B4| Thursday, August 22, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.
TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech
faster internet speed,” Mr.
Goldsack reasoned. He said he
didn’t notice any difference in
his internet performance with
the new speed.
It is getting harder for cus-
tomers to find cheaper, lower-
tier speed plans. Gerald McAl-
ister, a Charter customer who
lives in central Massachusetts,
says he used to pay about $45
for 30 Mbps download speeds
about six years ago. Charter
recently boosted his speed to
100 Mbps free of charge. But
when his promotional rate ex-
pires, his bill will rise to
$65.99 a month.
“I don’t do anything that
really requires more than 25
[Mbps]” Mr. McAlister said,
adding that he would like to
pay less for a slower speed,
but Charter doesn’t offer such
an option in his area.Charter, which operates the
Spectrum brand, has increased
its entry-level internet down-
load speeds, according to se-
curities filings. The entry level
is now 100 Mbps in many mar-
kets, even 200 Mbps in some
areas.
Television typically gener-
ates the most revenue for ca-
ble companies, but as more
consumers cut TV cords, inter-
net service is growing faster
and is on track to become the
top source of revenue. It also
generates higher profit mar-
gins than TV.
Revenue from Comcast’s
video service, for example, has
been flat since 2016. It was
about $22.5 billion for its lat-
est fiscal year, while residen-
tial internet revenue rose 19%
to $17.1 billion. Over that same
period, AT&T’s video revenue
fell 7%, while its internet reve-
nue rose 6%.
“It’s a 100% profit if you
can upsell people to a higher
speed tier,” said Sascha Mein-
rath, a professor of telecom-
munications at Pennsylvania
State University. “It’s a huge
moneymaker.”
Pricing for broadband ser-
vice varies. But in general,
customers are paying more.
Average monthly spending on
internet bills in the U.S. was
$66.24 last year, up 64% from
2010, according to annual sur-
veys by industry tracker Le-
ichtman Research Group.
Some 59% of U.S. broadband
subscribers don’t know what
internet speed they are paying
for, according to Leichtman.
—Shalini Ramachandran
contributed to this article.America. You put in your
banking credentials, and
their system tries those cre-
dentials on the Bank of
America website.”
Verizon says it’s shifting
more attention to spam
texts. And the Federal Com-
munications Commission
closed a loophole, allowing it
to pursue enforcement
against text scammers. Last
year, it rejected a request
that would have limited car-
riers’ ability to block such
texts. Meanwhile, there isn’t
one button to press to stop
spam robotexts. We’re in
partial-solutions territory.Here’s what you should do
if hit by shady robotexts:Don’t Click Anything
Robotexts often include a
link in the body of the mes-
sage. (“You’ve won, clickPERSONAL TECHNOLOGY|By Katherine Bindley
Prepare for Robocall’s Evil Twin: Robotext
The first
text came
through
shortly before
7 a.m. Then
another 15
minutes later. And at around
11:30 a.m. And at 12:10 p.m.
In a mere 30 hours, I’d quali-
fied for a credit consultation,
won some kind of contest
and was alerted to the exis-
tence of a three-bedroom
apartment I could own for
$429 a month. I was being
attacked by robotexts.
Some were sent from le-
gitimate-looking numbers
and mentioned household
names, like Amazon and
Walmart. Other messages
could pass for someone
merely texting the wrong
person. (“This is the info I
was telling you about last
week.”) What most had in
common were creepy-looking
links, encouraging me to, for
instance, track delivery of
my “AMX” gift card.
Robotexts are similar to
robocalls in that spammers
use them to trick you into
sharing your personal infor-
mation. I wanted to find out
whether I was an anomaly or
whether we should be brac-
ing for an epidemic of un-
wanted texts like we’ve seen
with robocalls.
Last year, consumers filed
93,331 complaints about un-
wanted text messages to the
Federal Trade Commission,
up from 71,776 the prior
year. T-Mobile says that it
blocked a record number of
spam texts in July—an aver-
age of 1 million a day—and
that it has seen a 20% aver-
age increase month-over-
month in the number of
blocked texts in 2019. Veri-
zon says that, along with its
SMS partners, it has been
blocking almost 500 million
spam messages a month this
year, double the volume from
last year.
At just under 3%, spam
textsarestillaverylowper-
centage of total SMS mes-
sages exchanged, according
to the CTIA, the wireless in-
dustry’s trade association. It
also says because voice and
messaging platforms are reg-
ulated differently, carriers
canbemoreaggressivein
targeting unwanted texts.
But text is also a highly
attractive medium for bad
actors. We’re texting more
than ever these days, and
businesses are contacting
their customers through
text, to confirm appoint-
ments or send flight-status
information. And unlike
phone calls, texts can con-
tain links.
“The danger with spam
messages is a lot of them are
phishing scams,” says Ethan
Garr, a senior vice president
at Teltech, a subsidiary of
IAC, which developed the
call-blocking app RoboKiller.
“It looks like it’s Bank ofunwittingly.
