(If you haven’t been following the BendBroadband bandwidth cap update, read up here first which links to the few entries that follow this whole mess. Most of the discussion has happened here.)
BendBroadband announced today that they’ve dropped their tiered-bandwidth-cap for the upcoming service change in July, in favor of an across-the-board residential 100GB cap. The pricing differences will now be because of the speed differences and the Platinum Plan that was created during this whole discussion has been dropped.
Just the same, Comcast still gives you a higher cap.
The press release (full text after the jump) also mentions their business plans that are coming soon. It was originally thought and mentioned that these would be uncapped, but it appears that the cap will be set at 150GB for all but the high-end plan (no details on pricing has been released — which I’m still a bit miffed about and have been all along). As was mentioned before, the cap on business plans might hurt Bend as a destination for new technology entrepreneurs. Experimentation with technology can sometimes be an expensive and stressful endeavor if you have to worry about caps.
And there is still is my problem with the overnight downloads/uploads that I do (for backup/security purposes). Again, they shouldn’t count against me, but they’re going to, even though they’re going to hurt nobody. While I’m not over the 100GB limit, there are times where I easily could be. And I can’t consider a business plan as they still haven’t released them.
So an improvement? Yes. Completely fixed? Nope. Are people still going to complain? You bet. Will the usage graph be fixed? As of May 7th, it say it is on the site, but who knows if it’ll break again.
I just don’t think people will realize the impact this could potentially have on their bill. While the cap is much higher than before, with Summer coming and the kids being at home and discovering torrents and iTunes video and such, I just have a feeling there will be more outrage to come.
Full press release after the jump, feel free to comment below.
Update: FixBBB is all over it as well.
BendBroadband Doubling Internet Speeds and Increasing Bandwidth Usage Plans for Residential Customers to 100GB per Month
May 14, 2008 Bend, Ore. – In addition to previously-announced increases in Internet speeds and the introduction of usage-based tiers launching in July, BendBroadband has responded to customer feedback by expanding bandwidth usage allowances to 100GB per month for each level of residential Internet service. The company’s initial plan included monthly usage allowances that varied by level of service and that were set at 10GB, 30GB, 50GB and 100GB.
In March, BendBroadband noted that about 5% of the company’s high-speed Internet customers account for 50% of the data that is transferred though the cable system. The average BendBroadband Internet customer consumes less than 5GB per month. However, a small percentage of customers (about 0.5%) regularly use more than 100GB each month.
“Based on feedback from a small group of customers, we became concerned that there was a perception that the 10GB, 30GB and 50GB bandwidth levels would create confusion and inconvenience for average users,” commented Frank Miller, BendBroadband’s Chief Technology Officer. “That was never our intent. The key theme all along has been one of fairness; we believe it is fair that customers who use more bandwidth – which drives the capital investment to expand capacity — should pay more for that bandwidth.”
“Network architecture requires bandwidth capacity to be shared among neighbors and we design our system based on peak usage,” continued Miller. “So it’s important for consumers to be aware that extraordinarily high levels of usage do have an impact. With rapidly-expanding usage among a small percentage of customers, proactively maintaining adequate levels of capacity and optimum Internet speeds simply costs more money. We looked at our escalating infrastructure costs and evaluated our options. After careful consideration, we have elected to implement a usage plan with a generous bandwidth allowance designed to impact only those few customers using more than 100GB per month. This plan keeps prices the same for about 99% of our customers — and it is fair.”
Beginning in July, the few customers that exceed 100GB per month will be charged $1.50 for each additional GB.
As noted in March, BendBroadband will double download speeds for its two existing Internet packages and will offer a new Gold level of service with download speeds of 16Mbps. Classic service will be renamed Bronze and speeds will increase from 4Mbps to 8Mbps, Deluxe will be renamed Silver and speeds will increase to 12Mbps. Prices will not change for Classic/Bronze or Deluxe/Silver. The new Gold service will be priced at $54.95 a month when bundled with BendBroadband phone or digital cable. Silver and Gold service will include free virus protection software and all three packages will include access to my.bendbroadband.com, a new web portal offering access to news, sports, weather and entertainment.
BendBroadband Business Services will also soon launch three new Internet plans delivering increased speeds, enhanced features such as virus protection, expanded email storage and a new level of dedicated local business support. These upgrades will come at no additional cost to business customers. To protect the customer experience and to maintain prices, the first two tiers will include a monthly bandwidth allowance of 150GB with no bandwidth allowance for the top plan. Bandwidth allowances are set so that the typical high-speed Internet business customer (99.8% of all customers) will see no difference in their monthly charge.
