1. Professional sports. It is well known that all cable companies pay the professional sports leagues ridiculously large sums of money to carry their games. These huge amounts are passed on to all customers, whether they watch sports or not.
2. Verizon's history of alwyas being a high cost provider. Anyone who has been a long-term Verizon customer knows that there are always lower cost (and sometimes much lower cost) alternatives out there. Verizon frequently makes impressive introductory deals for new customers, but these are never offered to existing customers. And then there is the fine print in all Verizon contracts that says they can change pricing any time and for any reason.
3. FIOS was an experiment to begin with, and Verizon found out it was even more expensive to implement than they had planned. That's why there is no more planned build-out of FIOS services; it is only available in areas where it is already installed.
4. Lack of competition. In most areas Verizon, like all telecom carriers, tends to have an exclusive contract with local municipalities. This means there is no incentive for them to keep prices down - as a previous poster here said, "all the traffic will bear" is typically the case in terms of pricing.
What to do about all this:
1. Demand a-la-carte pricing, or at least an option to opt out of receiving (and paying for) the sports networks.
2. Call Verizon Customer Service and demand better pricing plans
3. Encourage Google & ATT to speed up their fiber buildouts.
4. Contact your local government/municipality and request cancellation of exclusive contracts to broadband service providers.
I can't afford FIOS. I really enjoyed their DSL and had it for years until it became an issue of stability - I also realize Verizon is trying to push their FIOS that I truly believe Verizon has sabotaged my DSL signal so I would buy FIOS. A guy came out and replaced my modem and it worked flawslessly again until it started dropping a lot and "limited" signal (it won't work with that). I'm not turning off my modem all the time anymore. I'm fed up with it.
However, the joke is on Verizon - I signed up with Brighthouse and got the lowest end of internet AND very basic cable (that's all I want or need) and it's just $38 a month - including taxes and hidden fees. With a speed of "1" I can play internet games with the greatest of ease and I have absolutely no problem with streaming Netflix movies.
@c_etude wrote:
However, the joke is on Verizon - I signed up with Brighthouse and got the lowest end of internet AND very basic cable (that's all I want or need) and it's just $38 a month - including taxes and hidden fees. With a speed of "1" I can play internet games with the greatest of ease and I have absolutely no problem with streaming Netflix movies.
Sorry, but I don't believe you when you say you watch Netflix with 1 mbps. BH's basic cable comes with less then 1 mbps down and there is no way you can watch HD with that. Also, soon you will be required to have an adapter to have basic cable and they will soon be charging for it. You're paying BH $38 for something you could get for free with an HD Antenna.
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