Let me offer a data point. Mediacom has a 250GB/month “data allowance.” Today is the first day of a new billing cycle, so the data allowance was supposedly cleared.
The cable “modem” was disconnected from 2200 hours 07/21 until 0815 on 07/22. Mediacom reports that at 0820, we had used 3GB of our monthly data allowance.
Yeh, by checking our email between 0815 and 0820 we used 3GB of our data allowance. Right.
No, just more Mediacom “service.”
Dead bunnies passing through straws because of an unequal distribution of air pressure comes to mind.
Indeed, Perri. Heck, the cable company generally rated “most hated” (Comcast) offers higher connection speeds (by far), a MUCH larger “data allowance” (cablespeak for “we’re screwing you and there’s nothing you can do about it), and more.
I have begun seriously considering slower (but more consistent) ADSL access via our (often unreliable) local “baling wire and chewing gum” telco, just to get away from the crappy and disingenuous “service” Mediacom has devolved into.The telco has installed fiber to the house, and my interior wiring is gigabit ethernet-capable (I used CAT6 from their box to my 110 punchdown block, etc.), but ADSL from the telco is still just a meager 5mbs download and 1mbs upload. Still. . . no data cap, and I know where most of the telco folks live. *heh*
Size matters, I guess. We still have Comcast for internet service, mainly because my son and I need the bandwidth. If ADSL were even close to meeting our needs I would have switched off Comcast altogether. They’re hated for a reason (mostly due to deceptive practices I think). I ditched their television service a year ago for DirectTV and been happier since – although I’m almost ready to ditch television entirely considering the content. My wife wants to keep it so she can watch the Seahawks play though, so even if I manage to wean myself off of the “crime dramas” I’ll be keeping television service for a while.
My wife and I were talking this morning about the effect of size on the airlines. We used to love flying on Southwest, back when they were a smaller company. Success has changed them. Formerly nonstop flights, such as Seattle to Salt Lake are no longer available on Southwest. What used to take two hours now takes six, with a layover as well. The employees there are less cheerful as well according to indirect reports I’ve heard.
I think it’s a general trend. The larger a business becomes the lower their quality of service gets, until another business gets bigger. But once it’s gone downhill turning it around seems rare.
Yeh, there are smaller cable companies serving areas nearby that have MUCH better Internet service, but, of course, Evil Company has an exclusive cable franchise for the area where we live. And ADSL (especially with our local baling wire and chewing gum telco) seems. . . well, no. But Mediacom may well drive me to it, anyway, narrow bandwidth and all.
“Need” for TV service is mostly limited to my Wonder Woman’s fav programs, which aren’t available on the TWO channels we can mostly receive over the air, so. . . *sigh*
Oh, well.