Cable ONE broadband customers will soon benefit from the cable operator’s increased investment in its operations with faster broadband speeds and a less complicated “usage guideline” system with no overlimit fees.

The cable operator, owned by The Washington Post, has announced effective June 10, customers will be able to buy 5-70Mbps packages with allowances up to 500GB a month.

Cable ONE now only sells two broadband tiers:

• 5Mbps/512kbps (3GB daily limit to avoid speed throttle) No overlimit fees ($50/month)
• 50/2Mbps – 50-100GB monthly usage limit depending on how many Cable ONE services you receive ($50/month, $0.50/GB overlimit fee)

Starting Monday, the monthly usage allowance for the 50Mbps plan will be increased to 300GB per month and no overlimit fee will be charged. The price will remain $50 a month. Other new tiers include:

• 60/2Mbps – 400GB usage limit ($75/month)
• 70/2Mbps – 500GB usage limit ($100/month)

Customers will also lose the “grace period” between 12am-8am when usage was formerly not counted against the monthly allowance. Effective June 10, all usage counts 24 hours a day.

“We are very excited to launch these new, more flexible Internet plans. Our customers are spending more time online than ever before and have voiced the need for faster service and no overage charges,” said Joe Felbab, Cable ONE vice president of marketing. “We’re committed to listening to our customers and delivering the latest products and technical advancements while maintaining the highest level of reliability and customer care.”

Customers who exceed their monthly cap will not pay overlimit fees but will receive warnings from Cable ONE. If those warnings are ignored, the company will “invite” customers to upgrade to the next higher tier or convert to a business account.

Canadian telecom regulators have announced new rules that will limit “gotcha” fees for mobile customers caught exceeding their data allowance, push for an end to the ubiquitous three-year service contract, and force carriers to unlock cell phones after 90 days.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) this week unveiled a new consumer’s Wireless Code governing wireless service. The new rules were introduced in response to more than 5,000 consumer comments received by the regulator over service pricing, opaque wireless contract language, and policies that kept customers locked into long service contracts with expensive exit penalties.

On the surface, the new rules seem to aggressively rein in Bell, Rogers, and Telus — Canada’s three dominant carriers. Among the new provisions taking effect Dec. 2:

• cancel your contract at no cost after a maximum of two years;
• cancel your contract and return your phone at no cost, within 15 days and specific usage limits, if you are unhappy with your service;
• have your phone unlocked after 90 days, or immediately if you paid in full for your phone;
• have your service suspended at no cost if your phone is lost or stolen;
• receive a Critical Information Summary, which explains your contract in under two pages;
• receive a notification when you are roaming in a different country, telling you what the rates are for voice services, text messages, and data usage;
• limit your data overage charges to $50 a month and your data roaming charges to $100 a month;
• pay no extra charges for a service described as “unlimited”;
• you can refuse a change to the key terms and conditions of your contract, including the services in your contract, the price for those services, and the duration of your contract; and
• all cell contracts must use plain language and clearly describe the services customers receive and include information on when and why customers may be charged extra.

[flv width=”480″ height=”290″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CBC New CRTC wireless rules ban contract break fees after 2 years 6-3-13.flv[/flv]

CBC Television’s “The National” explains the CRTC’s new Wireless Code and how it will impact Canadian cell phone customers. Many are skeptical the CRTC will outwit the wireless industry.  (4 minutes)

“Every day, Canadians rely on wireless devices while in their homes, at their jobs, at school or traveling abroad,” said Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the CRTC. “The wireless code will contribute to a more dynamic marketplace by making it possible for Canadians to discuss their needs with service providers at least every two years.  The code is a tool that will empower consumers and help them make informed choices about the service options that best meet their needs. To make the most of this tool, consumers also have a responsibility to educate themselves.”

Canadians pay among the world’s highest wireless charges and most are offered contracts lasting three years. In the United States, two-year contracts are standard. But in both countries, once the contract is fulfilled customers do not receive a discount on services going forward.

