Oregon ISP Bend broadband (see our user reviews) has long been at the forefront of the rush to impose usage caps, and now they’re at the forefront of another trend in metered billing: removing caps if users bundle phone and TV services. According to a blog post by the company, Bend is deploying a number of new speed upgrades, including new Ultra 50, Ultra 100 and Ultra 300 Mbps speed tiers. The company is telling users on its Bronze and Silver Internet plans that they should be eligible for a free upgrade later this month.
But another post adds a different wrinkle: Bend says it’s removing its current usage caps if you bundle TV and phone service. These caps have historically ranged from 150 to 500 GB.
“Customers who subscribe to Bronze or above internet (including Silver, Gold and Platinum) and Essentials or above TV (including Preferred, Preferred Plus and The Works) are no longer limited on data usage and will no longer pay overage fees,” says the company.
Using usage caps to force customers to retain services they may not want appears to be the latest fashion in the industry, and given caps aren’t really necessaryon fixed-line networks, it’s another way caps can be used anti-competitively in the market. Facing dwindling TV subscribers AT&T recently did something differently, offering to remove caps from its U-Verse broadband service if users bundle DirecTV TV service.
“The continued migration of Netflix usage from mailed DVD to Internet streaming/download, as well as other data intensive uses of the Internet, are impacting all providers of high-speed Internet service,” Bend claims in a FAQ. “While we certainly acknowledge and appreciate that content rich services like Netflix make our high-speed offering more valuable to the end user, the volume of data associated with this content drives significant incremental investment in the network and the need to purchase more bandwidth in order to maintain the user experience and this must be funded.”
And here you were thinking that the already high prices for U.S. broadband more than helped fund the modest investment needed to keep pace with Netflix demand. Like most ISPs, Bend doesn’t offer any math to support the narrative that growing video consumption makes usage caps necessary — because it’s simply not true.
This new tactic is worth remembering when cable subscribers start crowing about how they’re “conquering cord cutting.” In reality, they’re simply forcing people to take TV services they may not want, either by pricing broadband and TV much cheaper than broadband alone — or by forcing them to subscribe to legacy television if they want to avoid significant new broadband usage penalties.
