I am new to these forums, but I had a question I was hoping t'all might help me answer.

I have been having a lot of trouble with Suddenlink in the last 5 months, I haven't paid the same thing two months in a row since October, and I was wondering if y'all knew why they had a monopoly here.

I have been doing some research online but haven't been able to find anything and was hoping y'all could help me out. I am just looking for options at this point.

The basic answer is because the cities grant them that monopoly.

As far back as I can remember, there has always been just 1 cable company. Verizon DSL used to be the alternative to cable internet, but that was back when cable speeds were not much better.

The only other options now would be satellite internet.

Both cities have a right away agreement in place with Suddenlink. This isn't exclusive to them just a framework for how their infrastructure will be installed adjacent to the city's infrastructure. They would be more than willing to grant the same to another provider and in some communities have done so. They have even leased their "dark" fiber to other providers.

It is not a monopoly caused by either city. It is cased by the massive costs to deploy infrastructure especially when you have an existing provider in place. With 5G looming and the demands of customers for low costs for internet service, you just aren't going to see another provider come into the market place.

That all being said, Suddenlink has the worst customer service of any provider. They sub all their installs. Their in house reps and technicians are incompetent.

dallasiteinsa02 said:

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It is not a monopoly caused by either city. It is cased by the massive costs to deploy infrastructure especially when you have an existing provider in place. With 5G looming and the demands of customers for low costs for internet service, you just aren't going to see another provider come into the market place.

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That is what I was afraid of. I know the demand would be high for another option, but I also recognize that might not make it profitable.

I definitely agree with your last piece. I feel like it has been getting worse over time.

dallasiteinsa02 said:

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Both cities have a right away agreement in place with Suddenlink. This isn't exclusive to them just a framework for how their infrastructure will be installed adjacent to the city's infrastructure. They would be more than willing to grant the same to another provider and in some communities have done so. They have even leased their "dark" fiber to other providers.

It is not a monopoly caused by either city. It is cased by the massive costs to deploy infrastructure especially when you have an existing provider in place. With 5G looming and the demands of customers for low costs for internet service, you just aren't going to see another provider come into the market place.

That all being said, Suddenlink has the worst customer service of any provider. They sub all their installs. Their in house reps and technicians are incompetent.

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There is nothing, in any form, "right away" about Suddenlink.

Rexter said:

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There is nothing, in any form, "right away" about Suddenlink.

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Random price increases? They're pretty responsive on that front.

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dallasiteinsa02 said:

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It is not a monopoly caused by either city. It is cased by the massive costs to deploy infrastructure especially when you have an existing provider in place. With 5G looming and the demands of customers for low costs for internet service, you just aren't going to see another provider come into the market place.

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benyoda95 said:

That is what I was afraid of. I know the demand would be high for another option, but I also recognize that might not make it profitable.

I definitely agree with your last piece. I feel like it has been getting worse over time.

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Here's a quick write up I did on what it would actually be to get an ISP in place, and why it won't happen here, probably ever.

https://texags.com/forums/35/topics/2959854/replies/53393107

Seems like BCS is a perfect environment for 5G. As a provider you could make a whole of people happy real fast.

Let me give you some perspective.

Hearne residents were/are paying ATT about $100/month for phone + DSL that is "up to 15mbps" but in reality is closer to 3-5mbps.

We rolled fiber into Hearne since there wasn't a cable operator like Suddenlink offering fast internet.

We offer 1gig for $99, 100mbps + phone for $85 or 10mbps + phone for $50.
We have a dismal take rate. People like to complain about the incumbent but when a viable alternative shows up, they will stick with the sucky incumbent.

Now, compare that to areas serviced by Suddenlink where they are offering hundreds of mbps for less than $100/mo. It's hard to pry people away from that until they get angry. To convert the angry customer, you have to be ready to switch them over immediately when they call. This means building out the entire town ahead of time to the tune of about $50 million.

I don't have that kind of cash laying around and banks are very concerned about loans for this type of thing after google backing out of projects. If google can't make it, the margins are thin.

Just curious. I know nothing about the logistics of running a cable provider company . But would coming in as a competitor to Suddenlink/Altice but a good move for a company? Would the investment be worth it? Would that company make money? Especially with streaming getting so popular now?

Interested in some board perspective on the business viability of a Suddenlink competitor.

Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:

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Just curious. I know nothing about the logistics of running a cable provider company . But would coming in as a competitor to Suddenlink/Altice but a good move for a company? Would the investment be worth it? Would that company make money? Especially with streaming getting so popular now?

Interested in some board perspective on the business viability of a Suddenlink competitor.

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My estimate for the main part of CS was about $50M. That's a bunch of cash to compete with someone (Suddenlink) who has already paid for all their infrastructure and could drop their price to next to nothing to squeeze the new guy out of the market.

Has any existing 1 gig internet customer gotten Suddenlink to switch your service to the $70 price for life they're advertising right now?

When I signed up 2 summers ago, I paid $100 for 1 gig internet. Currently paying $141 for the same service. Just curious.

I have had extremely rare problems with SL internet. I have a home office and need 10 up and willing to pay for the "gig" down

My only beech is their very obvious indifference to customer service

Its not likely to improve either

As one of your Hearne customers you're being too kind. AT&T sucked , and dsl at best was 6mbs for residential.

During a storm my dsl got soaked at the connection and AT&T refused to repair the connection. I hot spotted for a year and it was a struggle.

Brazos Wi-Fi came in and I couldn't jump on board fast enough. I would have left AT&T even if they were still in Hearne..

I'm in CS now and anxiously await your build out for the area because I will drop current provider for your internet in a heart beat simply for the service I had.

I tell you this much if say AT&T Uverse/Version Fios/Frontier Fios were available in the area, Suddenlink would be out of business. Suddenlink is an awful company.

BrandoC said:

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I tell you this much if say AT&T Uverse/Version Fios/Frontier Fios were available in the area, Suddenlink would be out of business. Suddenlink is an awful company.

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I don't know about them going out of business here, but they'd be severely hurt because a lot of people would jump ship even if they lowered their prices.

So where is your coverage? Your website is down.

We are with Frontier and they are no better. I have been going round and round with them the past two weeks because we keep having outages and now, we can't even get the internet light to light up on the modem.

Earliest they can get a tech here is Monday, which means we are without internet from them during that times.

Fortunately my AT&T personal hotspot is getting me through, but makes it tough when you are trying to work from home.

We are trying to find another provider, but not really wanting to go with Suddenlink, so unfortunately not sure what we are going to do.

We first lived here during the summer of 1970 for school. At that time there were two cable companies. Service was very basic, and I think you got something like ten channels. At that time you could get the Houston stations here. They gave good customer service because each one knew it wasn't the only game in town. By the way, that year TAMU had an enrollment of 14,200. It's gotten a little bigger since then.

So are there really no options for Internet in Bryan other than Suddenlink? I can't exactly put a tower up in my neighborhood.

BCStalk said:

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So where is your coverage? Your website is down.

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Well. That's embarrassing!

It's back up now.

Your coverage map stops one street over from mine.