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I guess I should point out that I work for Comcast(As a drone in sector 7G), but I honestly find this an impressive device coming next year: http://www.comcast.com/ces/anyplay.aspx

... just not anywhere near the price you are willing to pay. The product you want is a business Internet connection.

http://www.comcast.com/business/WorkplaceProducts.ashx

$250 installation, year-long contract required, $100 to $250 a month and up, up, up depending on your requirements.

I don't have Comcast, but I found a FAQ on their webpage that says this isn't against their TOS: http://www.comcast.com/Customers/FAQ/FaqCategory.ashx?CatId=209

Why does my connection sometimes fail when I am attempting to "seed" a P2P file?
Since it is our ressponsibility to protect our customers' Internet experience, we use several network management technologies that, when necessary, enable us to delay P2P traffic during periods of heavy congestion on the Internet. This process may delay P2P packets from reaching their destination, but will not stop the traffic from eventually reaching its destination and at the same time allows us to deliver the best overall experience for all of our users.

Do you block access to peer-to-peer applications like BitTorrent?
No. We do not block access to any Web site or applications, including BitTorrent. Our customers use the Internet for downloading and uploading files, watching movies and videos, streaming music, sharing digital photos, accessing numerous peer-to-peer sites, VOIP applications like Vonage, and thousands of other applications online.

Do you discriminate against particular types of online content?
No. There is no discrimination based on the type of content. Our customers enjoy unfettered access to all the content, services, and applications that the Internet has to offer. We respect our customers' privacy and we don't monitor specific customer activities on the Internet or track individual online behavior such as which Web sites they visit. Therefore, we do not know whether any individual user is visiting BitTorrent or any other site.

Is my peer-to-peer activity going to be impacted by Comcast?

We never prevent peer-to-peer activity or block access to any peer-to-peer applications, but rather manage the network in such a way that this activity does not degrade the broadband experience for other users.

We have a responsibility to provide all of our customers with a good Internet experience and we use the latest technologies to manage our network so that you can continue to enjoy these applications. Peer-to-peer activity consumes a disproportionately large amount of network resources, and therefore poses the biggest challenge to maintaining a good broadband experience for all users, including the overwhelming majority of our customers who do not use peer-to-peer applications.

What do you mean when you say you manage your network?

Network management is absolutely essential to provide a good Internet experience for our customers. All major ISPs manage their traffic in some way and many use similar tools.

Network management helps us perform critical work that protects our customers from things like spam, viruses, the negative effects of network congestion, or attacks to their PCs. As threats on the Internet continue to grow, our network management tools will continue to evolve and keep pace so that we can maintain an excellent, reliable, online experience for all of our customers.

Please tell me where in this page, the phrase "burst bandwidth' appears:

http://www.comcast.com/Customers/FAQ/FaqDetails.ashx?Id=2580

All I see is a speed expressed in "Kbps", or Kilobits per second. On another page, they say "Your time spent online is completely unlimited..."

SO, each month, they are offering 'X' Kbps * number of seconds in the month

ANything less than that is false advertisement.

How many cards do you use? The first one should have been free Comcast Cablecard FAQ additional ones do carry a fee but I didn't think it would be as much as $5 per card.

Of course, stating caps would destroy the myth that Comcast's service is unlimited, and probably do damage to its advertising that its service is good for bandwidth-intensive applications.

This is just a Web site and of course it changes all the time, but I defy you to show me where Comcast advertises their service as "unlimited" without any clearly visible disclaimer.

http://www.comcast.com/8mbps/?CMP=ILC-fcomcastnetdcable2

And its service *is* good for bandwith-intensive applications. It's the best you can get for the price you're willing to pay, or I presume you would go somewhere else.

Sigh. I know. There is nowhere else, except maybe the phone company, and they're even worse. That's why I think government needs to get involved. That's how they do it in countries with good high-speed access.

