We’re used to there being two kinds of cell phone plans. There’s the post-paid, where you get a bill every month that may go up or down depending on your usage. And there’s the pre-paid, where you pay your $40 and get your flat amount of data and airtime, and use it until it’s used up. But prepaid cable? That’s a new one. [More]
comcast
CenturyLink Joins AT&T, Comcast In Charging You For Going Over Your Data Cap
By 7.19.16
We know that home broadband carriers want to horn in on all that sweet wireless money, but we do wish they wouldn’t do it by creating more data caps and then charging you overage fees to exceed them. And yet that’s what one provider after another seems determined to do. [More]
Does Comcast Want To Be Your Mobile Phone Carrier? (Probably, Yeah)
By 7.19.16
They already dominate in home broadband and in cable TV. But Comcast knows as well as anyone else that your attention is increasingly leaving the living room and going on the road — or at least, split between two screens at once. And if you’re going wireless, well, Comcast wants to meet you there so it can keep taking your money. [More]
Comcast Announces Big Internet Essentials Expansion In Partnership With Federal Program
By 7.15.16
Comcast’s Internet Essentials program, which provides broadband access to low-income Americans, has always been a nice idea. The reality, unfortunately, has been slow to catch up to the promise. Still, expanding affordable access to the most underserved is a laudable goal, so the big Internet Essentials expansion Comcast is announcing is good news. [More]
Comcast Customers Report Nationwide Phone Outage
By 7.12.16
If you happen to be a Comcast voice subscriber and were planning to make a barrage of calls today, you’re probably have a difficult time going about your business. That’s because Comcast appears to have been hit with a wide-ranging outage of its phone service. [More]
Cyclist Sues Comcast After Being Clotheslined By Low-Hanging Cable Line
By 7.11.16
If you think having an unsightly, low-hanging cable line in your backyard is a nuisance, try running into one at neck-level while riding your bike down the street. [More]
Comcast Gives Chicago Customers Bad News: Data Caps Are Coming
By 7.7.16
The Chicago area is one of Comcast’s larger markets, but until now it has avoided being part of the cable colossus’s expanding “test” of data caps. That’s about to change, with Comcast subscribers all over the Chicagoland area getting the bad news that they will soon face limits on their monthly data usage. [More]
Comcast: FCC’s Set-Top Box Proposal’s Impossible. FCC: Nuh-Uh. Who’s Right?
By 7.7.16
The FCC’s got a proposal in the works right now that Comcast doesn’t like. This is not a shock; Comcast has generally not liked any headlining proposals from the FCC in recent years. Some of the cable giant’s complaints are undoubtedly just sound and noise, signifying nothing other than “we like profit, don’t screw with our thing.” But maybe some of its technological complaints have merit. [More]
Comcast Leaves Cable Dangling In Back Yard Of Non-Customer For More Than 2 Years
By 7.6.16
Nearly three years ago, Comcast workers told a Utah homeowner that they had to quickly strung a cable across her property to fix an outage. The Comcast-ers promised to come back soon and bury the unsightly line, but never made good on their promise — at least until a local TV news reporter got involved. [More]
You Can (Eventually) Use The Netflix App On Your Comcast Cable Box
By 7.5.16
At long last, Comcast has finally realized what consumers have known for years: Netflix — and its increasing focus on original series, not the cable and broadcast library — isn’t competition. It’s complementary. And so two of the biggest companies in media are about to lay down their metaphorical arms and start working together. [More]
Comcast Admits It Incorrectly Debited $1,775 From Account, Tells Me To Sort It Out With Bank
By 6.22.16
Nearly two years after Consumerist reader Robert shut down his business-tier service with Comcast, he’s still fighting with the nation’s largest broadband provider over a $1,775 early termination fee that should not have been assessed. Comcast even admits the money shouldn’t have been debited from Robert’s bank account, but now says it’s his responsibility to sort the mess out with his bank. [More]
Comcast Creates “Original Series” For The Sole Purpose Of Advertising Xfinity On Demand
By 6.22.16
It can be increasingly difficult to tell when a company is advertising their products and when they’re just trying to relate to potential customers. Comcast is apparently combining those two things with a new short-form series that follows a couple who get “Glued” to a TV show, that is in reality just one big commercial for the company. [More]
Comcast Hopes Fans Of The Olympics Will Like Its Voice-Controlled Remote So Much They Won’t Cut The Cord
By 6.20.16
Faced with a future where people can watch as much content as they want without a cable subscription, Comcast is getting ready to launch a product during the Rio Olympics it hopes will keep customers from pulling out those scissors and cutting the cord. [More]
Following Comcast Complaints, Ad Watchdog Says Verizon Should Revise Its “#1 In Internet Speed” Claims
By 6.16.16
Which broadband company has the blah blah blah fastest blah blah? Virtually all of them claim to be the best and speediest, using various surveys and statistics to justify their numbers, and subtly couching their boasts in language that best suits their goal. However, a private ad industry watchdog says that Comcast has a justifiable gripe about the way Verizon has advertised FiOS internet speeds. [More]
How Much Does The Cable Industry Hate Two FCC Proposals? $22M And Counting
By 6.13.16
The FCC has been surprisingly busy over the last couple of years, taking lots of action on phone, TV, and internet issues that plague consumers. And while their many proposals have definite fans out there in the world… the big cable companies we all love to hate are decidedly not among them. [More]
Former Comcast Installers Say Contractor Erased Negative Reports, Conspired With Cable Company
By 6.6.16
Two former Comcast installation subcontractors are accusing the cable giant of using the promise of more work to trick them into spending more money on equipment, people, and real estate — all for the benefit of two larger subcontractors who were allegedly allowed to manipulate and erase negative service reports from customers. [More]
Another Broadband CEO Admits: Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Capacity
By 6.3.16
Supporters of internet data caps want to have things both ways: admitting that the monthly usage limits have nothing to do with congestion, while simultaneously arguing that those who use the most should pay more (but not that those who use the least should get any discount). Thus it’s refreshing that one broadband exec both acknowledged the congestion myth and said his company has no intention of instituting caps… at least for now. [More]
Survey Says: You Still Hate Your Cable Company, But Maybe A Little Less Than Before
By 6.1.16
A major annual consumer satisfaction survey is out, and it’s a mixed bag for the cable and telecom sector and all of us who use it. The bad: pay-TV, broadband, phone, and wireless companies still pretty much really suck, and most of us are very dissatisfied with them. The good: year over year, most of them are finally starting to suck less than they used to! [More]
