hburgnews.com

Comment from NotJohnMcCain
Time: October 16, 2007, 11:11 am

Thank your state legislature - they approved a bill last year under the guise of ‘reform’ that applied the five percent sales tax to all telecommunications services (HB 568 from ‘06 session).

Comment from Kyle
Time: October 16, 2007, 11:21 am

Goodlatte has stated, “I take seriously our responsibility to prevent unnecessary regulatory restrictions that inhibit free enterprise.”

Translation: I will do anything I can to insure that there is no competition or oversight that might hinder big business from dominating and controlling their market.

good for rich stockholders, not so good for the rest of us.

Comment from finnegan
Time: October 16, 2007, 11:43 am

For those interested in stats — I just checked Google Analytics, and found that 32 percent of hburgnews readers are using Comcast for their ISP.

Compare that to the second largest slice of the pie, Verizon, which only accounts for 13 percent. NTelos accounts for around 11 percent of readers. JMU makes up 4 percent.

Rural Broadband, Sheltel, AOL, CFW, Visual Link, and many other ISPs make up the rest of the pie, with less than 2 percent each.

In other words, Comcast is king of the ISPs in this area.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 16, 2007, 11:51 am

I personally love the way this works. We buy you from Adelphia (we bought them and they had you as a customer). We spend $85 million just to get the company running again (years of mismanagement that we knew about prior to our buyout but that we are now going to make look like we didn’t know prior, so that we can rationalize a fee hike to the FCC).
“The company has invested $85 million in network improvements, call center expansions, new hires, training and equipment, she said. Comcast Corp. acquired Adelphia’s assets and 1.5 million subscribers, including 500,000 in Virginia, in a $3.5 billion deal last year.”
Then we sell this to the public (who know full well that when companies buy their competitors, the public always loses in the long run) using the line “Price adjustments reflect the increased value of our services,” Linnen said. “[That includes] a more robust video-on-demand lineup, numerous additional channels and [high-definition] viewing choices.”

Note that “price adjustments” are not referred to as stockholder profit rendering.

I’ll be the first one to speak up for the free market. I’ll also be the first one to point out the hypocrisy of anyone who doesn’t recognize the benefit to America that anti-monopoly laws have rendered.

Comment from MF
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:11 pm

I must say I am not impressed with comcast at all. We just got digital cable hooked up at our house two months ago, and it was more hassle then what its worth. They took 2 weeks to come out and hook it up. Then our on demand didn’t work and when we called them to come fix it, it took them another week to come back and look at it. Then they told us it was a national issue with the video box, so they can’t help us and we have to continue to pay for a digital box that won’t get on demand.

Comment from Emmy
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:17 pm

I think I’m one of the few people in the area that doesn’t hate Comcast. I’ve never had a problem with my cable TV and the few times my internet has been down, its been resolved quickly. I had one instance that required a visit from them and the man was very nice and helpful, and cute ;)…..but, I do wish it cost a bit less!

Comment from Justin
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:22 pm

The thing that got me was that the official letter said that because they are so dedicated to the bringing you the best technology with the best service, these rates were going into effect.

I’m not getting more HD channels, faster internet, or a bigger DVR.

Only basic cable charges were increasing.

Comment from Justin
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:23 pm

I don’t remember being asked what I wanted from Comcast. Was there a form online I could have filled out for what my increase would go towards?

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:27 pm

My internet (basic) went up 20%. Rationalize that.

Comment from Dave Briggman
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:29 pm

The Board of Supervisors is correct in seeking competition for Comcast and I believe they should do it for Verizon as well…both offer service AND services in other areas in the country that we can’t get universally throughout Rockingham County (Verizon’s “Call Intercept” is an example as is their FIOS)…hell, I live on Route 620, a major secondary road and we can’t get Comcast to pull the cable up this road.

If this City/County want to compete in the 21st century economy, there must me universal access to broadband…we don’t have that here.

Comment from Emmy
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:29 pm

Yikes, not looking forward to my next bill. I’m already paying more than I can afford. I didn’t know it was going up that much. I got the info in the mail, but I can never remember what I have.