This year, Comcast has issued a revised Subscriber (Residential) Service Agreement. In this agreement, you agree to arbitration only unless you opt out within 30 days of receiving this agreement.

If you don't opt out of this clause, your chances of receiving any civil compensation are greatly reduced. All of the other posts that talk about turning your team of lawyers loose on Comcast would be wise to review the entire agreement first.

http://www.comcast.com/arbitrationoptout/default.a shx

The unlimited internet promise appears to be made outside the US more than what I see here. I just don't see those claims made much, if at all in the US. A search on google for unlimted internet for me (mostly because google gives geography related search results) gives results for unlimited internet, but by that they mean an unlimited number of dialup internet minutes via 56k modem. Most of the large US ISPs will not show up in the first couple pages of google search results when one searches for the term "unlimited internet"--mostly dialup companies show up. Here are some of the main internet providers in the US--cable and phone companies:

ATT

Charter Communications

Time Warner

Verizon

Cox Cable

Qwest

And even evil Comcast

Find any claims of unlimited internet bandwidth from any major US ISP? Keep looking...you'll even find dislaimers saying explicitly that speed and bandwidth is not in any way guaranteed. Certainly those disclaimers are not front and center, but many have their disclaimers asterisk'd with notes on the main service description pages, so the disclaimers are not hard to find. The US has fairly clear and well enforced truth in advertising laws. Doesn't the UK?

I don't think anyone has any right to unlimited internet if I make no such claims, guarantees, or promises and especially if I specifically disclaim any such guarantee. The vast majority of US companies wouldn't make such a claim for fear of losing a class action lawsuit. It seems companies can make untrue claims about their products in the UK and not get sued? I certainly cannot in the US. That's a problem with your consumer rights laws, if they even exist.

Amazingly there was only one intelligent thing said in the whole article. "Digital switching is key" is correct. Whats amazing is that some consulting has the balls to act like $great_prophet when proclaiming it. I mean, its not like Cablelabs hasn't been hard at work on the technologies to address the bandwidth issue. Both DOCSIS 3.0 (http://www.cablemodem.com/specifications/specific ations30.html) and Modular CMTS (http://www.cablemodem.com/specifications/m-cmts.h tml are designed to address this problem. M-CMTS basically works to divide cable plant into smaller sections by pushing the RF interfaces further out to the edge. This is done by placing fairly dumb/inexpensive edge QAM's out in the plant, these devices encapsulate DOCSIS frames into Gigabit Ethernet to carry them back to a packet processing engine. What this buys the operator is the ability to use fewer RF channels but gain more bandwidth at the cost of having some additional backhaul (to carry the GigE). Now some people might wonder if this consulting company is merely championing an idea that hasn't been developed, but sadly that isn't the case either. Many manufacturers are already producing EQAM's including big hitters like Cisco (http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/cable/ps22 09/products_implementation_design_guide_chapter091 86a00807c73c7.html/) These same EQAM's also handle switching of digital video so cable companies save on both switched video and normal IP traffic. DOCSIS 3.0 allows for bonding DOCSIS channels to create far more bandwidth, which is likely to be used for business services as well as more rich IP services. Comcast in my area already offers multiple HD on demand channels, for example HBO and Showtime. (http://www.comcast.com/HBOondemand/ and http://www.tvweek.com/news/2007/03/comcast_launche s_showtime_hdvo.php/)

Quite honestly it sounds like the "consultant" needs to do some research.

Yes.

My ISP is Earthlink with Comcast supplying the "last mile" via cable. All of my billing and bill paying is via Comcast.

Before their very recent changes to their website, everything worked just fine using Firefox on my Macs. Since their recent website "upgrades" there are numerous segments of various pages that will not display, and are unusable, including even the ability to view my bill or contact Comcast support...

