Comcast started offering DOCSIS 3.0 connections here in the Seattle-Tacoma area over a year ago. Where is DOCSIS 3.0 for Click customers?
An open letter to Click! Network Management
Sirs:
Comcast started offering DOCSIS 3.0 connections here in the Seattle-Tacoma area over a year ago. At the time Comcast premiered it’s product here, I called Click! customer service and was assured you were “working” on our DOCSIS 3.0 upgrade and that it would happen sometime relatively soon.
Well it’s a year later, and we still have no upgrade. Comcast customers get twice (or more) the bandwidth we do.
Put this another way – say both Click! and Comcast were selling electricity. Click! sells 10 kWh for $62, but Comcast sells 30 kWh for the same price. That’s what we have with internet bandwidth – Comcast gives their customers double or triple the bandwidth for the same exact price.
And this is a city owned utility! Why should Tacoma residents – who own Click! – pay more for their internet through their own utility? If anything, city utility prices should be less expensive!
Is Click consciously trying to commit business suicide? Are you completely unaware of what the competition currently offers, not to mention what they’re planning? Check out this article. Comcast is planning to offer 250 Mbps service – in the next year or so! And then: read this more current article from CNET.
I would hate to see you guys lose all your customers because you can’t offer competitive packages…
Current Comcast prices:
- 1 Mbps down and 384 Kbps up – $24.95 per month
- 15 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up – $19.99 for 6 months then $42.95 per month
- 20 Mbps down and 4 Mbps up – $52.95 per month
- 30 Mbps down and 7 Mbps up – $62.95 per month
- 50 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up – $99.95 per month
Click packages:
- 3 Mbps down and 256 Kbps up – $32.95 per month – “Res 1”
- 10 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up – $42.95 per month – “Res 2”
- 15 Mbps down and 768 Kbps up – $62.95 per month – “Res 3”
At every price point, Comcast has a better product. Every one! And their $62.95 product is insanely better…
You don’t even have any comparable products at the high and low ends of the range. Stupid, stupid, stupid! This is particularly so, when you could easily throw together a competitive low-end product (designed to woo people away from dial-up) without any network modifications at all!
I’ve got Res 3 from Advanced Stream (one of the Click! ISP’s), but you don’t even provide the advertised 15 Mbps down – mine tops out at just over 11 Mbps down and .76 Mbps up.
With Comcast for the same price, I could get nearly triple the downstream bandwidth and almost 10 times the upstream!
This must change.
I am a loyal Click! subscriber – I’ve been with Advanced Stream for almost eight years.
Yes, I am a very vocal critic. But it really pains me when I see Click! make continual marketing blunders like this – blunders that could spell the end for city owned internet service – and I feel compelled to speak out.
It makes me think perhaps TCI (which became ATT@Home, then later Comcast) knew what they were talking about when they predicted doom for the city of Tacoma if Click! came into being. Please don’t let their prophesies come true.
If the competition is selling gas for 30 gallons for $62 and you price your gas at 15 gallons for the same price, how many customers are you going to have at your gas station? This is Marketing 101.
I believe competition is a good thing – it fosters lower prices – and that’s one reason I want to see Click! continue. I really would hate to see us lose our hometown broadband service, but unless you can offer competitive prices and products, your days are numbered.
Please start offering competitive prices and speeds before all your customers jump ship!
Mike Pellegrini