Cable rates are going up all over the country, in some cases up to 8% percent. Cable rates have gone up 93 percent in the last 10 years. Meanwhile, general inflation is no where near that. There is a 600 percent mark-up on cable costs, which is outrageous. The companies claim they have pushed through this increase because of programming costs. But really ESPN is the only expensive program they carry. It’s really happening because they have no competition. The interesting side note is that cable companies have not increased Internet costs much at all over the years. That’s because there are other companies competing for your business. So is there a silver lining in the television business? Yes! Telephone companies are getting into the TV business and it has the cable companies quaking. Once that happens, the massive increases will stop.