It always amazes me how far many Internet engineers, peering coordinators and other buyers will go to haggle every last nickel on the costs of circuits, crowd connects, space and power. Of course, everyone wants a fair deal and a fair price, myself included. But all this infrastructure costs real money to operate.
HE is nearly always the least cost transit provider in the markets they serve. I think that making a lower profit margin makes it difficult for them to justify investing in the staff time and tooling for BGP communities when the vast majority of their customers don’t care about it at all.
$200/month extra for BGP community support in the context of what the large “tier 1s” are charging for transit seems reasonable to me. If you need it, you actually need it and should pay. And based on my past experience, the HE NOC response and personal attention will be superior to nearly anyone else.
Also seems a better value for money than the absurd cross connect pricing found almost everywhere, unless you meet in the street.