I knew that cable modem fees were a ripoff. I didn't know how bad it was until I bought a replacement.
They're charging me $7 each month, for an outdated modem that sells for $15 new.
Over the course of 1 year, that's a 560% markup!
WOW! is charging me $7 each month for a telephony cable modem.
This is a non-negotiable stance with WOW.
If you use their VOIP phone service, you MUST rent their cable modem.
The reason, of course, is that it's a profit driver.
If you can buy a modem for $15, and make $70 profit in year 1, and then $84 profit in all future years... multiplied by the number of customers nationwide.... that's serious money.
If you have 100,000 customers, your "no customer-owned modems" stance is a license to print an extra $7 million in profit each year.
To add insult to injury.... this modem isn't even the current generation - it's a DOCSIS 2.0 modem.
(DOCSIS 3.0 was released in August of 2006, and DOCSIS 3.1 was released in October 2013.)
For renting out 10 year old modems.
In those 10 years, each modem has generated as much as $700 in profit for WOW.
Just to see what happens, I picked up *exactly* the same model of modem that WOW is currently renting to me.
It's an ARRIS TM602G. It cost me $15.
I'm positive that WOW won't let me use it - but just in case, we'll give it a shot.
The more I think about it... it's time to ditch this "modem rental" model.
We're moving to Ooma for our home phone, buying a DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and boosting our home internet to 50 Mbps.
Then, I suppose, I'll sell the TM602G. Think I can get $15 for it?
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