Comment from Dave Briggman
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:31 pm

I think Goodlatte’s been in office long enough to go back to “cable deregulation”…you remember that, right? When Congress promised that deregulation would lower cable prices 10%, but forgot to tell all of use that they would allow the companies to cut 20% of the channel offering at a given price point?

Goodlatte’s been here way too long…time for some new blood.

Comment from Gxeremio
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:45 pm

We just have Broadcast Basic cable (for like $12.50), and the cost for that actually is going down a bit (because they’re getting rid of some duplicate network affiliates). High speed internet, I think, is staying the same cost (since it’s not the only service we buy). So it’s no skin off our teeth. There may be only one cable company option for most of us, but there are lots of other entertainment options - Netflix, internet TV, iTunes downloads, etc. etc. They may be shooting themselves in the foot to make cable more expensive at a time when people have so many other choices.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 16, 2007, 12:58 pm

I still think that our municipality should look into transmitting all of these features over the powerlines, and just letting individual companies sell to consumers via the municipal lines. That way a company wouldn’t need huge infrastructure to compete. Consumers would win.

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:02 pm

May I offer some perspective?

It’s television. Just television. Sitcoms, lawyer shows, doctor shows, Law & Order. It’s not water, electricity, phone or sewer service. Just television. Reruns. Football games. Game shows called “Who wants to look like an idiot?” Occasionally a good documentary, but you can see it at CST first. It’s just television. It makes money. Selling ads. For ED drugs and toothpaste. Beer, pickups, widescreen TVs, closed course professional driver don’t try this at home. Television. Yes, it costs you money. Every dime that every player can get every step along the way.

Library’s free.

Comment from Frank J Witt
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:02 pm

Electric company charges per kw used…water company charges per use, gas company charges per use BUT Comcasrt charges whether I use their service for 1 hours (normal) or 8+ on Sundays…explain THAT !

Comment from Barnabas
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:05 pm

If you have a high speed internet connection than you should look at Vonage for your phoneline. It’s $31.00 a month and I can call my sister in Ireland for free.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:23 pm

or skype her for free with no monthly charge

Comment from Frank J Witt
Time: October 16, 2007, 1:31 pm

We 86′ed our home line because of our cell #’s but there is only a minimal difference between the 2 cable/internet packages pplus the extra channels….

Just curious as why the cable company can’t/won’t do like every other industry.

Comment from Kyle
Time: October 16, 2007, 2:09 pm

Not only are these companies flexing their monopoly muscle, but they are also over-stepping their bounds as they dapple dangerously close to censorship. Recently ther has been a lot of neg. publicity (and rightfully so) concerning the blocking of text messages of a pro-choice group by Verizon, and the more infamous censoring of anti-bush comments by Comcast made by Pearl Jam during a televised concert.

If we allow these mega-corps to censor at will we are in trouble.

Comment from Kyle
Time: October 16, 2007, 2:11 pm

correction: it was AT&T that censored Pearl Jam not Comcast.

Comment from Eli
Time: October 16, 2007, 2:32 pm

Comcast has also been receiving some negative attention recently due to what appears to be Bittorrent filtering.

http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/08/its-comcastic-i.html

Comment from Kyle
Time: October 16, 2007, 2:56 pm

Comcast also started closing people’s accounts who were using too much capacity for their liking.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 16, 2007, 6:21 pm

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2004785759717366066

I love this Colbert video that so beautifully illustrates the steps backwards we have taken (monopoly busters).

JG
I agree, I don’t have cable television (or any besides movies from BB). I’m not arguing that TV is somehow great.

Comment from andy
Time: October 16, 2007, 8:45 pm

Joe is right! It’s just television — not water or electricity. You can actually turn television off and forget about it.

My wife and I did it when our first kid was born (turned the tv off, wisenheimer). It was difficult at first. But now my oldest is ten and we don’t miss it a bit. All you intelligent hburgnews people! Rise up! You don’t actually need television.

Unless, you’re into sports. Then you need television.

My friend Alan is really into sports. He got to throw out the first baseball at a Mets game once when we were teenagers in the early 70’s. He won some contest. I still have the picture, and Alan has this huge afro and looks like a total dork.

