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Comcast fees are absurd

Just about 2 years ago, I decided to sign up for a “great deal” with Comcast. $69 a month for 300Mbps internet and a lot of TV channels. The actual bill that came was $91 a month!

Of those extra $22, more than half were “fees” that are definitely not taxes. A “Broadcast TV Fee” of $7 supposedly covers costs of showing me my local TV channels, which I could watch with an antenna. This “fee” is just $7 of free money for Comcast.

The “Regional Sports Fee” of $5 seems to make sense since I know the local TV sports monopoly for the local hockey and baseball teams could charge the cable company a lot. But then I remember – Comcast owns the network that shows the local hockey games! More free money for Comcast.

After year 1 of the 2-year contract, they charge you an extra $10 a month unless you downgrade your internet speed to 150Mbps. I lowered it… no big deal but it was opt-out instead of opt-in for the extra speed in year 2. And also in year 2: the broadcast TV fee is now $10 and the regional sports fee is $8.25! Some government tax went down but still I’m now paying $95 for my special $69 per month deal.

Finally, my contract is ending this month. If I do nothing, my price will go up another $25 since I’m no longer getting the discount. I’m sure the fees will go up again too, so seeya later Comcast. My condo building recently got Starry Internet which is $50 a month, with no “fees” added on to that price. It doesn’t include TV service, which I may try to solve with an antenna (not hopeful living in a condo building surrounded by other buildings). The speed is 250Mbps – and something I noticed that’s a massive improvement from Comcast is that the upload speed is equal to the download. Comcast gave me 150Mbps download but only 5 Mbps upload. That led to some very long waits when having to upload large files for work.

I will see how I like not having cable TV service. There is another cable company in the area – RCN. Since Starry doesn’t require a contract, I could switch to RCN if I miss having cable TV too much.