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Cable companies (notoriously) bundle-in an equipment rental fee, which makes many times the equipment cost over the lifetime of the customer. I'd assume they w
by samcheng 6y ago
Cable companies (notoriously) bundle-in an equipment rental fee, which makes many times the equipment cost over the lifetime of the customer. I'd assume they will move to that model in the long term. Probably the $500 fee is a way to ensure dedicated / "bought-in" beta customers.
- entropicdrifter 6y agoOn the flipside, cable companies are legally required to allow you to buy your own modem if you so choose, so if you're willing to drop $50-$200 on a good modem it'll pay for itself within a year and you can minimize the amount of data snooping your ISP can do. That said, only techies seem to bother with that even though it's generally worth it for the power efficiency alone, let alone the equipment rental costs
- olyjohn 6y agoI’ve always just picked them up used. Never paid more than $10 for a cable modem. I even keep a spare around in case my first one blows up. So many people have these things sitting around from changing providers or moving.
- Thetawaves 6y agoI don't think that is a universal rule - that equipment fees make back many times the cost of the device. A high end DVR may cost close to 1000$ and a 20$/month equipment fee will barely break even over the life of the device...
- NeutronStar 6y agoA high end DVR might, the shitty DVR they'll loan you will.