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Comment by tantalor | Hacker News Reader

Then upgrade your residential internet service to a business plan, & deduct from taxes as business expense.

lol. do you really think "Comcast Business" magically upgrades the lines or gateway hardware that serves your home? its just $200/month for slightly better reps, who still can't do jack about how the network drops your traffic.

Yes, unless they're installing a direct fiber line, which usually costs at least $1,000 a month with a 5 year contract plus possible installation costs for 100mb+ up/down, you're just getting the same crap everyone else is. And you have to dig around to find the right person to talk to, they don't even advertise it unless you're a decent size business.

Looks pretty un-hidden to me:

https://business.comcast.com/ethernet/metro-ethernet

Guess they updated their website! When I was looking, it just said some business internet website and you called and got transferred from person to person. And they never responded to submissions to the online form.

I do get different hardware at home. And when my modem dies at 2.30am on a Saturday night, as it has, I've had someone show up at 7am Sunday morning with the replacement.

I also get static IP addresses, inbound ports, and no throttling, BT or otherwise.

Thank you!!! It drives me insane that residential customers expect business grade service, service support, and uptime. Yet they want to pay a fraction of the price.

Then the ISPs will start requiring *Enterprise Premium", then they'll make you get "Enterprise Premium with Streaming package", then you'll have to get "Xfinity Triple Play Enterprise Premium with the Extended Streaming Bundle, up to 500 Subscribers Package". It's all bullshit for then to keep charging you more.

Thanks Net Neutrality.

Perhaps you meant, "thanks government-enforced monopoly"?

I think more realistically I think you mean, "thanks natural market effect where even among competing entities there's strong pressure to charge very close to customer's willingness to pay since undercutting your competition risks a race to the bottom where all competitors suffer."

Why aren't other markets like that? Lots of firms in lots of industries have single-digit margins over COGS. They're at "the bottom" all the time. In some industries, defectors from the commercial collusion you describe are punished through non-market means. In telecom, FCC prevents them from existing in the first place.

This has less to do with NN and more with that a business has a ridiculous amount of leverage over you. Once your ISP figured out that you were a streamer they could just up your price to $500/mo because they can.

Or more realistically they could just slip a line in their ToS saying that professional streaming requires a business plan which is $500/mo.

NN wouldn't have solved any of this.

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