Rob is a Time Warner Cable customer, and he’s received two really interesting things from them lately. First, a 50% speed boost: they claim to have upgraded the speed of his home Internet connection. That’s neat. Oh, and they’ve also cut his bill, from $45 to $30. Wow! What has prompted this amazing treatment? Years of loyalty and on-time payments? No, not exactly…Rob lives in Kansas City, pilot site for Google Fiber, the gigabit broadband project that’s threatening to make current broadband providers almost care about competing.
I’m a Time Warner cable internet subscriber in the KC area, and I got two(!) good pieces of news from them recently.
No. 1. A few weeks ago, they emailed me to tell me that my “Basic Rate” internet service was being upgraded by 50% from 10Mbps to 15Mbps, effective at the next restart of my cable modem. I haven’t tested this — that only occurred to me in retrospect — but it sounds great.
No. 2. My latest cable bill was ~30% lower than the previous month. $29.99 vs. $44.94, for a savings — by their calculation — “of $23.96 this month.” My calculation is slightly different, I get a savings of $14.95, but lower is better. The line item has the note: “Enjoy your savings of $23.96 by subscribing to this package. (Offer expires 11/29/2014)” It doesn’t say anything about me having to do anything to get this rate, and the “package” they mention is the one I assumed I was using already. But the bill says $29.99, so that’s what I’m putting on the check.
I have to wonder what prompted this generosity, and I can think of two things.
Thing 1. Google Fiber. True, it’s coming to select neighborhoods in the KC area, specifically KCK and KCMO. I can see the nearest “Fiberhood” from my dining room, but unfortunately it might as well be on the moon, as it’s in a different ZIP code, area code, city, county and state. So I don’t see why they’d be worried about me jumping ship for that.
Think 2. I got a direct mail come-on from Clearwire Communications for wireless 4G internet service. According to the mailer, basic packages start at $34.99 a month for “4G Home Basic” service. No word on data speed in the ad, and the fine print implies that you need to purchase a “device” and that the promotional rate is for a limited time.
I wonder if any other readers have seen similar price breaks and service upgrades with Time Warner, and what the company’s motivation is.
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