Here is a page that DOES NOT WORK with the latest versions of Firefox on the latest version of OS X: https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/Custom erCentral.html

Give it a try. :o)

-- Tomas

Sorry, I should have provided a link, since their Movers Edge page is still broken: https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Move/Default.htm l?lid=5QuickLinksMoving&pos=QuickLinks

Test it out for yourself in Firefox and IE, and see the content magically appear! I don't know what will happen it other browsers, but I can't say I'm optimistic.

Actually, @Home *built* all of the cable companies' network infrastructures and provided the broadband service for pretty much every major cable co except Time Warner. They had about 4.5M customers paying $40+ a month (which was about half of the total US broadband market at the time!) Can't lose, you'd think? Well, the catch is said cable co's also owned a significant stake in @Home, and once they decided they could make more money doing it themselves, they let it die...

Here's a decent post mortem (sounds surprisingly like "Who Killed the Electric Car?...):

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chroni cle/archive/2001/12/17/BU23049.DTL

And I think agreeing to pay $340M to the @Home bondholders is as good as AT&T admitting blame...

http://www.comcast.com/About/PressRelease/PressRel easeDetail.ashx?PRID=152

I was so excited to see AT&T all but disappear as a public company... until SBC goes and builds a new Deathstar three times the size of the original...

"That strategy seriously reduces the places where malicious code can exist "in the middle"

Terms and Conditions
Comcast speed tiers range from 4.0 to 8.0 Mbps download speed (maximum upload speed from 384Kbps to 768Kbps respectively). The speed tier received and pricing will vary depending upon the speed tier selected and the level of Comcast video service and/or digital telephone service (if any) received. Speed comparisons are for downloads only and are compared to (as applicable, to 56K dial-up, 768Kbps, 1.5Mbps or 3.0Mbps DSL). Actual speeds may vary and are not guaranteed. Many factors affect speed.
Equipment (including cable modem) is required and unless specifically included in the offer, must be rented at Comcast's regular rates or purchased at retail. May not be combined with any other discount or offer. Prices shown do not include applicable taxes and fees. Service is subject to terms and conditions of Comcast High-Speed Internet Subscriber Agreement and Home Networking Amendment if applicable. For restrictions, minimum requirements and details about service and prices, call 1-800-Comcast. ©2005 Comcast. All rights reserved. Video Mail not compatible with Macintosh systems, and additional equipment is required. Comcast Home Networking will let you connect up to 5 PCs (IP devices) to the Internet at one time. Computers using a wireless connection must be within 150 feet of the gateway. Certain devices using radio frequency (including 2.4GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens), may interfere with or disrupt Internet connections. Comcast Home Networking service is only available to Comcast High-Speed Internet customers. Please note: the File and Printer Sharing Interface neither supports interaction between Apple and Windows based computers, nor sharing between two or more Apple devices. Regular service and equipment charges apply. Equipment, including a Comcast Certified Home Networking Device which may be purchased from Comcast or leased at Comcast's standard rates (currently $5 per month) required. Leased equipment must be returned to Comcast if service is cancelled. Additional equipment may be required. You will have the ability to add four additional PCs for a total of five networked PCs per household. Wireless cards are required for additional connections beyond the first computers. Wireless cards may be purchased from Comcast (see rate card for pricing) or at retail. Installation charges are additional.

http://www.comcast.com/whatsondemand/

This provides exactly what you're proposing. A library of free movies, and pay movies, along with episodes of TV shows, stored at the headend and piped over the wire "on demand." Regular controls work with a brief delay.

Yes, a fact that he "heard on the radio" with no citation or supporting evidence given whatsoever. A fact that also disingenuously refers to "the PS3 lines" even though the statistic given is based on pre-orders.

I heard it on KUOW, the local NPR station. I can't remember what "show" it was, I was waking up at 9 after having been up until 3 playing the Wii. It was a national NPR news feed. The reference to lines was also from coverage on CNN. I also watched G4 on cable for game-day and release coverage, from The Show, from that review thing with Adam whoever and whatshername, and some other thing they do. I also checked Comcast's On Demand G4 game reviews and cheats they posted Saturday.