“They’ll say, OK, we will do
a free speed upgrade, and then
12 months later they’ll say
that speed upgrade was at a
promotional price and now
you are in the upgraded
speed-tier price,” he said.
Nearly 61% of U.S. house-
holds had speed packages of at
least 100 megabits per second
as of December 2018, accord-
ing to research firm Kagan.
Providers are pushing even
faster speeds like 150 or 250
Mbps, or 1-gigabit (1000
megabit per second) connec-
tions for power users.
But typical households that
stream services like Netflix or
YouTube use only a fraction of
the bandwidth they are paying
for, according to a study by
The Wall Street Journal and
researchers at Princeton Uni-
versity and the University of
Chicago. For such households,
the benefits of a speed above
the 100 Mbps range are mar-
ginal, the researchers found.
Speeds of 100 Mbps aren’t
available everywhere. Many
Americans in rural areas don’t
even have access to 25 Mbps
connections, according to data
from the Federal Communica-
tions Commission and Micro-
soft Corp.—which is one rea-
son Democratic presidential
candidate Elizabeth Warren is
calling for an $85 billion in-
vestment in public broadband.
Comcast internet customer
Brian Goldsack, a Scranton,
Pa., resident, said he and his
wife switched from Verizon
Fios to Comcast in 2017, sign-
ing up with a promotional of-
fer. A year later, the promo-
tion ran out and the price
rose.
Mr. Goldsack called to ne-
gotiate a better deal and was
told he could upgrade to a
higher speed, 250 Mbps, for a
new promotional discount.
Though that price was higher
than what he was paying ear-
lier, it seemed like a better re-
turn for his money.
“If I’m going to pay more
money, I might as well get aContinued from page B1Faster
Internet
Swells Bills
here!”) Do not click! These
links could lead to malware
that can infect your phone.
Even more likely, it’s a ploy
to get you to share sensitive
personal information.Don’t Reply
Several of the spam mes-
sages said I could opt out by
replying “STOP,” which
seemed like a reasonable
thing to do. You can type
STOP if the robotexter in
question is a known busi-
ness, and you just want them
to leave you alone.
But much like phone
scammers, text scammers
are looking to engage with
you and this can be a trap.
Replying can confirm your
number is in service—that is
valuable to scammers, who
might sell your digits to oth-
ers, driving up the volume of
texts and calls.Forward the Message
The FCC recommends you
copy spam messages and
text them to the number
7726 (SPAM). That will alert
your carrier that you’ve re-
ceived an unwanted text and
help it recognize and block
spam. Of course, while
you’re copying the message,
don’t accidentally click any
links!Block the Number
When in doubt, use your
phone’s block function in-
stead of typing STOP. Block-
ing individual numbers can
still be like Whac-A-Mole,
though, since robotexts often
come from a rotating cast of
characters.
To do this on an iPhone,
tap on the message and then
on the number at the top of
the screen. Tap the “i” but-
ton for info, then tap thenumber. Then scroll down to
where it says “Block this
caller.”
On Android, you can both
report spam and block mes-
sages from senders.Consider a Call-Blocking
App
Many call-blocking apps
have features to flag spam
texts as well. Nomorobo,
which costs $1.99 a month,
has done a solid job of flag-
ging robocalls so I know not
to answer them. The spam
filter for text messages is
separate—something I hadn’t
enabled—and while it will
mark a message as “SMS
junk,” it won’t stop them
from reaching your inbox.
Know that if you enable
this, it allows the app to see
the content of your texts and
the information of senders
outside of your contacts.
This might include verifica-
tion codes and other infor-
mation from banks and other
services. Nomorobo says it
can view the sender’s phone
number and the message’s
content but doesn’t know
which user got the message.
“We prefer it that way,”
says Aaron Foss, the app’s
founder. “There’s a lot of
sensitive information there. I
don’t know if I’d feel com-
fortable tying it back.”
RoboKiller has a similar
feature. Blocked messages
aren’t associated with a user,
says Mr. Garr. “The messages
are never shared with any
external parties, and there is
no human intervention or re-
view of these messages.”A Word About Political
Texts
As we approach another
election, the volume of polit-
ical texts you receive might
increase. Political campaigns
are allowed to send you
texts, so long as they have
your express consent and
aren’t relying on an auto-di-
aler. If you don’t want them,
go ahead and reply STOP.Robotexts are similar to robocalls in that spammers use them to engage with you and trick you into sharing personal information.MIKE SEGAR/REUTERSSpeeding Ahead
InternetserviceisdrivinggrowthintheU.S.cableindustry.Subscribers Quarterly revenueSource: MoffettNathansonCableTV Residentialbroadband7502550million2015 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19$3001020billion2015 ’16 ’17 ’18 ’19Premium Prices
Averagespendingonhome
internetamongU.S.
householdswithinternet
serviceSource: Leichtman Research Group$7502550a month2010 ’12 ’14 ’16 ’18It’s a crime.
Most Americans living today
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Lady Liberty takes a Final Bow
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