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FCC Clears Comcast Purchase Of AT&T Broadband
Torgo's Pizza writes "The FCC just granted final approval for Comcast to complete its $30.5 billion purchase of AT&T Broadband. Despite consumer worries of increased rates and clear domination of the market, Chairman Michael Powell stated, "The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible.""
Does this mean data caps?
Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap.
FCC is finally letting big business through!
(see students?)
Who is Comsec? I've heard more than I care to know about AT&T, but it seems odd a telcom giant to be purchased by an unknown entity such as Comsec. Do they have anything to do with Teltone?
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
Only if you aren't a consumer about to get arse raped by this government aproved monopoly. I'm willing to bet that if the next president is a republican that this megacorp will get to be as bad or worse than Ma Bell, the ultimate in "please sir may I have another" customer relations.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Comcast has this f*cking webpage without an useful abuse report address/form. They do not have postmaster@ or webmaster@ addresses. Obviously they aren't able to administer such services well :-/
And now they get another large chunk of the internet.. that's bad news, even for us guys overseas
Oh yeah, of course the potential downsides are negligible if you can afford to pay $100 for $hitty service. I'm having a hard time paying the 46 those bums are charging now. I mean honestly, is there any end to their greed. How many of you think Powell got a promise of free service AFTER the price jumps to 200 for a line?
I'm glad I've got DSL. I picture the day when I try to go to m-w.com and my AT&T service notes that site has been blocked, care to try our very affordable dictionary service?
Hmmm.... Did not the FCC block the merger of DirecTV and Dish Network? Or was that some other government organization?
:)
Of course, I don't watch TV so that's a moot point for me anyway...
RickTheWizKid
A man needs TV like a fish needs a bicycle
Comcast is paying way too much, sounds familiar? We all know what happened to the dot coms, don't we? But CEOs can fix anything by "cost control" (read "laying off enough people"). Then they increase your dues, since they are now a monopoly. Then 5 year later, they go bankrupt because after all 30 billion was too much and because high speed wireless beat them to a pulp. But by this time the CEOs are gone and are laughing from their golden parachutes. Anyway, by this time, no one remembers that it was done on Bush's guard. This is called win-win for the CEOs and the politicians.
Thank you for choosing Comcast. That will be $325,235,123.32 for installation, and only three times that ammount for our most basic package of 4.5 channels.
What he's really saying:
The benefits to Comcast are considerable, the potential harms to the users are not a consideration because their political donations aren't as large as Comcast's, now are they.
Wow they could of almost killed microsoft with that much money!
The parent post was actually ontopic.
It is a concise, executive summary of the whole situation.
Chairman Michael Powell stated, "The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible
Allow me to provide a translation:
The benefits of this transaction are considerable: I'm receiving plenty of "benefits" (read: bribes) from the companies involved. All I have to do in return is not throw antitrust laws at them.
the potential harms negligible: Who cares about the consumer? As long as I'm not harmed, all is good.
I pledge allegiance to the flag...
of the Corporate States of America...
It was so much fun going from AT&T @HOME to AT&T, I can't wait to get flipped over to a new network!
I wonder if Comcast can bring the same exciting server name changes and mass outages that came with the last switch. I am all-aflutter with anticipation!
No, really I am.
Chairman Michael Powell stated, "The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible."
I am pretty sure he got that backwards...
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Even now comcast cable is more expensive than DSL in my area - plus they forbid using VPN over the 'residential' package. If you want to work from home you basically have to spring for the $100/month business package. I wish the Bell Atlantic would get thier act together with DSL rollout.
The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible.
The benefits of this transaction are considerable to us, the potential harms that many come to you, we don't give a damn about.
..There's a-dooin's a-transpirin'
They allow 2 monoplies to merge, even though ti violates the laws (30%), it brings no customer relief or competition.
Yet, they stop the merger of dish and hughes, and echo offered to sell off part their equipment, and spots to allow for another company.
Guess which the FCC allows?
Like the bush league, it follows the money.
This is only for the purchase of AT&T Broadband. This includes AT&T Cable, related infrastructure, and associated connectivity-via-cable (cable modem) customers. This has nothing to do with local phone, long distance, leased lines, web hosting, solutions, etc.
What? I have Comcast, and it uses DHCP. Maybe you are in an area that uses PPPoE, which also works in Linux.
@Home was with comcast originally. They went down the drain. I wonder how long it will take them to drive ATT's broadband division into the crapper too.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
"Then I realize Comcast is incompatible with Linux."
What are they doing that's proprietary? I don't know how Comcast works, but ATTBI uses a cable modem with an ethernet out port on it. It doesn't care what kind of computer is talking to it as long as it does TCP/IP.
I would understand if they were using a USB device or something, but I'm puzzled as to how it'd be incompatible with Linux. Could you please clarify?
*Note: I'm not challenging your information, I'm genuinely curious because I may end up being a Comcast customer as a result of this merger.*
Actually, this is not true. The comcast system works with any operating system that runs a decent dhcp client. For example, under linux, running `dhcpcd ` provices all the authentication you need to connect to the service. Authentication is provided based on the MAC address of your modem, not based on any windows-proprietary method.
Is the working theory (excuse, apology, whatever) that if the service provider is allowed to become big enough it can improve service through economies of scale and having enough capital to handle build-out?
My visions of the results of telecommunication deregulation remain visions. At every step where small providers have made progress, obstacles are created by the legacy monopolies. Progress toward telecom dereg was made under Clinton, and it is being quickly reversed under Bush. I'd like to know how they justify it.