So I don't like wasting my time posting links. Sue me. If the truth hurts, deal with it. But don't blame me. I'm not the media.

That'll show em!

Posted at our cube? We don't have anything posted at our cube other then the usual company propaganda. I'm in the Winnipeg Call Centre. If people want to know where the closest payment centre is, http://comcast.com/Membership/LocatePaymentCenter. ashx?LinkID=101 is the link I give them.

Stop ranting and actually act decent, you are as bad as the customers we get.

Comcast has been offering this service now for a while, at least where I live (Philadelphia). Each set top box has the ability to time shift content that is paid for with the subscription. I see no reason to distinguish this from cablevision's attempt to do the same.

See http://www.comcast.com/Benefits/CableDetails/Slot3 PageOne.asp

Not later, not after they have managed to buy enough govies. Right now.

Comcast:
http://www.comcast.com/Localization/Localize.ashx? referer=/Support/ContactSupport.asp

Road runner:
http://www.timewarnercable.com/Localization/Corpor ate.ashx

Even if you aren't a customer, start calling them periodically and showing up on their call center bill.

It would behoove someone to make an app to provide times to call and numbers to call to keep the overall volume up so it shows up on managements radar.

For example one of the sites browsing me recently has the IP 68.82.150.118

The only thing you can guess from that is it's probably in Europe, as many 68.x.x.x IPs are, but that's no guarantee it is. All you're able to do is make a guess, and nothing else.

$ host 68.82.150.118
118.150.82.68.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer pcp02301507pcs.univde01.de.comcast.net.

Comcast in Delaware.

Next?

Lets see a Tivo with 2 tuners which does it's job damn well 24x7 for $99 or a $1000+ dollar desktop which won't be up 24x7....

Commercial Products and Services:

ReplayTV: TiVo's ancient nemesis, it also 'just works'. I can't say whether it is more user friendly than TiVo, but it is far more customer friendly.

Windows XP Media Center Edition: Yes, them. Choose from multiple manufacturers but expect to face Microsoft Corp's version of the 'personal' computing experience.

Hardware vendors are now pushing DVD/HD Recording devices quite a bit. RCA, Motorola and Panasonic have products available.

Service Providers like Comcast and DishTV are now providing time shifting hardware and tv-on-demand solutions. Check with your choice of cable or satellite service provider.

Hobbyist Solutions:

MythTV: The Open Source, Do-It-Yourself DVR. Expect to build your own machine and play around a bit before it works the way you want. (Linux)

Freevo: MythTV, but not. (Linux)

MediaPortal: Who ever said Open Source was limited to Linux software? (Windows)

Meedio: It was a community based freeware product (myHTPC) that morphed into a commercial product without warning. Still a reasonable alternative to Microsoft for PVR function on the Windows platform. (Windows)

eyeTV: This Mac product has me seriously considering picking up a Mini-Mac to use as a media center. (Apple)

SnapStream (Windows)

SageTV (Windows)

Chris-TV (Windows)

ShowShifter (Windows)

On a personal note, I purchased the ReplayTV when it was first released and am entirely satisfied with it. Plus, by purchasing early I have never had to pay a subscription fee for data that is freely available elsewhere. If there had been a subscription fee I would not have purchased it.

Dan

Here

Could have a good arguement that this includes cable internet. Looks like comcast (since not ordered by court) is in the wrong here.

Anyone else have good or bad experience with VoIP quality?

VoIP has been working well for me so far. My VoIP provider is SunRocket and my broadband is Comcast. I haven't experienced any of the static or dropped calls that you mention, but I've only been with them for about one month so far. The annual plan offered by SunRocket runs $199/year (USD) or roughly $16.58/month, which is much lower than my Verizon bill (about $34/month) without long distance service (I used my cell phone for long distance). One of the features that is really nice for me is that I can pick a second line and assign it to any area code they cover. In my case, I assigned it near family members so they don't have to call long distance to reach me.

