Our utilities are monopolies as well... just regulated monopolies that have to get approval for rate changes.

While it's easy to get riled up about the statistically slower average household speeds and higher costs we see in the US, ISPs also have higher costs here. As mentioned, fiber is about $20/foot - our wide open spaces mean we have to cover a lot of feet.

Not that I'm crying for Comcast or Time Warner - they are wildly profitable. Nothing wrong with that. (I just have a hard time believing they haven't broken any antitrust laws to get where they are, given the apparent monopolies in every major market.)

Oh oh, you just ordered up the #1 company for the worst customer service in Americs.Good luck

Does your state have a Board/office for Public Utilities? In NJ, file a complaint with BPU, and they have to answer....

Go back to school. The Supreme Court doesn't make laws and they don't take donations. Congress does. And Congress is composed of greedy members from both parties not just one. But if you want to look it up you will find that Comcast gives a lot more money to Democrats than they do to Republicans. Opensecrets.org. It's all there- check and see how much your representative took.

I think the problem here is that provider owns the lines going to home, which makes it "natural monopoly" and can charge whatever they want.

Here in socialist paradise, the state usually pitches in in order to even out the field (thus, fibre roll out to "hard to reach" places is subsidized and "last mile" fibre rings are usually owned by municipality). That way, the ISP cannot corner the market by owning the last mile and locking you in. They are free to compete for customer in virtue of speed/content/price etc.

This way, average hose owner can choose between seven ISP's on fibre (if fibre is installed), four over ADSL and probably three-four over 4G wireless, depending on location.

the party line is: "good internet speed/connectivity/penetration is good for country as whole", and I actually agree...

Around here, some states/municipalities allow multiple companies to lay cable, and some do not. The ones that do not are largely bought off by the cable companies.

Eff Comcast
 

It makes me lol to hear of people paying so much for this. Anyone remember in the 1980s when cable TV was a new technology? I do. Their biggest selling points were (1) more of the kind of (risqué) content people seemed to want that wouldn't be allowed on broadcast networks and (2) NO COMMERCIALS. It took these points (more boobies and innuendos and no commercials) to convince people that television was actually worth paying for.

Years later, the price is 4x what it was then, the content is worse and a third to half of the programming is commercials - many of which are self-promotional BS for the cable company (if their product is so wonderful, why do they constantly need to pitch it to people that are already subscribing, hmmm?) Any "good" shows are buried in tiers bundled with hundreds of channels of utterly unwatchable rubbish in order to milk every last dollar possible out of a public already being fleeced.

While I support the right of businesses to make a profit and the right of stupid consumers to be taken advantage of for their stupidity, I find it troubling that this whole industry was built on negotiating sweetheart deals with local municipalities (dedicated / monopoly rights - no competition in exchange for putting in cabling in a lot of places).

This is akin to the state taking a public road, paid for with public money, then putting a toll on it, raising the toll repeatedly while letting the road fall into disrepair and become clogged with traffic to the point it's worse than alternates (Massachusetts Turnpike anyone?)

The infrastructure has long paid for itself. There should be competition between companies in the same way people are able to pick providers for long-distance land line telephone providers. If so, providers would actually have to compete for business on the basis of content and it might actually get a little better.

In the meantime I'll keep my internet-based on-demand occasional viewing through my Apple TV box or laptop and snicker at those who shell out mightily month after month for such horrendous "service" by companies like comcast, time warner, cox and all the rest of the scheisters.

If I could get my wife to do it, we would drop DirectTV like a red hot rock.

My ISP throttles the hell out of my netflix, sometimes it straight up does not work. I have had increasing problems trying to do electronic medical records at home, to the point that it just does not work as a practical matter.

Had Surewest, which was great, screaming fast fiber optic connection. They got bought out by Consolidated Communications and now it sucks sweaty donkey balls. Going to tell them to pound sand pretty quick here. They are going to lose the home and office business. They really stick it to you on telecommunication/internet for business.

How is it they tell me it is 18 mps, and the best speed I can get out of it is 5 mps, with the router telling me it is connected at 54 mps? The guy from the ISP just told me it must be the router, but the speed never changes whether I am plugging the computer directly into the line coming out of the wall or using the router, or it did not the last 10 times I checked. I am thinking the guy is just FOS and they need to go pound sand.

As much as I hate all of them I have to say Verizon FIOS is the best product out there. I have a 50/25 connection that they just upgraded us to 50/50 for free. Just sent me an email, "yo, have this, on us". I'll take it.

The problem with Netflix is not all on the cable provider end.

Part of Netflix and their whole net neutrality stance really comes down to one thing, Netflix are cheap ****ers.

As much as I hate last mile providers because they all suck the reality Netflix does abuse cable providers and they have a legitimate beef with NF.

Everyone has multiple pipes coming into their network. Companies like google, apple, amazon, microsoft, hulu, etc... all split their traffic so it does not all come through the same pipe. Netflix shoves it all through the one pipe.

Other companies place their hardware inside the cable providers network to handle the traffic they send. Netflix shoves it all through the cable providers hardware, they don't provide any infrastructure to a) take the load off the cable provider and b) more importantly, ensure their customers have a positive experience.

In a nutshell, your problem with Netflix is more likely NF themselves, not your provider.

You have to be careful about what is being reported by devices.

54 mbs is wireless g. What you are seeing is the theoretical speed of the protocol and not necessarily the actual line throughput.

Don't forget the speed you are provisioned for on your end is only half the equation. The other half is where you are connecting to. Meaning you won't get more than they can give.

All that being said cable providers suck and you probably are not being given what you are paying for and they don't care because they have no competition in your area.

+100. Had FIOS for years, never went down unless you count the time "I" accidentally severed the fiber optics line with my shovel, great speed, great lineup, good price.

I just moved and all I have now is...Comcast or nothing. Argh !! 1/2 the lineup, slower internet, and....80% more expensive. And it goes down 3x a day for a few seconds, both TV and internet. Their modem comes with one ethernet port only, and tries to prevent you from plugging a wireless router behind it (you have to clone the Mac)... If anything can convince you monopolies are bad, this is it. Not sure how long I'm gonna stick with them, I think I owe them a kidney if I cancel.

Interesting.

US cable giants calls on FCC to block cities' expansion of high-speed internet | Business | theguardian.com

How do you block a local or state government from creating public infrastructure?

"Free market" for products that are essentially natural monopolies will not end up well. Imagine GM owning a stretch of road to your house and only allowing you to drive F150, priced 40000$.

Finally got a check in the mail today. It seems that the threat of a lawsuit (that I fully intended to follow through on) finally got them motivated to do the right thing. I still will never do business with Comcast again.