For further information: Frank Miller, 541-388-5817 or [email protected]
About BendBroadband:
BendBroadband is a privately-owned, Oregon-based company serving Central Oregon since 1955. BendBroadband provides a full range of services including Video on Demand, digital video recorders, 100% digital cable, HD television, high-speed Internet, commercial and business telephone services, and an extensive fiber infrastructure. BendBroadband also delivers a variety of local sports and civic programming created and produced by COTV (channel 11 on BendBroadband’s channel lineup).
Comments
Spectacular news! BendBroadband just kept me as a customer! And for those of you who were thinking about switching to Qwest, you should know that they have a similar cap (albeit a soft cap) of about 100 GB before you’re asked to switch to a more expensive business account.
Kudos to Frank & the gang for listening to their customers. However, keep yer ears on, because I predict that this new cap will have to be revisited soon.
Going from 10GB Bronze to 100GB universal will surely save some customers, but now I’m even more suspicious of their motives to cap usage. They said merely a month ago that 100GB was abuse of their systems, and now it’s the norm? What exactly does that say about BBB’s knowledge of internet trends, or worse still, their business integrity and ethics?
BBB, if you really want to ease the minds of all of your customers but still cling to this archaic, AOL-style cap system, please increase it to at least 250GB, and plan on increasing it regularly because everyday Joe’s are going to start using 100GB very quickly.
Robin W. — Ditto.
I agree that Bendbroadband’s motives for creating caps in the first place have not been fully devulged. If I were to guess, I would say that BBB’s cable TV business unit was just upset that the rules of pay-per-view content are changing with the technology and their own broadband pipeline is helping to bring it about.
It’s a similar problem that occurred a while ago when Qwest started seeing customers dump their phone service and switch to VOIP. The problem was compounded by the fact that Qwest’s DSL service required phone service also, so customers were also dumping their DSL service for cable broadband. The technology was changing faster than Qwest could react, but eventually they did react and they changed their business model. Today, you can buy Qwest DSL service without a phone connection at a price competitive with cable, plus they’ve launched their own VOIP service.
Instead of trying to stifle creative content delivery, BBB should first applaud it and then try to be the best at providing access to it. Customers will show appreciation with their pocketbooks.
Howdy!
We’d like to thank our customers for their feedback. We remain committed to providing a best of breed high-speed Internet product. It is our belief that the cost associated with higher usage should be fairly distributed via the pricing model while protecting the product experience of the majority.
Residential
The new model with a 100GB allowance for all residential tiers, addresses the concerns expressed by customers using lower amounts of bandwidth.
We do want customers to be aware of their usage and this is why we will begin to include monthly usage on all billing statements beginning in July. Of course, for all but a few, this will be informational only.
With 98% of customers using less than 50GB per month, there is significant room to expand should usage grow over time and of course this is something we will closely monitor to protect innovation.
We will be moving forward with our July 1st launch of the new residential services as communicated in the press release.
As noted on our website, our vendor has addressed the issue that was discovered with the usage measurement software and we are completing additional testing to ensure that the usage meter is accurate. We want to assure our customers that the tool is being thoroughly certified for use before we actually bill anyone for usage over 100GB.
Business
We will continue to offer 3 levels of Business High-Speed Internet service, with higher speeds, additional features and no change in pricing from today. The bottom two tiers will provide an allowance of 150GB while the top tier will not come with a usage allowance.
All but a handful of business customers are covered within the 150GB allowance. As is true today, pricing varies based on bundling and length of term and is best addressed through discussion with a member of our Business Service sales team.
Take care,
Frank
Frank,
My usage is currently at 49GB. I’ve been grabbing demos/games off Steam, Xbox Live, etc and making my usual digital music purchases — but 49GB worth?
How are you guys going to prove that the tool is functional? Are we going to be able to see where our limited bandwidth is going, via domain or IP logs?
Furthermore, if someone contests a high bill, how exactly are you going to prove to your customer that they used x GB in a cycle? Cell phone companies show logs of all calls and all minutes used. Will you have anything like that to offer us?
Again I plea for 250gb minimum. I know for a fact I’ve never been that high and certainly at that point, at least for now and the next year or two, you could consider that high/abusive usage.
I’ve also been gaming online a bit more than usual. Gaming is my number one hobby, your company is threatening my lifestyle. How much bandwidth is 8 hours of Team Fortress 2?
We really need to see detailed usage stats in our bills, otherwise I guarantee you that someone will hit you with a lawsuit in the near future.
Robin,
Even though the IPDR tool passed QA from our vendor, we are in process of running extensive testing (we have RFC compiant testing strategies) to double (triple and maybe octuple) check before July.
