Bright House Networks first boosted Internet speeds in January and is now back with a price boost.

The cable provider’s Turbo High Speed Internet increased earlier this year from 20 to 30Mbps for downloads. Its Lightning tier went up even more — from 40 to 60Mbps. Even Business Class customers saw speed increases to 70Mbps. But now prices are up as well — as much as $5 a month more for “upgraded broadband services,” a higher cable modem rental fee, and $3 more for television packages:

• Standard Cable TV service is up $3, from $65 to $68 a month
• Late fees are increasing by an extra $0.50;
• The cable modem rental fee that used to be $2 a month has increased an additional $1.50 — now $3.50 per month.

Price increases will not affect customers on promotional offers or certain bundled service packages combining multiple services.

The fee that bugs many customers the most is the company’s modem rental fee, which applies regardless of the age of your equipment.

“I told the customer service rep that I’ve had this modem for a couple of years and it’s not like altered or improved,” Pete Dooley of Satellite Beach, Fla. told Florida Today. “She said ‘You know the economy is today. They just needed more money.’ I guess you’re just supposed to casually accept it.”

The rest of the rate increases were attributed to the cost of cable television programming.

Jeff Kagan, a cable industry analyst told the online news service cable television rates have roughly doubled over the last decade.

Stephenson

With a 2011 failed T-Mobile merger well behind him, AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson did well for himself in 2012, walking home with $21 million in compensation.

AT&T customers did less well, facing the imminent termination of AT&T Plus, a customer loyalty rewards program trialed in three states that offered customers waived upgrade and activation fees, gift cards, and 25% off cell phone accessories.

AT&T Mobility’s chief financial officer Pet Ritcher said that customers shifting into its Mobile Share data plans would do a better job of keeping customers in place.

Despite the fact Stephenson’s failure to secure the T-Mobile merger cost the company a $4.2 billion deal termination penalty payable in cash and wireless spectrum, his personal compensation only took a $2.1 million hit in 2011. All was forgiven in 2012, when his compensation hit a new record, up from the $20.2 million earned in 2010 — a four percent pay hike earned in an era of stagnant or declining wages for the middle and working classes.

The breakdown:

• Stephenson’s base salary of $1.55 million was enhanced with a $6.06 million bonus and $12.6 million in additional AT&T shares;
• Stephenson’s personal use of AT&T’s corporate jets cost the company $276,391;
• AT&T paid for Stephenson’s home security as a cost of $101,923;
• Miscellaneous compensation amounted to $803,308.

AT&T’s earnings amounted to $7.3 billion in 2012, up 84 percent from $3.9 billion earned the year before. Revenue increased to $127.4 billion.

AT&T paid no federal taxes in 2011. In fact, the company won a taxpayer-subsidized refund of $420 million.

Wireless plan changes, workforce reductions, rate increases, and other “cost savings” also all helped the company.

Cablevision’s yesteryear marketing: As outdated as this Harvest Gold Trimline phone.

Cablevision’s bizarre new ads for its Optimum triple-play package (the one that puts broadband, arguably its most important component, dead last) have reached a new low in the latest series featuring… Michael Bolton?

Bolton is a practical unknown to the most important demographic group not buying cable: recent graduate twenty-somethings that were 12 when one of his songs last plagued top-40 radio. Cablevision’s misfire could only be outdone if Nike hired Dick Van Dyke to pitch their shoes.

This is the best Cablevision can manage after Sandy blew away 11,000 of their customers (potentially for good) and rate increases took another 28,000 households with them (mostly to the benefit of Verizon FiOS)? Was the runner-up Joyce DeWitt from Three’s Company pitching a three-pack of phone, television, and (oh yes) Internet service?

Cablevision’s marketing efforts are now partly overseen by the CEO’s wife, who ‘somehow’ landed the prominent role of rebranding Cablevision/Optimum. Perhaps her best talents lie elsewhere.

Verizon featured Michael Bay blowing things up in FiOS ads five years ago that were more trendy than Cablevision was this week.

The point of the ad? Michael Bolton keeps getting annoyed with masses of would-be Cablevision customers calling in to sign up for cable service on a toll-free number that is just one digit away from Michael Bolton’s toll-free number (?) Yes, that is Bolton talking on a (shudder) landline (at least he has a cordless phone). Does anyone under 30 even know what a “toll-free” call is?

