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Comment by jrochkind1 | Hacker News Reader

I hadn't heard about this, but I went to comcast with an incognito browser and claimed to be a new customer -- and indeed these are next to plans (you do have to click through to detail page).

This is actually great. Comcast is my only available broadband provider, and I've been trying to figure out how to switch to a cheaper plan, but haven't actually been a able to figure out the post-introductory rates on the plans before, and the customer service/retention people put you on hold at random times designed to somehow influence you to pay more and give you confusing answers.

Now it's clear. I can switch from 300Mbps I don't need to 150MBps that is fine, and save $30/month, great.

(I think comcast still won't let you switch to a CHEAPER internet plan without talking to a human, you can't do it self-serve).

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Corporations get away with so much by hiding the ability to resolve conflicts behind customer service hell.

> customer service/retention

Many years ago the ISPs saw and adapted to people seeking out the retention department in order to get a better deal. In most cases “the retention department” they transfer you to is just a different agent of the exact same rank.

And tbh: fair enough since any time there’s a truly amazing deal (even if it’s a one-off) it’s posted publicly online and becomes a negotiation tool for everyone else.

*update* omg, comcast will now let me change to a LOWER tier on the website without calling customer service!

This was not true in the past. I wonder if this was also part of the law that went into effect.

If you're a fan of this, keep it in mind when you're going out to vote later this year. Elections matter.

"""The infrastructure bill revives the Obama-era Federal Communications Commission's broadband consumer labels that were scrapped during the Trump administration.""""

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/11/congress-oks-42-...

Comcast / Xfinity put "Typical upload speeds" of 114.98Mbps at my address on the "300Mbps plan" nutrition facts. But in reality, all plans from 50Mbps to 1000Mbps are hard-capped at 20Mbps.

What's going on here with the discrepancy between "114.98Mbps" and what I actually see on my 300Mbps plan, which is a hard cap at 20Mbps upload? Is there something I'm missing?

I also love how Xfinity sells a 2000Mbps plan at my address with a 1.2TB data cap. There are 730 hours in a calendar month - if I used that plan I'd blow past the data cap in under 1.5 hours. WTF? "Here's a monthly internet plan -- make sure not to use it for more than 1.5 hours in total next month or the price will suddenly more than double"

Do they have an unlimited data plan option?

Nothing with a single straight advertised price per month for unlimited data.

You pay $10 per 50GB over 1.2TB until you pay an extra $100 for a plan that costs $30-80/month. After $100 in overage fees, additional data is free. So I guess the unlimited data plan costs $130-180/month instead of $30-80.

FWIW, I've had Cox and Xfinity plans and for both you could (at least in CA) pay $50/mo for the "unlimited" add-on which eliminates the caps. Money grab for sure, but it was doable.

(I wish I'd still lived in a Spectrum area- because of some issue/fine (related to Verizon, IIRC) they aren't allowed to have data caps. Yet somehow, the price was the same as Cox (save the unlimited fee) and was just as fast and reliable.)

Thanks for the tip, in Michigan and Texas it does appears that you can pay $30/mo for unlimited add-on ... but only if you buy your own cable modem instead of using theirs. This was listed plainly on the new Broadband Facts / "nutrition facts"...I hadn't seen it mentioned before!

I couldn't find anything about a $50 add-on in my states, and I haven't seen any other options for customers who are using the Xfinity-provided modem.

For others wondering why people should care, my biggest concern about this isn't the cost. It's two points:

1) Historically this wasn't ever presented to customers before they signed up for service. All you saw was "1000Gbps for $80/month!", Xfinity wouldn't tell you anything about a data cap until you hit 90% of it and they texted you out of the blue saying "Hey your $80/mo is going to be much higher this month!". I have much less issue (still some, but much less) with it if it's clearly shown up-front! Thanks to the FCC, it now is shown up-front.

2) There's no way to dispute the charges if you believe their "meter" is wrong. Every other utility has meters which are subject to your states "Weights and Measures" department -- if you have reason to believe your utility meter is malfunctioning, you can have the state come out inspect the meter and determine if it's out-of-spec. But Xfinity consumers have little[0] to no recourse if Xfinity errs in their "metering". I don't think that type of business practice should be allowed without being subject to some kind of real oversight.

0: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/12/comca...

wow that's insane. In Canada they put a law where the cost must be reasonable and everybody must advertise an unlimited data plan, so we have $10 option for unlimited everywhere

It would be fantastic if data caps also had to be expressed in bytes per second, as a counterweight to the fallacious instantaneous speeds.

Although what's even better is building out municipal broadband and forgetting about these rent seeking dinosaurs. I've got 1Gb/s symmetric, no data caps, no term contract, and a steady monthly price.

Even if you can't use it constantly having a high top speed is useful. Most people aren't downloading large files most of the time. But it is very useful to be able to have those bits fly when do you do want to transfer something. While 1.2TB seems quite low for 2000Mbps it is still better than having 200Mpbs just so that you have 15h of full-speed capacity.

You're just missing the "next gen speed tier" which is available in some areas and usable if, and only if, you own a blessed modem. I'm in the same boat, 20 up (which is a nice increase from 5 a year ago), but I could get 100 if I rented or bought the right modem.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/upgraded-areas-leas...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Comcast_Xfinity/wiki/knowledgebase/...

https://assets.xfinity.com/assets/dotcom/projects/cix-4997_c...

Also, switching plans starts a new contract.

The plans I am looking at are contract-free, but definitely something to be aware of -- and clearly specified on the new labels!

The lower-end cable broadband xfinity plans all seem to be advertised no-contract, it's only once you get to 800mbs down that there is a contract. ($70 month introductory rate, 12 month contract, $110/month non-introductory rate. Funny that they let you out of the contract right when your introductory rate expires?)

It can (and so that's a valuable call out), but I've been able to switch internet service tiers multiple times without a new or extended contract.

You have to be careful to ask for the "non promo/contract" pricing.

They try all sorts of things to steer you into a contract because that's guaranteed (to a point) re-occurring revenue.

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