My guess is that your friends problem is more related to broadband service or possibly hardware issues.

I was assuming they ment something along the lines of Comcast On Demand type stuff. Which would seem like more of a threat then downloading a 9gig file.

Those 5% that do need to serve data can get a "business" connection that has a more balanced upstream, and whose contract allows the customer to run servers / LANs / etc off the connection.

A common misconception. If it were true, I'd gladly pay $95/month for a full-service pipeline. But if you order the Comcast Pro product for $95/month you are still subject to the same crappy TOS. From the agreement:

2. Use of Service. The Subscriber Agreement is hereby modified to permit You to use the Service for small business commercial purposes in accordance with Comcast's then current published Comcast High-Speed Internet Pro product description (which may be changed from time to time in Comcast's sole discretion); provided that no servers will be placed behind your connection (i.e., HTTP, SMTP, NNTP, FTP, DNS, DHCP, etc.). Comcast does not represent or warrant that the Service is appropriate for business or commercial use or will work as desired. There is no service level agreement covering the Service...

Need I go on?

A HD capture card where the signal is then transmitted through RF?

At first sounds like someone recording a symphony for an eventual release on SACD but then using their mom's answering machine to record the concert.

I looked into it a bit more. The RF is actually a coaxial input. Which means it's the same exact input you'd get from, say, Comcast or your local cable provider. I don't have time to do a lot of research but isn't this what you're looking for? Is there something I'm missing?

The procedure to reclaim your refund per the Tennesee Dept. of Revenue

The form on Comcast's web page to fill out and mail in.

Why yes, I do live in Nashville and have been a Comcast cable modem customer for for several years.

Not that I think they'll listen, but some folks went to the trouble of setting these up (they are posted on Leo's board). Hey it worked for Star Trek and Family Guy right? =)

Petition 1
Petition 2
Petition 3

Also a direct link to the Comcast complaint bucket...

Comcast Feedback

sharing their cable TV with their neighbours...... have an access point would be admitting to committing theft of service

Hardly! Two points:

1. Comcast is willing to sell you an access point "Connect up to 5 computers for $62.95/month....and you can do it without wires." They sell them, they offer support for them.. they in them selves are not theft of service.

2. While could hardly be hend accountable if some yahoo climbs up your pole and jacks in a wire. If you climb the pole that's a diffrent story, or if you hook up a wire between your house and someone else's house. If you give someone your wireless password, then ya... that could be theft of service. But in it self it is not.

I'd suggest this for high-speed Internet in AA. I regularly pull down 1 MByte/s on torrents.

In case you're averse to living around the likes of me, however, Comcast does offer cable modem service throughout the Ann Arbor area. As far as I know, their service does not require you to be a cable TV subscriber to sign up.

I suspect that this will be a bigger success than you realize.

First, there are a number of factors you missed. Current broadband subscribers are dying to get it: DSL is about $5 more, and cable broadband is about $25 more (that's why Qwest and Comcast are complaining). Companies will order more than one connection. Government will order hundreds or thousands of connections. The article touched briefly on what was planned for Provo, one of the smaller cities: Since each intersection has low-resolution cameras installed for controlling traffic lights, they intended to connect each camera up to the network so that crashes and congestion can be viewed remotely. At each sporting event or traffic jam, the entire city's traffic pattern could then be sent to a central location and be more carefully coordinated. That's a few hundred connections right there for a single city.

Second, Your numbers are off. In one instance, you concluded that 2.8M * 12 = 67M which obviously wrong.

Rather than using the approximate numbers given in the article, I went to the census results for the area For the 4 counties involved in the project (Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Weber), there were 531,977 (not 248,000) households and 40,862 (not 34,500) businesses in 2000. Each of these counties is also experiencing rapid growth internally and due to in-migration.

