ATSC Nostalgia

Got a cable tv and an internet connection done today evening for our apartment. What the agent was saying would take 3-days and StarHub saying 6 days to get activated (and more money), we finished in 3 hours. Simply by going to the outlet personally, breaking our heads on what plans are the most economical, paying cash and taking hardware delivery.

Which brings me to Star Hub. Who ever knew choice could be such a big problem. Man, picking what plans to subscribe to today was one heckova pain!!

There are 3 basic services - mobile phone, Cable TV, internet broadband. A home landline service is also offered. Just for kicks!

And, as my ATSC lessons remind me, in a market dominated by few big players, tacit collusion tends to be the equilibrium state - whether Nash or Pareto - which moves the competition more towards the monopoly end of the scale.

So, bundling rules the roost and causes mayhem. Project details as under:

Data: We are existing StarHub mobile customers. That makes you eligible for discounts.

Constraints: Option of taking internet connection only for 6 months i.e. no lock-in period.

Objective: Optimize costs, get cable tv and internet service.

The variables governing choice of service are:
- Length of contract (lock-in)
- Monthly costs, Hardware and other initial costs
- Discounts and offers.

We had the following choices to pick from:

Plain vanilla contracts – No bundling, no fun, no cheap. So, no in feasibility list.

Bundled pack - Cable tv, internet, home line connection. Contract period - 1 year for all 3.
Discount of S$88 annually, hardware purchase costs waived off (which are artificially hiked in the first place). As you take all 3 basic services, you get an additional 15%, 10%, 5% off on mobile, cable, internet monthly bills for the first year. Throw in a home line with unlimited free local outgoing calls :D.

A corporate connection - You cannot bundle the three services now. Individual contracts for all three, pay only for 8 months of Cable TV in a year, internet connection no discounts, no hardware costs waived.

So, you can imagine how hard our already strained intellectual resources had to stretch to assimilate all the possible discount options and evaluate what was the objective meeting, constraint satisfying option (man, with so much jargon, I am beginning to sound like a consultant).
We tried all sorts of permutations and combinations, calculated total costs, tried the opportunity cost model, asked a zillion things and somehow eventually figured that a corporate connection for cable tv and a plain vanilla internet connection would work best for us. We were poring over this conundrum for over 1.5 hrs.

The girl who was attending to us was incredibly patient. Though I am sure by the end of it all, she was at her patience’s, sales skills’ and wits’ ends. We had toggled so many times, asked soooooooo many questions, pheuff!!

Good thing that we had already decided our TV channel mix beforehand. Else, that would have been another 45 mins smoked.

So, all-in-all life is now beginning to look up. We moved into this apartment on Monday night. Its huge…10th floor, nice breeze, lazing view!!

We have a net connection at home now – which is élan vital for all of us. Connected back to the world (literally and of course to the special people in India :P). The computer and messengers are like taking the proportion of food and water in life!!