Someday, you will be able to buy your house and everything in it from Amazon, much like Sears a century ago. Perhaps to prepare for that day, Amazon is now selling Comcast’s Xfinity bundles in its new Amazon Cable Store, and the store setup implies that they’ll be adding carriers in other areas soon. [More]
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Comcast Customer Hit With $60,000 Penalty After Waiting 10 Months For Installation
By 3.18.16
We’ve already shown that Comcast and other broadband companies will mislead consumers into believing they can get service at a new property, only to find out when it’s too late that they can’t. So it’s both horrifying and not surprising to hear that when a Comcast business customer tried to get out of their contract because the cable giant failed to install their service for 10 months, they were hit with $60,000 in fees. [More]
Comcast, AT&T Lobbyists Help Kill Community Broadband Expansion In Tennessee
By 3.16.16
When cable and telecom companies go through the effort of writing anti-consumer legislation for states, they can later be counted on to lobby to keep those laws in place when challenged. Case in point: Lobbyists for Comcast and AT&T recently helped kill a small piece of legislation in Tennessee that would have allowed a city-run utility to expand the reach of its broadband service. [More]
Dish Sues NBC For Blabbing Publicly About Looming Blackout
By 3.15.16
It’s not uncommon for TV networks and pay-TV operators to get into very public spats about contract negotiations and looming blackouts, but the folks at Dish say that NBCUniversal crossed the line this week in going public about its ongoing contract dispute with the satellite company. [More]
Thanks To Google Fiber And AT&T, Comcast Gigabit Service Will Only Cost $70 In Atlanta
By 3.15.16
Earlier this year, Comcast announced that Atlanta would be one of the five markets to get a taste of new broadband technology that provides fiberoptic-level data speeds over existing cable lines. And while the cable company has previously charged exceedingly high amounts for high-speed fiber access, Comcast says it will only be charging $70/month in Atlanta for this new service. [More]
YES Network Tells Yankee Fans To “Drop Comcast”
By 3.9.16
A spat between the nation’s largest cable company and Major League Baseball’s most storied franchise is getting ugly, with the New York Yankees’ YES Network launching a campaign urging fans to “Drop Comcast.” [More]
Consumer Advocates Petition FCC To Stop Comcast Exempting Their Own Stuff From Data Caps
By 3.3.16
Zero-rating — that thing where a company can exempt some services from data caps, to encourage customers to use it instead of other services — is still a big question mark, legally speaking. Is it “innovative” and “competitive” or does it violate net neutrality? The jury (or really, the FCC) is still out on that one, but a new formal complaint may finally force their hand toward some kind of decision. [More]
Why Comcast Is Wrong To Shrug Off Latest Google Fiber Announcements
By 2.25.16
Google made two important announcements this week about upcoming Google Fiber launches in San Francisco and Huntsville, AL, indicating its willingness to be flexible about how it deploys high-speed broadband service to new markets. Given that Comcast is the dominant ISP in both of these markets, you’d expect it to be worried, but the cable colossus is shrugging off Google’s encroachment. It shouldn’t. [More]
Attention Comcast Customers: You Can Get A Bill Credit For Monday’s Cable TV Outage
By 2.18.16
If you’re a Comcast customer who experienced Monday’s nationwide TV service outage, you’re eligible to receive a bill credit from your cable provider. They aren’t going to issue one automatically, though: you have to call and ask for it. [More]
It’s Not Just You: Comcast Is Having A Nationwide Outage Today
By 2.15.16
This morning, some readers alerted us that they were having problems with their cable TV. Were they alone? Were they being punished by the entertainment gods on a federal holiday? No, as far as we know, that isn’t actually a thing. What we do know is that there are outages reported in cities across the country, and Comcast’s Twitter team is posting so rapidly that their wrists may be on fire. UPDATE: The outage is over. [More]
Comcast-Connected “Grassroots” Effort Claims Set-Top Box Competition Will Harm Diversity
By 2.10.16
With the FCC prepping to vote on new rules that aim to break up cable companies’ monopolies on set-top boxes, the pay-TV industry is fighting back with an astroturfing campaign that tries to make the case that having more choices in set-top boxes will somehow harm diversity in TV programming. [More]
Did Net Neutrality Kill Broadband Investment Like Comcast, AT&T, Verizon Said It Would?
By 2.9.16
Last year, when the FCC was preparing to vote on the new Open Internet Order (aka “net neutrality”) and its reclassification of broadband Internet as a vital utility, virtually the entire telecom and cable industry claimed this change would ruin investment and slow innovation. But a look at the year-end financial figures for the biggest naysayers casts a lot of doubt on these dire predictions. [More]
Senators Ask Why Cable Companies Continue Charging Customers For Modems They Don’t Have
By 2.5.16
We regularly hear from readers that their cable company — often Comcast — is charging them rental fees for equipment they either never owned or have already returned. A group of six U.S. lawmakers are calling on the FCC to look into this problem of consumers who face fees for phantom modems and other devices. [More]
Comcast’s Next-Gen Broadband Service Coming To 5 Cities This Year
By 2.2.16
A few weeks after flipping the switch on its first next-generation DOCSIS 3.1 modem — which can deliver speeds faster than Google Fiber over existing cable lines — Comcast is detailing plans on which markets will be the first to get access to the service. [More]
Comcast User’s Bot Tweets At Comcast Whenever His Internet Speed Gets Too Slow
By 2.1.16
Just because you pay for a certain internet speed doesn’t mean you get it all the time. That’s just a sad fact of life: those speeds are an “up to” promise, not a “minimum guarantee” promise. But just how often is a lapse below a certain threshold acceptable? And given that internet speeds are variable, how would you make sure your provider knows? [More]
The Consumerist Guide To Understanding Your Comcast Bill
By 2.1.16
When you sign up for services — some combination of TV, broadband, and/or phone — from your cable company, you’re told you’ll pay something like $49 or $89 a month… and yet the price you actually pay can be 30-40% or more on top of that, thanks to a heap of sometimes confusing charges and fees. Which ones do you blame the government for, and which are made up by your cable company? One cable company at a time, we’re going to use real customers’ bills to break it down. First up: Comcast. [More]
In Comcast Country, Set-Top Box Competition Will Hurt Innovation, Raise Prices
By 1.29.16
Earlier this week, FCC Chair Tom Wheeler proposed new rules intended to increase competition in the pay-TV set-top box market. Rather than paying hundreds of dollars a year to your cable company for a device you can’t get anywhere else, the idea is that you would be able to buy your own box and save money in the long run. Amazing, Comcast — which stands to potentially lose billions of dollars if this happens — is crying foul. [More]
Washington Law Would Let Counties Sell Broadband Service When Comcast Won’t
By 1.26.16
Last year, we told you about Seth, who had recently relocated to Washington only to find out he might have to sell his new house because Comcast had lied to him about being able to provide the Internet connection he needs for his home office. And even though the county runs a high-speed fiber network not far from his property, current state law restricts consumers from buying access to that service. Recently proposed state legislation hopes to right that wrong and give counties the ability to serve residents when Comcast and others refuse to. [More]
