It frustrates me that I keep coming across people who are not at all aware of how their Internet provider is ripping them off. I don’t blame them for their lack of technical knowledge but I definitely blame the Internet service industry that preys on their customers. In this case, we’re talking about SparkLight in Arizona.
To explain my accusation, here is a short story of how I helped a friend and how I wish this would have come up sooner but it just never came up.
My friend recently asked me about installing a security camera at her house. She wondered if I might have some suggestions on brands, features, and so on. After hearing more about her intended usage, I suggested a brand and model and I offered to install it for her.
Since the camera can be connected using wired or wireless, we opted for wireless and that’s when I discovered how slow her wifi was. After installing it, I wanted to show her how she could access the camera locally as well as using an app. I logged into her modem//wifi device and it kept timing out. I thought maybe the firmware needed updating but could not even log into it long enough to check all the settings.
She was happy to use the app so we left it at that but I asked her if she could find one of her bills and share it with me in the near future. A few days later, an image of her bill came in. This is what I discovered.
First, she had been renting this old model for around ten years. The rental cost alone means she’s paid around $1500.00 for a device the cable company purchased in bulk for maybe $25.00 to $50.00 at most. Remember, they are buying these by truckload.
Her bill shows she’s paying for a 200Mbps service called ‘Gamer Plus’ that her son likely talked her into. That service doesn’t even exist on their website but it’s costing her $69.00. I looked for that plan and could not find it. However, their 200Mbps service is now a basic plan which costs $39.95/month.
You would think someone at SparkLight would care enough about their customers to contact them and surprise them by lowering the price but no, of course, that didn’t happen.
I suggested that I can find her a modem she can purchase outright for likely under one hundred dollars because she does not need higher speeds that then require enhanced models. In less than one year, the modem would be paid off by canceling the rental she’s been paying for.
I further suggested that she contact the company to tell them she wants to cancel this ‘Gamer Plus’ service in place of their basic plan.
It is infuriating to hear these kinds of stories, especially in an age where we are moving most services onto the Internet and everyone will need access to get anything done. It’s frustrating to know that such companies are raking in huge amounts of money for a service that should soon become a basic service.
Charging data fees on top of that is sheer craziness to me. When we calculate how much bandwidth we’ll need somewhere, we must ensure there is enough for everyone and everything intended. If something is regularly using a large disproportionate amount of bandwidth, it’s very easy to tell and to deal with. Making everyone pay for going over some decided upon limit is simply gouging your customers.
The pricing, packages, data plans are all made up, not to ensure that everyone has enough bandwidth because this has to be calculated initially, but because it’s a way to get more and more money out of customers.