[gnicholas]

Well, if there's not a cost difference, why do they keep trying to double my pricing when the base tier goes up?

My sense is there is some cost savings at these lower tiers, but more importantly it would prevent ISPs from jacking prices up while using higher speeds as the rationale ("Look, we just tripled your speed, and it only costs double!"). ISPs would be less likely to double prices without any service improvement. But since many people don't care about the service improvement, it's an illusory benefit for them.

[whateverman23]

> Well, if there's not a cost difference, why do they keep trying to double my pricing when the base tier goes up?

Because you keep paying for it. It's not like you're going to not pay for internet, and you probably don't have many alternative options.

[gnicholas]

Yeah, like I said in my original post, it all comes down to competition.

[jacksnipe]

They’ve already trained consumers that higher speeds cost more. They would need a compelling reason to keep costs the same after increasing speeds.

[jakogut]

In my area, a competitor just finished installing fiber to my neighborhood, and is offering symmetrical gigabit speeds for less (nearly half the price) than I was paying for 500/20 Mbps to the incumbent cable company before.

The cable company now needs to both increase speeds _and_ lower prices to even keep their existing customers. This is a good place to be, as a customer.

[vel0city]

I've had many instances where ISPs increased my speeds without increasing prices.

If pricing stayed even close to fixed my gigabit internet would cost well over $10,000mo, considering back in the day I was paying SBC for less than a meg for more than I'm paying for a gigabit today. And that's before adjusting for inflation, those 90s dollars are worth way more than 2023 dollars.

[tzs]

In the almost 20 years I've had Comcast they've increased speeds numerous times without increasing prices.

[Arainach]

What makes you think the price wouldn't double if the speed stayed the same? That's what cable prices have done.

[mixdup]

>Well, if there's not a cost difference, why do they keep trying to double my pricing when the base tier goes up?

At least they're giving more speed instead of just doubling the cost with no increase in service

[HDThoreaun]

Because they can? Their goal is to maximize profit, if raising prices does that they'll raise prices.

[gopher2000]

Because they are for-profit organizations and thus greedy. Pretty easy.