“The biggest scam of all is still allowed under the new rules: wireless companies don’t lower your bill if you buy your own phone or fulfill your contract, so you are still paying their subsidy-recovery phone rates either way,” complains Thomas Harcourt in Toronto. “Once again, the wireless companies got the ears of the commissioners and despite thousands of angry Canadians, they watered down our ‘Bill of Rights’ into more bait and switch. You can almost see where the wireless lobbyists had their way with the language.”

Most Canadian wireless carriers welcomed the new rules and the industry participated in hearings contemplating their creation. The new federal rules will supersede conflicting, sometimes stronger provincial regulations, which some observers suggest is a decision in the carriers’ favor.

A closer review of the new regulations exposes several that were tempered, perhaps after industry objections.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/BNN Wireless Code of Conduct CWTA 2-11-13.flv[/flv]

Back in February, BNN talked with Bernard Lord, a representative of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association about what policies they hoped to see in a national wireless “code of conduct.” The industry got most of what it wanted in the final Wireless Code. (8 minutes)

The CRTC did not ban 3-year contracts outright. Instead, they tied contract termination policies and fees to the device subsidy phone companies give customers to cheapen the upfront cost of equipment.

Blais

In Canada, a new smartphone selling for $699 might be discounted to $99 with a three-year contract. For the next 36 months, customers gradually pay back that discount, called a device subsidy, in the form of an artificially inflated rate plan. Most companies amortize that payback rate over the life of the contract. Under the new CRTC rules, companies must recoup their device subsidy within 24 months.

“We didn’t focus on the length of the contract, we focused on the economic relation,” CRTC chairman Blais said. “So, in effect, it’s equivalent to those asking for a ban of a three-year contract without us actually banning three-year contracts, because what we’re saying is the contract’s amortization period can only be for a maximum period of 24 months.”

Carriers can still charge early termination fees during the first two years and can also recoup any remaining unpaid subsidy during the third year as the regulations begin to cover more customers already under three year contracts. Customers who bring or buy their own device can also be charged an early termination fee up to $50 during the first two years of the contract.

Since the rules will apply only to new cellular contracts signed after Dec. 2, 2013, current customers will have to wait before the new Wireless Code fully applies to them. That means wireless carriers can lock you to the old rules if you buy a new phone before December until your contract ends or is amended.

“I think a lot of consumers, if they were thinking of going to the mall and picking up a new phone and signing a contract, they should think twice about doing so,” Michael Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, told CTV News.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CBC 3-year contracts to end 6-3-13.flv[/flv]

The CBC tells you when you can rip up your three-year contract. But be careful. The new rules don’t take effect until December. Many complain cell phone service is far too expensive in Canada. (4 minutes)

Wireless carriers claim consumers may eventually pay the price for the rules changes, with some hinting they will increase the upfront price for devices or raise rates to cover the shortened window of time they can recoup a device subsidy.

“This requirement does limit consumer choice in the marketplace, and could make a customer’s up-front purchase price of a smartphone more expensive than current offerings,” said Bernard Lord, head of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA).

The CWTA also hinted rates may also increase to cover the “major technology development and costs associated with implementing and complying with the new code.”

Ken Engelhart, senior vice president for regulatory affairs at Rogers told BNN a new smartphone under the old three-year contract was typically priced at around $100. Under a two-year contract, that smartphone might cost $300 upfront.

The CRTC’s language banning overage charges for “unlimited” service does not offer consumers any relief from speed throttling. The CRTC says speed limits are acceptable as long as they are “clearly explained” in what the regulator calls a “fair use” policy.

Language that covers contract changes also leaves some wiggle room for carriers to make changes and in certain cases, even increase customer rates while the contract is in effect. The new rules specify customers must make “informed and express consent” to approve a contract change. But the rules might allow a carrier to consider those changes as accepted if a customer does not expressly complain and/or continues to use the phone after a specified deadline. Carriers can also make changes without consumer consent if they involve reducing the rate for a single service or increasing the customer’s usage allowance for a single service.

The limit of data overage charges ($50) and international data roaming charges ($100) are welcomed by most Canadians to avoid bill shock. But most wireless carriers will likely impose usage “toll booths” to avoid uncollectable customer overages. When a customer reaches their limit, they will be given a choice of having their service cut off, opting to cover the overlimit fees, or upgrade their plan.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/BNN Wireless Code of Conduct PIAC 2-11-13.flv[/flv]

BNN talked with John Lawford, executive director of the Public Interest Advocacy Centre about the things Canadians hate most about their wireless phone companies.  (February 11, 2013) (4 minutes)

We know what you are watching.