Using the 2000 information, double your number of households, and increase your businesses by 1/3. That brings the elegible base up to 570,000, or 600,000 by the time it is implemented. You suggested that 33% of the population would be interested, but knowing the area, I'd suggest it is closer to 40-50%. The cost of $28/month is much less than what the Qwest/Comcast monopolies want to charge, even for DSL, so expect a huge price war (which is what the two companies were complaining about -- no more price gouging.) Qwest's current charges for 640k DSL is $32/month, + $5/month for modem, plus $100 install fee, plus ISP fees. Comcast is charging $53/month + modem + install for only slightly faster speeds. The Utopia system's $28/month + install is a great deal, considering you can run whatever you want on it, and you get substantially faster speeds.

Assuming your conservative base of 1/3 adoption and one line per business, that's 200,000 installations, $5,600,000 per month, $67,200,000 per year. Assuming a 2/5 adoption rate gives $80,640,000/year.

But there will be more users than just homes and businesses, and businesses are going to take more than one line each. My company will probably end up with 20 or more. Government facilities are planning on massive use of the system, including joining the system up to all the traffic lights and detection systems.

My current company works on traffic detection. Detection stations need to be connected online, and most are currently attached through CDPD modems or fairly expensive fiber cables anyway. Moving over to this service would give huge bandwidth benefits (converting from 9600-19200 baud CDPD to optical) and big savings (a few hundred each month per CDPD modem or wired connections, moving to $28 plus installation costs.) I've been in meetings where this project was discussed, including seeing the numbers run and seeing the savings to the company.

There are a lot more people interested in this than you might suspect, including a substantial cost savings to thousands of companies and geeks in the area.

frob

Screw satellite TV in my car. Comcast offers me money for to ditch-my-dish. What they need to do is have some sort of San Francisco trolley thing going on so we don't have to have long extension coax.

I am moving and I was looking on Comcasts's website to determine availability in new area. I saw updated website where they are offering the *new* "Comcast High-Speed Internet Pro" service (with download speeds at up to 3.5Mbps and uploads as fast as 384Kbps).

The price is -
"Standard monthly rate of $95/month applies, with no additional charge for modem rental. Installation fees may apply. "

You can read about the new service offering here - Comcast High-Speed Internet Pro at $95/month

My neighbors are all stuck behind 28.8k modems. I've tried to get the local cable company Comcast to bring their cable down the street but they are unwilling. There is no choice for DSL or anything else due to our "remote" location.

This is after they (comcast) have moved their technical support out here (scio township). I'm still lobbying them to be required to provide service (I'd rather have cable so I can receive CBC and watch HNIC instead of the worse ESPN coverage and back myself up with a cable modem... I feel for my neighbors.

I use Comcast Digital Telephone Service through the cable for local and long distance. Haven't had any issues with the service and I've even changed the set up a few times without any problems. Anything is better than Michigan Bell/Ameritech/SBC

Comcast already has this too. AOL is playing catchup.

Even if the government allowed unlimited mergers, there are countervailing forces that encourage companies to split up on their own.

My favorite part about Comcast Digital Cable is that the cable boxes they provide (at $15/month) don't have digital audio outs (however, they do have a Dolby Digital logo on the front just to piss you off further). When I called to complain, I was told "there are boxes with digital audio outputs, but we don't provide or support them because they cost more". Of course, the info on their website dances around the issue by saying it's easy to hook up to your stereo and it has high quality sound while stopping short of mentioning the fact that your audio is analog beyond the cable box. Pricks.

My favorite part about Comcast Digital Cable is that the cable boxes they provide (at $15/month) don't have digital audio outs (however, they do have a Dolby Digital logo on the front just to piss you off further). When I called to complain, I was told "there are boxes with digital audio outputs, but we don't provide or support them because they cost more". Of course, the info on their website dances around the issue by saying it's easy to hook up to your stereo and it has high quality sound while stopping short of mentioning the fact that your audio is analog beyond the cable box. Pricks.

