Early this morning, Charter Communications quietly raised rates by $3 on their digital home phone service, Spectrum Voice.

Offered as a $9.99 a-la-carte add-on service for several years, Spectrum Voice still perennially lost customers cutting the cord on wired home phone lines. According to Charter’s latest financial results released on January 29, Charter lost 103,000 Spectrum Voice customers during the fourth quarter of 2020 and 148,000 customers over the full year.

The new $12.99 rate applies to new bundled subscribers beginning today, but existing customers will continue to pay $9.99. An additional home phone line (limit one) is also available for an extra $19.99/month. Customers only subscribing to home phone service from Spectrum will pay $29.99 a month.

Spectrum Voice is a managed Voice over IP phone service offering unlimited local and long distance calling to the United States, Canada, Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Subscribers also receive a generous package of calling features including: Voicemail, 3-Way Calling, Accept Selected Callers, Block 3rd Party Charges, Block 900/976 Calls, Block Anonymous Calls, Block Collect Calls, Block International Calls, Block Outbound Caller ID, Block Unwanted Callers, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Call Waiting with Caller ID, Forward All Calls, Forward Calls When Busy, Forward Calls When No Answer, Forward Selected Calls, Repeat Dialing, Return Call, Simultaneous Ring, Speed Dial and VIP Ring. The company also recently introduced a new call blocking service designed to limit robocallers and telemarketers.

House Energy & Commerce Committee

Democrats serving on the House Energy & Commerce Committee today blasted the nation’s largest internet service providers for price increases and data caps placed on consumer broadband services at the height of a global pandemic, questioning the industry’s commitment to keeping Americans connected.

“Over the last ten months, internet service became even more essential as many Americans were forced to transition to remote work and online school. Broadband networks seem to have largely withstood these massive shifts in usage,” wrote Democratic Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr (N.J.), Mike Doyle (Penn.) and Jerry McNerney (Calif.). “Unfortunately, what cannot be overlooked or underestimated is the extent to which families without home internet service — particularly those with school-aged children at home — have been left out and left behind.”

Pallone

The congressmen questioned nine providers after reading media coverage of rate hikes and the implementation of data caps by Comcast and the potential for Charter Spectrum to impose data caps as early as May 2021.

“This is an egregious action at a time when households and small businesses across the country need high-speed, reliable broadband more than ever but are struggling to make ends meet,” the three Democrats wrote.

In March 2020, many cable and phone companies relaxed a number of restrictions on customers in response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. Many volunteered to suspend data cap overlimit fees, provide affordable broadband options to the economically disadvantaged, offer free months of service, open restricted Wi-Fi hotspots, and discontinue collection efforts or service disconnects on customers falling behind on bills.

Despite the pledge, consumers filed a significant number of complaints with the Federal Communications Commission alleging the companies broke their promises, by far most often for not following through on free service offers or continuing aggressive collections of past due bills and shutting off service.

Consumer complaints filed with the FCC regarding the “Keep America Connected” pledge, received from March-November 2020. (Source: FCC)

The Energy and Commerce Committee has now sent letters to the CEOs of many providers, seeking answers to these questions as part of ongoing oversight of the industry:

• Did the company participate in the FCC’s “Keep Americans Connected” pledge?
• Has the company increased prices for fixed or mobile consumer internet and fixed or phone service since the start of the pandemic, or do they plan to raise prices on such plans within the next six months?
• Prior to March 2020, did any of the company’s service plans impose a maximum data consumption threshold on its subscribers?
• Since March 2020, has the company modified or imposed any new maximum data consumption thresholds on service plans, or do they plan to do so within the next six months?
• Did the company stop disconnecting customers’ internet or telephone service due to their inability to pay during the pandemic?
• Does the company offer a plan designed for low-income households, or a plan established in March or later to help students and families with connectivity during the pandemic?
• Beyond service offerings for low-income customers, what steps is the company currently taking to assist individuals and families facing financial hardship due to circumstances related to COVID-19?

The full letters are available below:

Altice USA

AT&T

CenturyLink/Lumen

Charter Communications

Comcast Cable Communications

Cox Communications

Frontier Communications

T-Mobile US

Verizon Communications

Comcast is rolling out price increases across its multi-state service area, starting with some significant hikes for customers in the northeastern U.S. that will also see a 1.2 TB data cap placed on internet usage in the new year.

