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First Time Warner Cable Executive Departs After Announced Charter Deal: CFO Artie Minson Leaves Today

Phillip Dampier June 1, 2015 Issues Comments Off on First Time Warner Cable Executive Departs After Announced Charter Deal: CFO Artie Minson Leaves Today

exitAfter serving just two years as the chief financial officer of Time Warner Cable, Arthur Minson today left the cable company to become president and chief operating officer of WeWork, a shared office space provider.

Time Warner Cable isn’t announcing a permanent replacement. Instead, William F. Osbourn, Jr., who now serves as senior vice president-controller and chief accounting officer, and Matthew Siegel, who currently serves as senior vice president and treasurer, will serve as acting co-CFOs.

Last year Minson made $13 million, after receiving an effective 137% raise over 2013. He reportedly has $1,826,915 in awarded Time Warner Cable stock and option awards worth $1,767,619. If Comcast had successfully purchased Time Warner Cable, Minson would have walked away with a $27 million golden parachute. Charter has not yet disclosed what it intends to pay Time Warner Cable executives in exit bonuses.

Hulu Rebrands Itself; Dropping “Plus” Name In Effort to Reduce Consumer Confusion; Ad Loads Under Review

Phillip Dampier June 1, 2015 Issues Comments Off on Hulu Rebrands Itself; Dropping “Plus” Name In Effort to Reduce Consumer Confusion; Ad Loads Under Review
Not for long

Not for long

Although Hulu Plus ($7.99/mo) has managed to attract a claimed nine million active subscribers, it has never drawn as much attention as its rivals Netflix and Amazon, and Hulu’s CEO believes that is because consumers, including his mom, are confused about the difference between Hulu and Hulu Plus.

Hulu is the advertiser-supported free side of Hulu and Hulu Plus offers a deeper catalog of content (and the right to view it on mobile devices) in return for a monthly fee. But the premium side of Hulu has always been plagued with complaints it collects money from customers and still forces them to watch paid advertising.

“Even when I was a subscriber, Hulu Plus didn’t make much sense,” said Scott Beggs of FilmSchoolRejects. “You signed up, gave them your credit card information, scored an account, and the commercials were still there. Shame on all of us who assumed that paying eight bucks a month would let us avoid watching the same heartburn medication commercials five times per Daily Show episode, I guess.”

Screen-Shot-2015-03-12-at-8.39.23-AMIn late April, Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said the company was moving away from the Hulu Plus brand and that it will gradually disappear from the website over the summer. But for now, it remains uncertain if only the Hulu Plus name will disappear or if Hulu will shift to an entirely free or all-paid service. With Hulu working on an advanced video ad-targeting platform, it seems unlikely advertising will go away completely.

For many that continue to reject Hulu Plus, it comes down to one issue: commercials.

“The only thing that will bring me back would be the removal of all advertising,” says Les Wilder. “I could put up an antenna and view all the shows I want for a lot cheaper than paying Hulu, if I wanted to watch the ads that go with over the air broadcasting.”

Although Hopkins said 2015 would be a breakout year for Hulu, its audience share continues to decline.

As of the third quarter of 2014, Netflix remains the runaway winner with a 36% household penetration score. Amazon Prime Access is now in 13% of American homes, while Hulu Plus is a distant third at just 6.5% penetration.

 

Wireless Bills are Rising: Prices Up More than 50% Since 2007 and Will Head Even Higher When 5G Arrives

Phillip Dampier June 1, 2015 Broadband "Shortage" 1 Comment

attverizonWithout dramatic changes in wireless pricing and more careful usage, owning a smartphone will cost an average of $119 a month per phone by the year 2019.

Ever since the largest players in the wireless industry decided to monetize wireless data usage by ending unlimited use data plans, the average monthly phone bills of smartphone users have been on the increase. In 2013, the average cell phone bill was $76 a month, according to Bureau of Labor statistics. That’s up 50% from the $51 a month customers paid in 2007, the first year the iconic Apple iPhone was offered for sale.

Although wireless companies claim their current 4G (largely LTE) networks are robust enough to sustain the growing demand for wireless data until more spectrum becomes available, the transition to next generation 5G technology will dramatically increase the efficiency of wireless data transmission, delivering up to 40 times the speed of existing 4G networks. But if providers are not willing to slash prices on 5G data plans, average usage and customers’ phone bills are likely to soar to new all-time highs, costing a family of four smartphone owners an average of $476 a month.

A study by Wafa Elmannai and Khaled Elleithy at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Bridgeport found wireless carriers have given up on monetizing voice and texting services, including unlimited minutes and text messages as part of most basic service plans. The real money is made from wireless data plans which traditionally cost customers between $10.79-16.72 per gigabyte, depending on the carrier and whatever fees, surcharges and required add-ons are necessary to get the service.