AT&T’s efforts to expand its U-verse platform to more communities is all about improving AT&T’s growing revenues in the broadband business and further monetizing customers’ broadband usage.

Those are the views of Jeff Weber, AT&T’s president of content and advertising sales. Appearing at last week’s Nomura Global Media Summit Conference, Weber also admitted AT&T is using viewer data collected from U-verse TV set-top boxes to help decide what networks to carry and which can be dropped because of lack of viewership.

Weber appeared at the conference to talk about the implications of Project Velocity IP — AT&T’s investment in expanding its U-verse platform and its proposal to transition rural landline customers to AT&T’s wireless service.

AT&T claims when the project is complete, two-thirds of its landline customers will have access to U-verse, and 99 percent of AT&T’s wireline service areas will be covered by AT&T’s mobile network.

Weber’s job primarily focuses on AT&T’s U-verse TV service — dealing with all the networks on the lineup and selling advertising time.

Although television programming is an important revenue generator for AT&T, broadband revenue is the real focus behind AT&T’s U-verse expansion.

“At the core, it is about improving the fundamental broadband business, extending our footprints to be able to cover more of our customers,” Weber said. “Because our core belief is that the broadband business is [going to be] a very good business for a long time.”

Weber

One way AT&T can further increase revenue is to limit broadband usage and charge overlimit fees for customers who exceed their monthly allowance. AT&T currently limits DSL customers to 150GB of usage per month, 250GB for U-verse broadband. The overlimit fee is $10 for each additional 50GB of usage. At present, both the usage limits and overlimit fees are not broadly enforced in many areas.

“I think very clearly incremental broadband usage is going to drive incremental revenue,” explained Weber. “Part of that assumption is that as traffic continues to grow, you need to be able to monetize that traffic in some way, shape or form. At the end of the day, it’s a pretty efficient market and a really efficient way for customers to pay. In almost every other way the more you use, the more you pay. And I don’t think that’s a radical notion and I suspect that’s a kind of thing we’ll see.”

AT&T already earns $170 a month in average revenue per U-verse customer, mostly from package sales of telephone, broadband, and television service.

Television programming content continues to be a major and growing expense for AT&T, eating into profits. Weber complained programming costs are “too high” and limit AT&T from asking subscribers to pay more when rate increases are contemplated.

Instead, AT&T is increasingly playing hardball with programmers, refusing to pay growing programming costs for certain networks and dropping others that do not have many viewers.

How does AT&T know what channels its customers are watching? The company tracks viewing habits with U-verse TV set-top boxes, which automatically report back to AT&T what channels and programs customers are watching.

“Everybody is facing [profit] margin pressure as content costs go up but the question is how will customers react to higher prices as content costs go up,” Weber said. “Everybody is having to make tough decisions and we’ve been able to use that data and make very smart decisions for our customers.”

As an example, Weber noted AT&T uses real viewer numbers during contract negotiations, suggesting that lower-rated networks deserve a lower rate. If a programmer refuses, AT&T can successfully drop a little-watched network without significant customer backlash.

Weber said the numbers are even more valuable when negotiating carriage fees for expensive regional sports networks. Weber said in one city, AT&T decided to not carry a regional network because it found the majority of customers never watched many of the sports teams featured.

Comcast’s Sportsnet for Houston is not available to some U-verse subscribers because AT&T determined the audience for the sports teams on the network was too small.

“We looked at how many of our customers watched zero of those games, one, two, all the way through 150 games for baseball and 80 games for the basketball team that we’re talking about,” Weber said, noting that if a particular viewer watched 30 or more games, AT&T considered that customer a passionate viewer likely to cancel service if the channel was dropped from the lineup.

“It was very clear the viewership intensity in that particular market was low and we didn’t need to pay the rates that were being asked and we’re not,” Weber said, calling the tracking a “perfect insight” into programming costs vs. viewership value.