IPDR records measure data flow over determined regular intervals of time. We are reviewing presentation of granular details (i.e. daily for current month) on our engineering project schedule.
100GB is the launch usage allowance for residential plans. But, as stated in prior chats, we will review the usage allowance against majority consumption behavior over time to ensure both innovation and fairness.
Frank
Thanks to BBB for upping their residential cap and eliminating tiers. I do express concern for business customers, however. I do not see that 150G is nearly enough for the basic tier of business usage.
I also agree with others here who have expressed wishes that the residential cap be raised to 250G. With faster u/l and d/l speeds, and users increasingly depending on the web for lifestyle fulfillment; I also believe that the 100G will become an unrealistic cap in the very near future.
Thanks for listening!
Porsche Racer,
150GB meets 99.8% of current business usage with the current top tier business product open.
For residential, we’ll review over time to ensure that we cover 99.5% of residential customers.
Frank
My usage just went DOWN from 49GB to 46.5GB. I don’t think your tool is fixed.
“Gaming is my number one hobby, your company is threatening my lifestyle.”
I don’t want to come across as defending Bend Broadband, but … excuse me? When did it become their obligation (or anybody’s) to subsidize your lifestyle? If my hobby was racing sports cars, would I be justified in complaining that Exxon is threatening my lifestyle by charging too much for gas?
BendBroadband is a cable monopoly in Central Oregon and, speaking simply in terms of speed, the best option for gaming. If the cap were to hamper my ability to play stuff online and download demos and extra content, the only option I have to maintain my level of activity is switch to DSL. DSL, however, in my area, maxes at 640k upstream — which should be sufficient, but still makes me worry.
Or I move out of Central Oregon and get service with a more level headed, open minded provider.
Third comment in a row, how awesome is that.
Let me re-phrase. A cap on bandwidth threatens to destroy the emerging digital lifestyle and those who have developed the tools to make it possible, and not just gaming. Digital distribution of music, movies, news, etc. are all at stake. Not only will the customers shrink back to the soon archaic methods of distribution (mail, retail stores, etc) but the companies that have devoted their lives to pushing these new technologies will never fully prosper into the next decade, or at very least, become little more than the niche it currently is.
At least, that’s what Central Oregon will be like. Not very appealing to people looking to move here or build up new businesses.
Robin,
I think we will have to agree to disagree.
A usage allowance that coveres 99.5% of current residential customers does not effect the digital lifestyle as defined with current majority usage patterns.
We will continue to monitor usage within our cable system and developments within the high speed Internet marketplace over time. It’s a dynamic situation and business models will no doubt need to adapt to changing conditions. In addition to a strong customer satisfaction focus, one of our core strengths is flexibility and the ability to react quickly.
Same paradigm for business in which the usage allowance for the entry tiers cover 99.8% of the current customers and the top tier is open.
Take care,
Frank
I’ll just add briefly to what Frank said.
Some folks are attempting to predict the future and derive firm assumptions about the future based on BendBroadband’s current model and based on current customer behavior. This is simply not valid – things will change and we all agree with that and the model will develop over time. So our focus is on the pricing/usage model we are launching now and how this impacts today’s situation – not what might happen in 2009-2010 and beyond – we will respond accordingly over time. Anyone that works at BendBroadband, or knows how we truly operate is aware that this is a forward thinking, leading edge company that cares deeply about the customer experience. Also we are not a monopoly and do not operate like a monopoly. The evidence of that is blatantly obvious.
I’m not arguing with the numbers, I do believe that 99.5 percent probably won’t be affected, but of those people how many are actually utilizing their broadband connections for what the technology was created for? How many are just using it to send email, read news sites and change stuff on their Netflix queue, as opposed to people who use it for digital distribution and streaming media? I’ve never heard anybody complain of slow speeds in my neighborhood or anywhere else. I still question the reasoning for these changes when it would appear that every single one of your customers were happy prior to this switch.
Actually I am arguing with the numbers — as has been stated by others — once school is out and kids are home full time usage is going to double if not triple for more families. Exactly how many customers will leave the 99.5 percentile and join the .5%? Frankly I find that number to be unrealistic. Exactly how many ppl are we talking about in hard numbers AND why is BBB seeking to limit future growth by stifling bandwidth consumption?
It makes me wonder what content providers are going to be willing to do to combat these unrealistic caps. Will the price of content come down to offset the increased charge for bandwidth? I really don’t see it happening.
Heads up Frank — the internet continues to grow and companies that seek to profiteer from it are going to be left in the same place as the realators are now. False inflation always crashes hard — hard enough to permanently damage businesses both in income and reputation. BBB doesn’t have the best rep now. Your power to retain customers comes from being the only game in town — that doesn’t mean we won’t find other options.
