Been meaning to post this for a while...but i was wondering if anyone else feels like COmcast might be the next big corporation to implode: ridiculous commercials (though my 4 year old seems fascinated by them) Poor service (multiple outages) Rising prices (such as on demand movies; costing now $4.99 and up; Redbox is only $1, and seems to have as good a selection) Unneeed monopoly (in CHicago, CLTV, a 24/[really 13 3/4 hour] Chicago area news channel can ONLY be seen on COmcast) Lackluster On Deman COntent semi-randomly assigned channel numbers (HD channels kinda plopped in between ~ 171 and ~330; groupings that get interrupte by an unrelated channel) Overcharge for HD package Anyone want to the list? Or am i just disgruntled?
Er, all those things point to Comcast actually doing very well. If they can provide shitty service while making you pay through the nose, business is good. I hate Comcast, but they seem to be doing just fine.
Yes, Comcast is god-awful. However, I believe in at least some cities they have established themselves as the only cable provider by greasing the wheels at city hall. I know Tallahassee, FL (state capital) gave Comcast a legal monopoly on cable coverage in the city. Which I think should be illegal.
Again, can't believe this stuff is legal. But this is what happens when corporations have the same rights as individuals.
No, this is what happens when you give cable companies a loophole telecoms don't have. At this point, there is very little functional difference between what Comcast does and what AT&T does. The difference is, AT&T is regulated so they must open their lines up to competitors. Cable companies are allowed to have local monopolies and are not required to share their lines whatsoever. Telecom regulation needs to become medium-agnostic. Be it fiber, coax, over the air, or copper, and whether you're primarily pushing data to customers or customers are dialing out, they should all be subject to the same anti-monopoly rules.
But that's the thing. U-Verse would not be using Comcast's equipment. I'm not saying AT & T are angels but I'm sure my cable bill would go down if there was competition.
Is AT&T not available in your area? Because, as you alluded, DSL runs off of the phone lines, and the TV comes down via satellite, so Comcast's equipment is not involved. It is competition, but it could be arguable whether it's an "apples to apples" comparison, since the technologies involved are different and their perceived differently.
Yeah I got DSL but Comcast has blocked AT & T from giving us U-verse. This is in court right know IIRC
Cancel or downgrade your service if they really piss you off that much. The only way to make them take note is to affect their bottom line. All the bitching in the world means exactly nothing. I did so after getting fed up with their cable TV prices increasing literally every 4-6 months with absolutely no enhancements that mattered to me. I dropped down to high-speed internet only with them and I've been just fine with OTA HD TV signals for my TV fix.
If Comcast is going to implode, I really, really hope it happens before the company acquires Mediacom (which is a rumor I hear more and more often). Mediacom is bad, but I'll take that over the cesspool of suck that is Comcast.
I was actually going to try the old "I'll switch to the D*sh network" to see if they'll go down in price.
My job has dish network. When it rains, we lose reception. Plus we don't get local sports teams. To be honest, as long as comcast dominates sports broadcasts, it'll do fine no matter how much it sucks.
Well, as an occasional Comcast customer, I wouldn't mind it if they imploded. Their cable service sucks, and their internet has always been dodgy. Then again, so was whoever provided the same service in this area before them.
i dont know. i just turned in my cable box today and for every person getting equpment there were three or more turning stuff in. around here comcast service has just been awful. there was a period of time it was like playing roulette whether the channel you wanted to watch would be on or not. and they would not prorate your bill for the time that service was messed up. and pretty par for the course they didnt ask why i was canceling the cable.
Do it, I did it with Optimum, my cable provider, I mentioned Verizon's TV thing and they cut my bill by a decent amount.
I have DISH network, and it takes a substantially powerful storm to interrupt the service, and then only for the amount of time it takes for the front of that storm to pass. I think as long as it's aligned as well as possible, it's going to be OK. Never had trouble in the winter, which we've had 2 very bad ones the last 2 years. I ended up getting Comcast high speed internet for $60/month, only because it's the highest speed option (8mb now). DISH had a sattelite option, but I think it was only 1.5mb (or something like that). If you're gonna hit a company for their ridiculous or downright stupid commercials, it's going to be a long rant.