I've been using wireless for broadband for a few months now. In downtown Philadelphia the local cable company is not very serious about taking on new customers. We were told that someone would be there to set us up next week for about 4 months. We offered to pick up a box and install it, but they kept giving us the runaround.

The last time I had DSL the company went out of business a year into my 2 year contract. We also had problems with the local phone company using our DSL wire to string up new phones. (I'll never forget the Covad service guy: "Sir, your DSL line has a dialtone.")

My 802.11 wireless rig is going through a few trees and doesn't seem to mind. Hills are easy, it's called a rooftop mount.

In response to previous claims of Comcast intercepting packets, the company pledged today "to immediately stop recording the Web browsing activities of each of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers." This after the Associated Press announced on Tuesday that the company "has started recording the Web browsing activities of each of its 1 million high-speed Internet subscribers without notifying them of the change."

The Washington Post has this article about how Rep. Ed Markey is looking into Comcast's collection of personal internet usage info. Hey, this guy must read SlashDot!!

Markey, D-Mass., in a letter to Comcast President Brian Roberts, wrote that he was concerned about "the nature and extent of any transgressions of the law that may have resulted in consumer privacy being compromised."

Also, Comcast has a new press release in response to the fracas.

The Washington Post has this article about how Rep. Ed Markey is looking into Comcast's collection of personal internet usage info. Hey, this guy must read SlashDot!!

Markey, D-Mass., in a letter to Comcast President Brian Roberts, wrote that he was concerned about "the nature and extent of any transgressions of the law that may have resulted in consumer privacy being compromised."

Also, Comcast has a new press release in response to the fracas.

In a bold marketing effort to help squelch concerns that Comcastis collecting and reselling customers web surfing habits, Comcast has updated their I want it campaign. The companies new slogan will be Comcast: We just want your pr0n. When asked how the new slogan was chosen, Comcast responded that
"SCORE! Get the lotion" was already being used by Snort in their kickass-porn rule set.

In a bold marketing effort to help squelch concerns that Comcastis collecting and reselling customers web surfing habits, Comcast has updated their I want it campaign. The companies new slogan will be Comcast: We just want your pr0n. When asked how the new slogan was chosen, Comcast responded that
"SCORE! Get the lotion" was already being used by Snort in their kickass-porn rule set.

Terms of the agreement

Under the terms of the definitive agreement, AT&T will spin off AT&T Broadband and simultaneously merge it with Comcast, forming a new company to be called AT&T Comcast Corporation.

AT&T shareholders will receive approximately 0.34 shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each share of AT&T they own (subject to adjustment based on the number of AT&T shares at closing). Comcast shareholders will receive one share of AT&T Comcast Corporation for each Comcast share they own.

AT&T shareowners will own a 56 percent economic stake and about a 66 percent voting interest in the new company. The Roberts family, which owns Comcast Class B shares, will control one third of the new company's outstanding voting interest.

AT&T Comcast Corporation's assets will consist of both companies' cable TV systems, as well as AT&T's interests in cable television joint ventures and its 25.5 percent interest in Time Warner Entertainment, and Comcast's interests in QVC, E! Entertainment, The Golf Channel, and other entertainment properties.

The new company will assume nearly $20 billion in debt and other liabilities from AT&T and its subsidiaries, as well as $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities held by Microsoft Corporation, making the aggregate value of the transaction to AT&T shareholders worth $72 billion, based on the closing price of Comcast Class K stock on December 19.

AT&T shareowners would receive value equivalent to $13.07 per AT&T share based on Comcast's closing share price on Wednesday, December 19, while retaining complete ownership of AT&T's traditional communications businesses.

In conjunction with the transaction, Microsoft Corporation has agreed to convert the $5 billion of AT&T subsidiary trust convertible preferred securities into 115 million shares of AT&T Comcast Corporation.