Letter of the Week
I am disappointed with the new Bend Broadband billing method that penalizes customers for their Internet use. One reason I moved to Bend was because they had high speed Internet service. I use the high speed Internet to its fullest. I download media content through my wireless TIVO interface for viewing on my TV, I stream Internet music through our stereo, and I use Skype to web cam my friends and family. Isn’t this exactly the type of usage that Bend Broadband fostered with their TV and print ads?
According to you, most Bend Broadband customers (91%) use less than the 10 GB per month. However, isn’t the trend towards greater usage? Aren’t the people who are simply surfing the web and reading their e-mails likely to start using newer media services? I believe that while I might be “pioneering” uses for the Internet, I am not that far ahead of the majority of customers. Isn’t this a step back in technology? Will customers be discouraged from trying new non-Bend Broadband services for fear that they will overuse their service?
Now that you are moving to digital TV, why shouldn’t I be concerned that you will put bandwidth constraints on TV viewing? In the future, will I need to pay more for watching TV more than the average?
Is bandwidth a problem for Bend Broadband? If so, now that you are throttling usage of your top 9% customers, why haven’t you reduced the price for service to the remaining 91%?
Is this new pricing scheme just a method to raise rates? Is it a method to control media to homes, so that your Pay for View service is the only viable method to get digital media? It appears that you are one of the few ISP’s in the nation to cap Internet usage.
I understand if you need to control the top 1% of customers who you say use 33% of your bandwidth. But instead this appears to put the kibosh on all proponents of broadband and the next generation of users. Please review your new pricing scheme and let us enjoy the excitement of the Internet without concern that our $47 a month fee is not enough!
Sam Handelman
This article appears in May 8-14, 2008.
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Bendbroadband needs to be broken up.
Being there is no other competing cable company they do whatever they want and the heck with the customers.
I have simple basic TV and the same wire also does internet and I pay $90 a month !
My cell phone is half that.
Now they are playing a game with getting rid of analog to go digital and want to grab more of our money. That does not give us anything for you still would have to pay more for high Def.
The do not allow the converter box the feds give a $40 discount to TV owners and want to take about $3 per TV a month for their own digital converter box and worse is that means you have to use 2 remote controls per TV
At least once a month my internet service goes screwy, calling bend cable support takes me instead to some answering machine and even when I get someone on the phone they care less if your out of service or not.
Being the broadband frequency is flowing if your using the system or not and the fact TV and internet flow together to charge $90 a month for basic services is a high profit for them and worse is I get phone calls from them multi times trying to con me to convert to digital now and also send me mail making it seem if I do not go digital now ( when feds say switch over is next year) quote “my TV screens will go black)
Just think if ever household has a least 2 TVs and bend cable makes $5 a month for every house for a converter how much profit they make for doing nothing.
They sould pay for their own network and they pay for the convertors rather then putting it on the customers.
Their internet bandwidth at least to me is slow yet charge as high bandwidth.
Bendbroadband lost me as an internet and phone customer because of this lame attempt.
There is a difference, they are not limiting bandwith, they are limiting transfers. If you have a 1.5meg line, that is the bandwith. If you download 10 gigs that does not increase your bandwith or lower it, you just transferred 10 gig over a 1.5 meg line.
The issue I believe, is bendbroadband is trying to cram as many subscribers as they can on each pipe and they are running out of room. Instead of upgrading their pipe, they think they can “unclogg” it by limiting transfers.
This is just typical corporate greed.
I’d like to respond to JR as he presented some misinformation in his response. The digital to analog converter box associated with the government program is only used to convert over the air broadcast digital signals to analog for use on an older analog TV. This converter box is meant to be used with a TV connected to cable and won’t work in that application. There is no “profit” incentive for BendBroadband to rent converters. We purchase them and then rent them at a price that covers our cost over the life of the set top, which is estimated to be 3-4 years. We probably lose money on set tops overall. In fact, most of our HD channels are offered at no added price to the customer – if you have an HDTV and an HD set top or CableCARD you can receive the HD simulcast channels in your digital package at no added charge. We offer remote controls that can run multiple devices or you can use a universal controller to run your digital set top as well – there are a number of models to fit the various needs of our customers. As in most communities there is only one cable company – this occurs because of the extremely high capital cost to build a cable system. Our cost per home passed is higher than ave because of the less densely populated areas here in Central Oregon. We compete against other providers of video, voice and high speed services. In fact we are now under an FCC order to complete our transition to all digital by 12-31-08 and households who have not made the conversion by that date will lose service. This is why we are focusing extensive resources on getting people converted and make the switch happen at no added cost through special offers to analog subscribers. Hope this helps set the record straight.
BendBroadband is by far the best Internet service provider I’ve used. Compared to Qwest, AT&T and Comcast, BendBroadband has more reliable connectivity, better prices and superior customer service. No company is perfect, but we’re lucky to have BendBroadband here in Central Oregon. If you don’t like their Internet service there are plenty of alternatives so go ahead and switch to an inferior service if you’d like.
Unfortunately this issue is not about switching companies because Bend Broadband may or may not be superior to other services. I for one agree that they provide the best service I have ever had. I’ve had both cable and DSL services from a number of major companies in 7 different states, and I’ve never had a service as reliable.
However, I’m in the top 9% of the usage statistic I’m sure. Considering what their max bandwidth cap is set at, and the fact that I exceed that every few days, I may even be in the top 1% for usage.
This is not for illegal content, or movies, and I don’t even pay for cable TV let alone Pay Per View. No extra money will be coming from that marketing ploy, if it is the ploy to begin with.
I use my internet for my various online hobbies, a little work, and communicating with my friends and family (like everyone). I just happen to transfer a lot of information due to my photography, video production, software development, and video/voice chat with people out of state or overseas.
Limiting my bandwidth only has one outcome due to my large capacity usage.
If they insist on limiting the bandwidth to such unreasonable extremes, they will lose my business.
When you look at the bottom line Bend Broadband is not only doing this to make a profit but also kill any competition that they may have. IPtv via the new AppleTV boxes and various other set-top boxes that rely on internet data transfer to work will be affected. People that are used to getting entertainemnt through services such as Netflix and other online viewing services will find that they cannot use those services like they once did. People that stream music through the internet and share large files for home based businesses will find that htye are affected. Bend Broadband is trying to make sure that if you want to see a movie that the you are using their VOD service or channel line-up to do it. If you have to stream music they want it to go through their service. It’s one thing to try to compete heavily but it’s another to hide what they are trying to do under the ruse that it is do to the top 2-4% of users that is causing the issue, especially since they have the technology to throttle those users broadband connection.
The letter writer’s “one of the reasons I moved to Bend was the internet” is a weak argument I hear about too many things too often. Let the Bend Broadband decision to change its billing practices live or die on its merits as a BUSINESS decision. If it results in Bend Broadband getting more money from its customers, then it was a smart decision. If everyone switches to DSL, it was a bad decision.
Ok, yeah, I know that Bend has sold itself as a “quality of life destination.” But not everything is about your quality of life. The nature of some people’s complaints in Bend is the same as if they were in a resort: “but the brochure said…” When Bachelor raised its season pass prices, I heard too many people say, you know, “Bachelor’s one of the reasons I moved here,” as if that’s some argument why they can’t change their lift ticket prices.
I’m not saying I agree with BBB, or Bachelor for that matter. But I’m saying that no local business owes you anything just because you decided to move here. The only constant in Bend is change. The things you love will change into something you may not love. Doesn’t mean you need to move away – you just have to always be learning to love new things.