For those of us who remember what a dial tone sounds like and can still recognize a Trimline rotary phone, the ad still does not make sense. I am perplexed why Michael Bolton has a toll-free number. I guess when Tonya Harding’s name recognition rivals Michael Bolton’s, the fact he has a toll-free number gives him the edge.

A minute later, I am left wondering why I care. I am not certainly not wondering why I haven’t picked up the phone to order Cablevision service.

When it comes to branding and image, here is what Cablevision just accomplished:

• Verizon FiOS circa 2008 = Michael Bay blowing cool stuff up.
• Cablevision this week = Michael Bolton.

‘Nuff said.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Cablevision Ads Michael Bolton.flv[/flv]

AD FAIL: What were they thinking? Michael Bolton annoys viewers trying to recollect his career while Cablevision tries to make New York, New Jersey and Connecticut remember why they should care.  (1 minute)

Esteves

Time Warner Cable is spending less to maintain and improve services for residential customers even as broadband usage grew 40-50 percent, redirecting spending on its business services division instead.

Irene Esteves, chief financial officer of Time Warner Cable, told attendees at Morgan Stanley’s Technology, Media & Telecom Conference that the growth in the company’s capital spending is associated with serving business, not residential customers.

Esteves reported that spending on residential services was actually down slightly in the last year. The business services division used its increased capital to wire 100,000 office buildings and provisioned 1,900 cell towers with backhaul service last year.

But despite decreasing costs, Time Warner Cable expects to continue increasing broadband prices, primarily because it can.

“What we have found is […] as customers use it more, value it more, we can then price it more,” said Esteves. “And we think that’s a terrific dynamic for the market for quite a bit of time.”

Powering usage growth more than anything else is online video.

“If we look at peak volume, which is really what drives our capacity planning, 66% of that increase comes from streaming video,” notes Esteves. “Again, the more they use it, the more they love it, the more important we become to them as a service provider. So we’re continuing to watch that usage pattern and cheering them on.”

For traditional television viewing, Time Warner’s march to digital will also carry on, but it will happen slowly.

Time Warner Cable has chosen a gradual transition to IP video for cable television service. Subscribers can expect about a dozen channels per year to be removed from analog service until the cable system offers a completely digital television package. In Maine and New York City, that digital transition is already complete.

“We’re taking a more measured approach over a 5-year time period,” said Esteves. “We’re taking [away] analog channels in the 10 to 12 per year kind of measure, which is less disruptive to our customers and less capital-intensive.”

That kind of transition, coupled with annual rate increases, could potentially alienate customers, but Time Warner has retrained its retention specialists to assuage customers headed for the door.

“With the increasing promotional activity in the marketplace, we have more and more of our customers on promotion and it’s imperative that when the [promotion expires], we’re being very thoughtful about who rolls off to what, when,” said Esteves. “We’re training specialists to talk to customers, listen to them, find out the reasons for potentially leaving and recapturing those.”

But the industry is also under pressure from Wall Street to cut promotional activity and stop discounting service excessively, because it gets customers used to a lower price.

“If you think about the promotional prices in the marketplace, that really drives people to price shop and that just increases the transactions and the turmoil in the industry, which increases everyone’s cost and reduces everyone’s profitability,” Esteves said. “So the real conundrum for the entire industry is how do we each build on our retention rather than build on the promotional side in order to keep our customers and become more profitable.”

Time Warner Cable subscribers in Wisconsin are facing the third rate increase since October 2012.

The cable operator has announced a $3/month rate hike for most television packages — a four percent increase for those with the popular digital variety package.

Time Warner blamed increasing programming costs in a notice attached to this month’s cable bills. The company defended the increase, stating the rate rise was half of what it could have been if the cable company tried to recoup all the programming costs incurred over the last year.

Customers facing higher cable bills and still paying regular prices should consider our advice on winning a lower rate from the company. With just 10 minutes, our readers are saving $20-50 a month on Time Warner Cable services with attractive customer retention deals.

In October, Time Warner announced it was introducing a cable modem rental fee of $3.95 a month. In November, the company raised rates on its converter boxes by $1.05 a month. The latest rate increase for cable television takes effect next month.

 Thanks to Stop the Cap! reader Nkundinshuti in Milwaukee for sending word.