After he threw out the first pitch we took our seats in the box seating area behind the Mets dugout. In about the 4th inning someone on the upper deck threw a paper airplane made from the gameday program. It was heavy and sliced through the air and into Alan’s afro and stuck there. He spun around because he thought someone had tapped him on the head.

Everyone all around started laughing and Alan turned right and left because he didn’t know he had a paper airplane stuck in his afro.

I caught sight of the airplane sticking straight out of Alan’s afro and CocaCola came our of my nose because of my involuntary laughter. Alan was pissed.

Comment from Christa Gitchell
Time: October 16, 2007, 9:02 pm

lol.. great story andy.

Comment from finnegan
Time: October 16, 2007, 9:16 pm

Well put, Joe and Andy. I watch about as much TV as your average household cat. Which is to say, not very much, and not for very long. And it’s never at my house, because I don’t receive any channels. That’s right, I’m a Comcast customer, yet I get 0 (zero) channels on my TV. I just use it for the Internet. At the time I signed up for it, Comcast was the fastest connection available in my neighborhood. I’d like to know if that’s still the case, because my modem is crap. I’ve called Comcast at least three times in the last two months because my connection was down.

The only thing I watch on my TV at home is DVDs. I also watch a lot of Frontline on my computer.

Comment from Eli
Time: October 16, 2007, 10:11 pm

I don’t watch TV either. In fact I don’t even own one.

I had Adelphia just for internet, which I do consider a bit more of a necessity. I’d like a nice, fast, neutral connection without having to pay through the nose for it.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 17, 2007, 11:19 am

My new modem is crap too. I’m switching to DSL. They apparently have a new plan that doesn’t have to be tied to a phone line.

Comment from finnegan
Time: October 17, 2007, 11:25 am

Let me know how that works out, David. I’d like to get rid of Comcast without sacrificing connection speed.

Comment from Josh
Time: October 17, 2007, 1:56 pm

David,

I have Verizon DSL and it’s my understanding that I need basic phone service in order for the service to work. Who is offering non-phone service DSL?

My DSL is very reliable but my cable using friends have much faster access rates.

I’ve been thinking about switching my internet provider for a while. I’ve reluctantly signed 1-year contracts with Verizon due to fuzziness regarding municipal IPv6 stuff (fearful that I’d have to pay $$$ to break contracts in order to use the city’s new access).

Does anyone here live in Liberty Square and have the Ntelos “Broadband XL” fiber service?

http://www.ntelos.com/landline/residential/broadbandxl.html

Comment from Washingtonian
Time: October 18, 2007, 9:23 am

Oh sh*t, this STUPID MONOPOLY CALLED COMCAST again!

["The Board of Supervisors is correct in seeking competition for Comcast ..."]

I wish someone had the guts to actually do it… but I doubt it.

Comment from JGFitzgerald
Time: October 18, 2007, 11:28 am

From the post.

Comment from Bubby
Time: October 18, 2007, 11:56 am

Mona! If, if I could get DSL we would be gone from Comcast in a Manassas-minute. No, it isn’t as fast as cable, but how fast is your cable broadband when it isn’t working? DSL is multiply more reliable service.

Intelos has a wireless broadband option at $35 per month.

Comment from David Miller
Time: October 18, 2007, 3:54 pm

I’ve been told by a tech that they now offer no-dial tone service.

Comment from Phil
Time: October 18, 2007, 8:41 pm

It’s not just television. It’s a very large chunk of the mass communication passing in and out of our community. And with so much media consolidation and things like Vonage, how long until the TV, Internet AND Phone companies are all the SAME company?

Now think of that without Net Neutrality.

Comment from Frank J Witt
Time: October 19, 2007, 9:31 am

WOW ! !

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/17/AR2007101702359.html?nav=hcmodule

Comment from Dave Briggman
Time: October 19, 2007, 9:14 pm

Here’s a current story on Comcast blocking peer-to-peer net traffic.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8SCEBLG0&show_article=1

Comment from Frank J Witt
Time: October 26, 2007, 1:17 pm

Here are 4 pages of updates coming soon to a comcast set near you.

http://comcastbignews.com/images/faqs/05_harrisonburg_faq.pdf

Comment from Phil C.
Time: October 26, 2007, 4:06 pm

You don’t like the cable rates going up…get a Dish if you can.

I love my Dish Network.