Jackson Heights Life

Maybe it’s just inflation.

It's important to point out that this is not at all an inflation driven process. If anything, the prices should be going down, just like the price of any other technology product has moved down in the last decade. For example, I remember paying as much as $2/min calling to Europe - now I pay 1 to 10 cents a min (no special plan required)!

This is very much a company driven effort to increase revenues by moving existing TW customers to Spectrum branded plans that in many cases cost significantly more: https://www.syracuse.com/news/2017/05/thousands_of_time_warner_cable_video_customers_flee_spectrums_higher_prices.html
 
For the last 4 years I've been pushing back on the various attempts from Spectrum to increase my plan. At this point however, Spectrum is no longer willing to do so and has outright refused to extend my "grandfathered" plan any more. Why now? Because at this point they have managed to force a critical mass of TW customers to Spectrum branded plans and are no longer afraid of losing too many customers: https://www.syracuse.com/business/2020/04/spectrum-raising-prices-for-legacy-time-warner-cable-plans.html

Again, this is entirely profit driven and has nothing to do with inflation, equipment costs, and so on. The "grandfathered" plans are nothing more than a business gimmick trying to mask price hikes. Otherwise, they will be a subject of FCC oversight as they cant just charge significantly more (20%, 30%) for the same exact service.

Ultimately, the root problem in this case is that Spectrum is the only broadband provider on my street. Verizon is nearby, but not yet available for me. As part of the NYC effort to break the ISP monopoly, Verizon was contractually required to provide coverage in the entire city, but failed to do so: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2018/04/nyc-blasts-broadband-competition-shortage-as-it-pursues-suit-against-verizon.

Cheers!