🚀 go-pugleaf

orionwa <orionwa@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:<2Oq0a.8054$vm2.5157@rwcrnsc54>...
> I have had a cable modem with AT&T for a couple of years here in the SF
> Bay Area, paying over $40/month for most of that period.  Recently they
> lowered my monthly cost  a little and I have my own modem.  But then
> they started advertising $20/month to new subscribers.  I gritted my
> teeth, but knew it was just a temporary promotion.

$20 a month... for new high speed internet customers that have basic
cable already.

Funny that you mentioned they lowered your rate because you have your
own modem.  I started with their service in Decemeber 2001.  I own my
own modem and my rate went up about six months into it.

> Today they called and said that the price would be going up by almost
> $15/month in the near future, but they would keep it the same if I
> signed up for their basic cable TV at $5/month.  Of course I am
> suspicious and start asking a some probing questions.

This is the Comcast business taking over.  Not that AT&T was a stellar
service provider to begin with, but they didn't tie any of their
services together until Comcast took over.  This was just one of the
reason I dump AATBI and their digital phone service.  Every line of
their broadband business is going to be run with a cable company
business mentality.

> I ask how do I know they won't threaten to raise my cable modem rate
> again real soon?  The guy says the price is guaranteed to stay the
> same.  Oh yeah? for how long?  He says isn't sure about that.  I tell
> him to call me back when he's sure.  "...but, uh... this is a limited
> time offer and uh... it may be..."  I ask him what the limit actually is
> on this offer.  He isn't sure about that.  I tell him to call me back
> when he can give me some real answers.
> 
> In the meantime, I tell him that there is an other cable company in town
> with lower rates and I will switch my cable modem and cable TV to
> service to them if they really try to raise my rates.

Are you in Contra Costa County.  "Astound" has added some competetion
to SBC and AT&T where I live, but AT&T broader policy seems to ignore
that.

> This strategy of sucking people in with low promotional prices then
> threatening them with higher prices if they don't add on additional
> services -- is this even legal?  Slimey to say the least. 

Might be illegal bundling.  Especially since the services bundled are
not even related.

You gotta read this article.  It really makes AT&T look stupid... 
"SBC is undercutting us by illegally selling local service below
cost....  Oh but we want to be able to by the same line for an even
lower price..."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/02/04/BU242578.DTL

Here are some excerpts...

...AT&T Chief Executive Officer David Dorman charged Monday that SBC
Communications is preserving its traditional monopoly on local
telephone service in California by selling basic telephone service
below cost...

...[Natalie Billingsley, a telecommunications specialist for...the
California Public Utilities Commission] said it would be easier for
AT&T to sign up local phone customers if SBC were forced to raise the
rates for basic dial-tone service...

[Duh]

...In addition, Dorman contends SBC charges exorbitant markups for
added calling features that cost just "pennies per month."...

...For example, SBC charges $6.17 per month for Caller ID, $7.95 for
voice mail and $3.23 each for Call Waiting or Call Forwarding. And it
offers a local phone package crammed with features totaling nearly $40
per month...

[Uh.. these are 'value added services'.  You don't *need* call
waiting, or caller ID, or voice mail.  The basic service is for dial
tone.]

..."This would be called illegal bundling in any other industry,"
Dorman said...

...But [Regina Costa of The Utility Reform Network] said Dorman's
suggestion that the $10.69 retail rate might be below cost could
undercut AT&T's arguments that it should be allowed to continue to
rent SBC phone lines for less than $10, which is based on SBC's actual
cost.

..."Dorman was pretty foolish for saying it," Costa said. "Some
stomachs (at AT&T) are going to drop."...
 

We should refer to him as "Duhman".  :)