{"id":3404,"date":"2013-05-21T13:07:01","date_gmt":"2013-05-21T18:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/?p=3404"},"modified":"2013-05-21T13:07:01","modified_gmt":"2013-05-21T18:07:01","slug":"mediacom-costs-up-by-one-sixth-in-two-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/05\/mediacom-costs-up-by-one-sixth-in-two-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Mediacom costs up by one-sixth in two years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have the next-to-barest-bones package from Mediacom: Expanded basic cable and Internet access. I&#8217;ve never changed that. I&#8217;ve never even replaced my TV. All that I&#8217;ve gained with the &#8220;digital conversion&#8221; of cable TV are the digital network subchannels and a Fox Sports regional that occasionally shows different games but came at the expense of ESPN Classic.<\/p>\n<p>Since my May 2011 bill, here&#8217;s what Mediacom has done:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"line-height: 16px;\"><strong>June 2011:<\/strong> Implemented a $5 &#8220;monthly modem rental charge&#8221; while dropping the Internet rate by $2<\/span><\/li>\n<li><strong>December 2011:<\/strong> Raised Broadcast Basic (barest-bones cable) $2 and Family Cable (expanded basic) $1 while removing $1 paperless-bill credit<\/li>\n<li><strong>September 2012:<\/strong> Raised Family Cable $2 again and Internet $4, plus a separate 30-cent state sales tax line that still exists. The bill said &#8220;we have corrected our sales tax calculations following a recent system audit.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><strong>January 2013:<\/strong> Implemented $1 monthly cost for digital converter<\/li>\n<li><strong>May 2013:<\/strong> Added a &#8220;Local Broadcast Station Surcharge&#8221; of $2.61 and raised Family Cable $2 yet again. <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.desmoinesregister.com\/dmr\/index.php\/2013\/05\/20\/mediacom-rate-hike-blamed-on-local-tv-stations\/article\">Yep, I&#8217;m now being charged to get network TV.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Based on my May 2011 bill, that is a total increase of $18.91. Add increases in the sales tax and franchise fee, and I&#8217;m paying $20 more, or 16.67%.<\/p>\n<p>Have I looked into discontinuing part of what I have? Yes. However, the net savings for not having expanded-basic for five months is under $200, not enough to justify it. I have to have my Internet access. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>There are multiple parties responsible for this situation (including myself, since I pay for it). But when Friday prime-time across four networks includes five hours of reality television, and the History Channel is 90% Pawn Pickin&#8217; Alien Swamp Stars, I wonder if I&#8217;m really getting my money&#8217;s worth.<\/p>\n<p>On the brighter side, it&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/espn.go.com\/college-football\/story\/_\/id\/9296795\/100-numbers-know-2013-college-football-season\">100 days to football season.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have the next-to-barest-bones package from Mediacom: Expanded basic cable and Internet access. I&#8217;ve never changed that. I&#8217;ve never even replaced my TV. All that I&#8217;ve gained with the &#8220;digital conversion&#8221; of cable TV are the digital network subchannels and &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/2013\/05\/mediacom-costs-up-by-one-sixth-in-two-years\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3404"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3407,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3404\/revisions\/3407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iowahighwayends.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}