Budget priced Performance Starter will take the biggest hit, increasing $5 a month from $49.95 to $54.95 a month. Faster, more expensive tiers will see price increases of $3 a month. Customers with bundled service packages may find lower rate increases, depending on the services they receive.

Comcast video customers will suffer even more from rate increases, with the cheapest plans seeing the biggest increases. For example, Choice TV increases $5 a month from $25 to $30. But Comcast’s add on fees are rising even more dramatically. The Broadcast TV Fee, charged to all cable TV customers that receive local TV stations, rise by up to $4.50 a month, which could result in additional charges of more than $18 a month just to cover local, over the air stations. Sports TV surcharges are also increasing $2 a month, resulting in an extra charge of $10.75 a month for regional sports networks.

Set-top box rental pricing is also changing: rental fees rise $2.50 a month for the first box (was $5 a month, now $7.50), but additional boxes decrease from $9.95 a month each to $7.50. If you need Comcast to install your service, that will now cost $100, up from $70.

Comcast rolls out rate increases regionally, so watch your monthly bill for an official notification of when the rate hikes arrive in your area.

Charter Spectrum is raising the price of its internet service by $5 a month starting in December, making most internet-only customers pay $74.99 a month for service starting at 100 Mbps.

An internal customer service document obtained by Stop the Cap! shows the company plans to raise the base internet price for all customers except those still subscribed to a package bundle containing traditional cable television. However, if you subscribe to a streaming TV package like Spectrum Choice, Essentials, or Stream, the rate hike will apply.

Customers subscribed to higher speed tiers (Ultra, Gig) or have a grandfathered Time Warner Cable internet package without cable TV can also expect a $5 increase.

Customers will be notified about the rate hike on their November bill, with new pricing taking effect from Dec. 2, 2020.

YouTube TV has announced the addition of eight new Viacom-owned networks to their lineup, but has also passed along word the price is going up 30%, from $49.99 to $64.99/mo effective from Tuesday for new customers, Aug. 1 for existing customers.

Google last raised the price of the service in April 2019 when a YouTube TV subscription increased by 25% to $49.99.

Today we are also adding more of ViacomCBS’s family of channels to YouTube TV, which includes 8 of your favorites: BET, CMT, Comedy Central, MTV, Nickelodeon, Paramount Network, TV Land, and VH1.

To continue delivering the best content and service possible, we’re also updating our price for new and existing members to $64.99/month. Existing members will see these changes reflected in their subsequent billing cycle after July 30, 2020.

YouTube TV was widely perceived to be the best value streaming service combined with the best interface and feature set, including unlimited DVR service and the ability to share the service with up to six family members (up to three watching concurrently). The service has benefited from unfettered price hikes by its streaming competitors, notably AT&T TV Now (formerly DirecTV Now). But social media channels show customers are not thrilled about a $15 rate increase, even with the addition of eight channels to the lineup:

Here is the link.
How to cancel your membership
Visit https://t.co/Y0mjUzRIzM on a computer or your mobile web browser.
Go to Settings. Membership .
Click Pause or cancel membership. Cancel membership.

— ꧁ MeshMN ꧂ 🇺🇸 🌊 (@xMeshMNx) June 30, 2020

Canceled. Ethics still mean something. YouTube TV lost them.

— SiouxieKitty (@SiouxieKitty) June 30, 2020

How does YouTube TV think anyone is going to pay the same amount as all the major streaming services COMBINED:

Netflix 4k: $15.99
Hulu (no-ads): $11.99
HBO Max: $14.99
Apple TV+: $4.99
Prime: $9.91
Disney+: $6.99

Total: $64.86

YouTube TV: $64.99 /mohttps://t.co/1v7KKpsKNm

— Mac Faulkner (@macfaulkner) June 30, 2020

“how can we @ YouTube TV show our love and appreciation for our customers, in the midst of a pandemic and massive unemployment?”
“hike the price $15 a month?”
“bingo!”

— Daniel Smith (@javajoint) June 30, 2020