[whateverman23]

Would it actually be that much less costly to give you 20-25 vs 75, though? My uninformed assumption was that it was largely artificial once you get to a low enough speed.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[cmiles74]

Agreed, I suspect the cost is in providing the larger amount of bandwidth to the block or neighborhood (better cabling, cable modems, etc.) Once in place, the individual subscriber usage probably all costs the same for Comcast.

[chx]

Nope, the big ongoing cost is in support. Humans.

The big upfront cost is trenching. The rest is potatoes. If you think the "big heroes" of an ISP are the router wizards, oh boy. It's the permit people. A ransomware gang has nothing on the uppity council of a town of 4000 people.