Originally posted by SmallTown
But like you say, they know they are really the only shop in town right now, so they'll enjoy the benefits for awhile. But look at AOL... over 800K members lost recently? Why? because other means of obtaining access is there. Once other alternatives are available in somd on a wide scale, you'll see people defect left and right, leaving GMP scratching their heads. Even if they lower their prices at that point, the damage will already be done. They have basically written their own death ticket, so watch out for GMP trying to strong arm competition that may try to spring up.
Business concentration absolutely effects this. You have a greater economy of scale running cable from Hollywood to Wildewood to service bunches of customers. Now, run to Ridge and it might cost the same just to get down there as it did to wire up all of those Wildewood homes. You can't faily compare a closer, more concentrated metropolitan suburb that has more people in 30 square miles, than St. Mary's has in 367 square miles. All I'm saying is "be real!" It costs more to do business in St. Mary's because we're fewer people spread out further, and our cable system isn't even fully built-out yet to every household.
AOL also has one of the best DSL programs available, as far as value to subscribers, and they're still losing them. That proves, you can't give away the house and keep the people in it.
I don't totally disagree with you, but if I look at it from GMP's "mentality" which neither of us really knows... I'm thinking if cable modems don't make good business sense to GMP, then why bother with it? Good business sense = making money. (period!) They're in the television business. Cable Internet kinda' fell into their laps, and they kept it going. As I said before. There are lots of rural areas that wish their cable companies provided high speed access.
When is DSL technology going to improve beyond the 6,000 or so feet from the CO requirement? I'm more than 6,000 and less than 8,000 according to Covad, and I've been waiting over 3 years for DSL technology to improve and reach my neighborhood. I'm wondering if copper wire will ever support an extended distance?
If Comcast buys our cable system one day, and lowers my cable modem rate, then that's fine. But they're not here today, and I'm not going to save $20 a month using dialup waiting for that.