4g-5gWireless carriers defend their pricing, claiming they have cut prices on certain data plans while granting some customers extra gigabytes of usage at no extra cost. Some evidence shows that carriers have indeed reduced the asking price of delivering a megabyte of data by 50 percent annually. But their costs to deliver that data have dropped even faster, particularly as networks shift traffic away from older 3G networks to 4G technology, which is vastly more efficient than its predecessor.

The end of unlimited data plans by AT&T and Verizon Wireless was key to shifting the industry towards monetizing data usage. The more a customer consumes, the more revenue a carrier earns. But as web pages and applications become more complex and bandwidth intensive, customers will naturally consume more and more data each month, forcing regular usage plan upgrades to avoid confronting overlimit fees. Unless providers pass along more of their savings on traffic costs to consumers, bills will rise.

At current usage estimates from Cisco, the average customer will consume at least 57% more wireless data by 2019 than they do today. To sustain that usage, wireless providers are bidding for additional spectrum rights and are working towards upgrading to next generation 5G technology. But some carriers, including AT&T and Verizon, are also investing in new applications for their networks that include in-car telematics, home security and automation, and online video. Using some of these technologies guarantees an even greater amount of data usage, particularly for online video. Unless customers are careful about their usage and avoid high-bandwidth applications, they are in for a much bigger bill in the future, much to the delight of wireless providers.

While most analysts expect wireless companies will choose to give customers a larger data allowance instead of resorting to fire sale pricing, Elmannai and Elleithy expect that will not be enough to keep cell phone bills stable.

“We will need to reduce the bit rate to (1/1000th) of today’s level in order to receive x1000 of data capacity [at the] same cost [we see today],” the authors conclude. That would mean a low end 1GB data plan on a 4G network would cost just $0.03. Larger allowance plans would cost less than one cent per gigabyte.

The authors of the study expect carriers to price 5G data plans more or less the same as 4G plans, but will probably boost usage allowances to deliver a perception of greater value. But as web applications continue to gravitate towards higher data usage, bills will continue to rise, assuring providers of growing returns even with modest to moderate levels of competition.

At the moment, despite some evidence of price competition, some carriers are still raising prices. Verizon increased the price of its 10GB plan by $20 to $100 a month and T-Mobile raised the price of its unlimited data plan by $10 a month last year.

Angry Comcast Customer in Illinois Assaults Technician Over the Quality of Work Done in His Home

Phillip Dampier May 28, 2015 Comcast/Xfinity, Consumer News, Editorial & Site News, Public Policy & Gov't Comments Off on Angry Comcast Customer in Illinois Assaults Technician Over the Quality of Work Done in His Home

angry guyA customer angry over the performance of a Comcast technician in his Berwyn, Ill. home stood in his doorway and blocked the technician from leaving until the work met his satisfaction.

Police say things deteriorated from there. When the technician said he attempted to leave to avoid escalating what was already a heated verbal altercation, Thomas Guel, 37, of the 1900 block of South Elmwood Ave., allegedly pushed the technician and slapped him in the face.

Authorities charged Guel with unlawful restraint and battery.

In our view, such confrontations are unacceptable and unconscionable. It is never appropriate to become verbally or physically abusive to a worker invited into your home. If you are dissatisfied with the work being done by a technician and they are unresponsive after bringing your concerns to their attention, thank them for their time and politely ask them to leave. Then contact your provider and ask for a supervisor to intervene and handle the situation.

The Comcast technician did the right thing by seeking to end the confrontation by leaving. Had he been allowed to, this story would have never been written.

Stop the Cap! Still Collecting Names of Those Interested in Fighting Cox Usage Caps in Cleveland

wews coxThis weekend will end the first phase of our campaign to fight Cox usage caps being tested in Cleveland, Ohio. We’re collecting the names and e-mail addresses of interested citizens that would like to participate in the fight to get Cox to drop its usage-based billing and overlimit fee scheme. If you are interested, use the link at the top to “Contact Us” as a volunteer and include your name and a valid email address.

Next week we will have an initial outline for an action plan with hopes of building a team of Cleveland-area Cox customers to lead the fight. Local participation and involvement is essential to win these battles, and we will expect the city’s Internet enthusiasts to run this effort themselves, with support from Stop the Cap! It’s your fight to preserve your uncapped broadband, so please get involved!

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WEWS Cleveland Cox Changing Internet Service 5-19-15.mp4[/flv]

WEWS in Cleveland ran a story on Cox’s usage caps and interviewed Stop the Cap! about why usage-based pricing is typically a giant ripoff for customers. (2:12)

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