worry about credit checks? My credit is crap, but long time customer. I also notice their conract system, 1 year is 199 install, 2 years, $99, 3 years $49. I plan on keeping Comcast if I get business class, and I think 2 year contract is good enough, but I might move in the next year (maybe to another apartment, maybe out of city) and wonder if it would screw me in the buttocks.
 
fattypants said:
Oh wow, 100/10 is $370...in many civilized countries, you pay less than $50 for the same thing.

There is no excuse that the rates are 750% of what you can get it for in other countries. They charge that much because they can!
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I think their 12/2 and 22/5 plans are reasonably priced, considering that it will still burst to upwards of 100Mbps and you can stay pegged at your download cap 24/7 downloading terabytes per month.

There are also "many civilized countries" where monthly download caps as low as ~30GB are still the norm, so I'd say we have it pretty good all things considered.
 
Exavior said:
Looks like another pulling stuff out of their butt.

That said, it could be a issue with shit rolling down hill. smaller ISPs have to buy bandwidth from somebody else, who normally buys it from somebody else.

I work for a small ISP. we aren't rolling in cash. We are using every cent that we can to upgrade stuff and we can't do it all.

Our prices haven't changed for what we charge our customers, but our cost to give them bandwidth is constantly go up. For the past 4 years our usage has almost doubled every year.

And the cost to upgrade equipment isn't cheap either. So you not only have the cost of keeping your bandwidth going to the ISP were it is needed for your customers, but the cost to replace all your outside plant to be able to keep offering more and more bandwidth.

That said, i know not all do work on upgrading their network like that. Also you have the larger ones that don't have to pay all the cost that the others would and don't have to put all the limits in place that they do. But to say that bandwidth is dirt cheap isn't correct.
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Similarly I worked for an ISP (we service companies only) and this comment is spot on.

Everyone complains that 70 bucks its too much a month for 25/5 internet. This is dirt cheap to what is really need to fund the hardware running and paying to keep it up 24/7. A lot of the customers pay for 100/100 lines and that is what they get 100/100 dedicated and not oversubscribed like home grade connections. This usually costs upward of five thousand a month.

And you are complaining that 70 is too much?

Most people tend to forget that once the hardware is bought and cut over, that the upkeep is on going. Do you know how much squirrel damage causes fiber outages? More then you'd think. It costs money to send a crew to fix the damage.

I understand both sides of the story and am amazed that I am able to get my 25/2 connection and to almost always get that speed for $50 considering they have to oversubscribe the crap out of a line to make it profitable.
 
Call and inquire about their business packages and then pretend the installation costs are holding you back from signing up. They will waive it if you are willing to sign a contract. I signed up for 1 year and paid no installation.
 
Even if Comcast does have congestion, monthly quotas aren't going to solve the problem. It's not like a gas tank in a car where you "run out" of GB. It's all about peak-hour usage (sort of like rush hour on a freeway). Someone watching NetFlix at 2AM isn't really stressing their network because almost no one is online at that time, just as someone driving on the freeway at 2AM isn't going to cause traffic problems.
 
With those profit margins, on what is rapidly coming to be viewed as a standard utility, they can easily afford to invest in infrastructure to prevent this "congestion" they yell about. Comcast can't cry poverty and retain even a shred of credibility.
 
Exavior said:
That said, it could be a issue with shit rolling down hill. smaller ISPs have to buy bandwidth from somebody else, who normally buys it from somebody else.

I work for a small ISP. we aren't rolling in cash. We are using every cent that we can to upgrade stuff and we can't do it all.
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Small ISPs aren't the subject here. We're talking about big companies that have a lot of customers. Small ISPs will likely get pushed aside eventually. The bigger ISPs will make it hard to be cost effective.

That said, i know not all do work on upgrading their network like that. Also you have the larger ones that don't have to pay all the cost that the others would and don't have to put all the limits in place that they do. But to say that bandwidth is dirt cheap isn't correct.
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According to this article it's only costing ISPs pennies. According to the author, anywhere from 1.9 cents to 3.8 cents per gigabyte.

"In other words, Internet service can be provided profitably for pennies per gigabyte in the absolute worst case scenario."
 
etothe3ric said:
Most people tend to forget that once the hardware is bought and cut over, that the upkeep is on going. Do you know how much squirrel damage causes fiber outages? More then you'd think. It costs money to send a crew to fix the damage.
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$5,000 a month? Must be some big Goddamn squirrels.
 
If you don't like it, it is your duty to shit on every single person you know who ever talks about moving to the suburbs, or anyone who hates on public transportation in the US.

fattypants said:
Oh wow, 100/10 is $370...in many civilized countries, you pay less than $50 for the same thing.

There is no excuse that the rates are 750% of what you can get it for in other countries. They charge that much because they can!
Click to expand...
 
etothe3ric said:
A lot of the customers pay for 100/100 lines and that is what they get 100/100 dedicated and not oversubscribed like home grade connections. This usually costs upward of five thousand a month.
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holy jesus

we have had a dedicated 100/100 line at a few of my clients for YEARS and they only pay $800 a month
 
I have only 2 choices in broadband at my residence, Comcast or DSL. I have comcast only because the fastest DSL speeds I get is 1.2mbs.

Comcast sucks, but what can I do? I pay $46/mo for 16mbs, the service is intermittent, and customer service is a joke.

I pay $30 for digital starter, and they keep moving good channels to the higher tier, and leave me with shopping channels.
 
hpglow said:
Dosn't Comcast own a major network or motion picture studio? I mean dosn't this automatically make them full of crap. Also don't they give up their users info without question when asked for it?

I have delt with Qwest (now CentryLink) for years just because I hate Comcast as a company.
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They own a bunch of TV and movie related media outlets MTV is one of them, might explain the move from music to trailer trash pregnancy shows.
 
I would find it funny if level3 shot back that they would then charge comcast for traffic over their network.
 
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