I ask again and hope finally to hear — is BBB’s goal to get rid of .5% — and will the tier system disappear as a result or will the hard numbers finally be released?
I’ve watched my ‘bandwidth consumption’ on the web and it’s nearly doubled every month — but nothing has changed in my household. The number of computers is the same. The times when the net is being used is the same, the content is the same.
The meter puts me in the .5% how nifty is that? From the lowest tier in to the highest in 3 months.
Hard data numbers to support your theory would be good. I’m still jumping ship though. I don’t trust BBB to be honest or fair.
Cuppa,
At our FAQ as we cover common drivers for high bandwidth consumption http://www.bendbroadband.com/residentialservices_08.cfm. I also suggest contacting customer support as we are local and there for you.
The usage allowance ensures that we are properly structured to cover the experience of the majority of our customers while promoting fairness.
As stated in a prior positng:
We will continue to monitor usage within our cable system and developments within the high speed Internet marketplace over time. It’s a dynamic situation and business models will no doubt need to adapt to changing conditions. In addition to a strong customer satisfaction focus, one of our core strengths is flexibility and the ability to react quickly.
This is not an attempt to ‘profitteer’ as we adjusted our HSI plan and moved to a single reasonable bandwidth allowance set at not effecting 99.5% of our customers.
Take care,
Frank
“Not only will the customers shrink back to the soon archaic methods of distribution …”
No, that won’t happen. Even if you have to pay the cable company a few bucks extra a month to download videos, it still will be cheaper — and more convenient — than going to Hollywood or Blockbuster and renting them.
“once school is out and kids are home full time usage is going to double if not triple for more families.”
The kids should be outside playing in the fresh air instead of parking their asses in front of computers all day and turning into obese, pimply slobs. If the caps encourage that, they wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
dartagnan:
Would you assume that I am an overweight, pimply slob if I told you that I was a web developer and a gamer? How about if I then told you that I’m also a skier and biker? Just because people use the internet more than others doesn’t mean they’re going to be fatass stereotypes that your kind would love to perpetuate.
I am trying to imagine the redgopher as an obese and chubby gopher.
🙂 Hey Nathan
Does anybody else remember when BBB was only concerned with the 92% of customers that would not be effected by this change? Now it’s 99.5% of customers. I guess either the squeaky wheels got to be too much to handle, or some math whiz at BBB figured out exactly how many hundreds/thousands of customers are included in 8%.
UndeadBeav,
Actually it was simple … a move to 100GB across residential would have the least amount of impact to the majority of customers while still maintaining the concept of fariness.
Take care!
Frank
I have to say that Frank and BBB have heard (listened?) and taken action in response to concerns from the community. This is to be commended, they could have just ignored everything like most large businesses but they chose to respond, and respond in the right direction. That said, it seems that BBB as a large corporation wants to be seen as a innovative, progressive company from the perspective of the cable industry, NOT from their customers point of view. I know that I occasionally hit over 100G a month now and will probably do so regularly as my entertainment comes more and more over the internet. BBB’s changes held me off from changing temporarily but I can’t see a reason to stay given the alternatives.
BBB may be a monopoly for cable service to the home here on Central Oregon but not for Internet service.
Frank, easy fix here. Do the same with residential that you are doing with Business. Have the Gold unlimited. The people who use more will pay more a month. I think you will also find that a majority of them won’t even use more than 100gb a month, but are willing to pay for the piece of mind. Give them the option.
Y’know, after the new 100GB caps, I was going to stick with BBB for the greater upload speeds just to be safe for gaming purposes.
I was disconnected from six different servers last night in Team Fortress 2 and Day of Defeat Source, not to mention the lackluster browsing performance I’ve been experiencing, and just plain high latency in general. I’m calling for DSL installation next week.
How does BendBroadband expect to retain customers when they both cap usage and decrease in connection quality?
PROTEST: June 7th, 12:00 PM — Entrance to BendBroadband on Empire Ave.
Please come and make your voice heard.
Free hat!
(the hat part was a joke.)
It’s free fishing weekend … got to have priorities.
Sorry Robin, but I got what I wanted: faster broadband with a reasonable cap (for now). Plus, I’m still paying grandfathered-in Lite rates until July 2009, so I have exactly zero incentive to join you in your sure-to-be-low-turnout protest.
I agree with FishOn. Let’s all lighten up and go fishing!
I’m with Robin on this. Try having a teenager in the house watching Netflix in HD. No excessive use, but raked up 150GB last month. WTF?