AT&T also made it clear if programmers went around the company to sell channels direct to consumers over the Internet, AT&T would bring significant pressure for a wholesale rate cut, which some programmers might see as a deterrent to offering online viewing alternatives.

“If they’re going to [stream their programming online], then that’s a very different conversation and a very different value for our customer,” Weber said. “That’s a choice the content providers can make. We’re totally OK with that, but exclusivity versus non-exclusivity has materially different value for our customers, and I think we would want that reflected,” he added.

Monitoring customer viewing habits also helps AT&T earn more revenue by selling targeted commercial messages to specific viewing audiences.

“If an advertiser wanted to buy The Ellen DeGeneres Show, we know based on our data who that audience is,” Weber said. “We can go find that same audience outside of Ellen and maybe extend reach or drive [the ad] price a bit [higher]. We can also go find that same audience online or on your mobile phone.”

Cricket wants to convince you that paying AT&T or Verizon $90-120 a month for a cell plan with unlimited calling, texting and a 1-3GB data plan is too much, because it can sell you an “all-unlimited plan” for $45.

Cricket this week launched its “Half Is More” marketing campaign online, as well as in print and television advertisements.

“When we go out and talk to a lot of consumers, we hear a lot of angst from post-paid subscribers,” Cricket senior vice president Tyler Wallis told CNET. “They’re not happy with the service they’re getting and they’re feeling like they’re getting gouged.”

They also might not like finding out their “unlimited use” data plan actually comes with a barely disclosed speed throttle that kicks in after only 1GB of usage, reducing speeds to near dial-up for the rest of the billing cycle.

Cricket defends the claim they offer “unlimited” data service by stating they do not completely sever a customer’s data connection when they reach the limit, or charge them overlimit fees. They just slow the service down… a lot. Cricket customers tell Stop the Cap! Cricket’s wireless Internet becomes almost unusable once they are placed in the usage penalty box.

Cricket also depends heavily on Sprint for roaming coverage outside of the small number of home markets where Cricket owns and operates its own network. For many customers, that means frequent roaming on Sprint’s 3G network, which is not rated well for its speed and performance.

Once throttled, customers are stuck in the slow lane until their next billing cycle begins.

Customers with light data needs might find Cricket’s plan an option, assuming they have good coverage either from Cricket itself or roaming on Sprint’s network.

Cricket’s campaign noticeably avoids comparing their plan against T-Mobile, which offers a $70 monthly truly unlimited plan or for ten dollars less, a 2GB plan with unlimited calling and texting.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Cricket Ad Unlimited 5-13.mp4[/flv]

How easy can you read the white fine print disclaimer on the white background in Cricket’s ad? Cricket advertises unlimited data but keeps its speed throttle mostly to itself. (1 minute)

AT&T wants everyone in Oklahoma City to stay off the phone and rely on text messaging for communications with family, friends, and loved ones “given high call volumes.”

Although AT&T has announced it is waiving voice, data, and text overage charges through June 30 for customers in the affected areas, it won’t automatically waive your bill for services you cannot use or per message charges incurred if you do not have a texting plan.

“AT&T customer service told me the waived fees only cover overlimit fees, not plan fees,” says Susan Ramos, who received a text message on her AT&T phone advising her of the special tornado victim compensation plan. “When I called them to learn the exact terms, they told me if you don’t have a text plan, for instance, you will still be charged a per message fee.”

Ramos, who is in Moore, Okla., tells Stop the Cap! AT&T is pleading Oklahoma City customers to stay off their cell phones and rely on text messaging. But without a text plan AT&T will charge 20 cents per text message, 30 cents for each picture or video message.

“Looking at AT&T’s website, their generous offer doesn’t seem so generous when you notice they are only selling a $20 texting plan that already provides unlimited messages,” Ramos notes. “How about just waiving all text message fees for everyone until June 30?”

AT&T’s remaining unlimited data customers in the area also wonder whether the company’s notorious speed throttle will still kick in after using a few gigabytes.

Ramos doesn’t think AT&T’s offer to waive voice overages means all that much either.

“Does anyone ever exceed their voice allowance anymore?” she asks. “Besides, they don’t want you using your phone for voice calling anyway.”