Comcast promised not to raise prices—guess what happened next

Comcast offered customers in Utah a "lifetime" price guarantee in order to compete against Google Fiber, then later violated the lifetime promise by raising those customers' prices, according to a lawsuit pending in a federal court. "In 2016, Comcast was under intense competitive pressure from Google's high speed fiber-optic data service," the lawsuit says. In Salt Lake City, "Comcast engaged extra sales staff to try to effectively beat the Google Fiber sales staff as they made their way up and down the streets of each neighborhood. To compete, Comcast sales staff began to offer 'lifetime' contracts to some of its customers and sold Comcast's broadband services by using door to door salespeople, especially in cities and neighborhoods where Google was aggressively offering its fiber-optic service." The lawsuit claims that "as many as 20% of Comcast's over 200,000 contracts in Utah may be 'lifetime' contracts." But some customers have had their bill unilaterally increased as much as $50 per month over the specified 'lifetime' rate.