Frankly, I don't care how it gets done. I want cheap, reliable, wide bandwidth. Whether it gets to me via Joe's KickAss Wires Inc. or COMCASTATTMEGOPOLY doesn't mean a lot, except that in the former case there would be a lot fewer bean counters micro managing my usage, for a time. Eventually it'll all end up in the hands of a small number of large companies anyhow; economies of scale for a commodity product.
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Certain service areas of Comcast use PPPoE for authentication rather than the commonplace DHCP for authentication. You can get Linux PPPoE software from Roaring Penguin.
"The lesson to be learned is not to take the comments on slashdot too literally." --Vinnie Falco, BearShare
No more AT&T Broadband commercials being broadcasted to AT&T Broadband subscribers. Maybe better management will end the brilliant advertizing.
.. they left out an important part of that sentence, let me fix it:
"The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harm [to our margins] is negligible."
We need a Tech version of Rage Against the Machine.. with all that angst aimed at the various craptitude that is dumped on us on a daily basis.
I'd add some clever names of songs from RATM but with an added tech influence, but I should be working or something.
> Then I realize Comcast is incompatible with Linux.
What the HELL are you talking about? I've had Comcast cable broadband for going on two years now, and I've never had a PC connected directly to the cable, only an SMC router. What that humble little router box can, Linux can anyday--which amounts to DHCP and nothing more.
If the prices for Comcast cable modem went up and such, at least hopefully some people in my neihborhood would cancel it to free up some KaZaaing.
----------
"Duffman says a lot of things, OH YEAH!" - Duffman
I'm a Linux user (clean of windows in my apartment for 4 months now), I use a linksys firewall-hub to connect to them. I had to "bless" the cable connection with windows before I took over the connection with the Linksys and have never looked back.
I have wanted to switch to AT&T cable modem for quite some time now because my DSL likes to die on me when I'm in the middle of important work but I'm stuck in a service agreement for another 6 months so that can't happen. I'm wondering how the prices will change once the merger/acquistion is finalized. Maybe this won't be such a bad thing (I think it will, but maybe we'll get lucky)
Maybe once they have merged, they can eliminate a lot of duplications and dramatically cut costs, passing the savings on to the customers... oh, damn, did I just say that? Ha! I need to lay off the crack.
Most likely they will lay off a lot of their employees, cut costs dramatically and pocket the resulting increase in profits while claiming higher operating costs and jacking up the prices.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
"The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible."
Yea right. What was the benefit again? Higher Prices? Less bandwidth? Port Blocking?
Heck,
I just wish I could get decent broadband. The only thing available here is via satellite. If the govment is going to approve a monopoly at least make them provide their service to smaller markets too.
> The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible.
Seems more like the inverse of this is becoming true of the FCC.
Comcast does not support *nix at all, and if you tell them you ahve it they will hang up on you, but at least in indianapolis, comcast@home worked with my various *nix boxes flawlessly
That Comcast gets the AT&T rental cable modem I never returned too?
The FCC should get Comcast to buy out my local library so I and other consumers can benefit from rental/late fee consolidation.
paintball
beneficial to consumers == harmful to consumers (especially their wallets).
good for consumers == more expensive to consumers
harmful to business == beneficial to business (because it'll mean consumers pay more to equal or less service)
I also have ATTBI. It was a pain in the arse to get set up with Linux, because its $#@%$#@ registration system assumes you use Internet Explorer. After the cable modem is registered, though, it works flawlessly.
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Which says:
"If you feel that you have been a victim of Internet abuse which took place in part or completely on the Comcast Network, please report the incident to abuse@comcast.net. Make sure to include the date and time of the incident, log files, spam examples or any other information that may be useful to the investigation and verification of the incident as well as your name and phone number or e-mail address so we may contact you directly."
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If you don't like their service or their prices, don't SUBSCRIBE! It's a free market.
Increased competition through consolidation!
Lower costs through higher prices!
Join us in the new world!
Because you can use Cable or you can use DSL / satalite service, there is a choice. Further, Cable is a regulated Utility in most areas, meaning that someone other than the Cable company ultimately has authority to revoke cable licenses.
The difference between the satalite merger and cable merger is that in reality there is no competition for Cable, it is a monopoly in most areas to start (which is why it is regulated).
The Satalite industry is not regulated in the same way that Cable is. Ask yourself this question, Do I even have a choice of cable service providers? Most likely not. But you do have a choice in Satalite.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
I've used to have Comcast and they sold out to AT&T Broadband locally. Guess I gotta set my checks up again.
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I have to vent ...
... you can all mod me into oblivion now ...
What exactly is the point of them reviewing the godamned merger in the first place... I mean how fucking stupid!
Hmm.. lets see now - if the Number 1 and 2 cable companies merge - it will be good for the consumer.
I'm unfortunately stuck with these assholes until somebody comes to my town and gives me DSL - at which point I'll dump these losers in a heartbeat
ok
---- "Logoff! That cookie shit makes me nervous!" - A. Soprano
Yeah, mod me down, whatever. Michael Powell is a fucking housenigger if ever I've seen one. Show me one instance where he's stood up for the "little guy" and not sold us out to Big Business.
Sorry to use such harsh language.
In case you're wondering, a house nigger is a slave that got to live in the big house with the master, rathen than in the grubby slave quarters. He had a better life because of this but was thoroughly despised by the other slaves.
Come to think of it, my explanation is probably more offensive than my use of the "n-word." If you're modding me down because you're a historian, then that's okay.
The carrier sector - AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, British Telecom, etc. - will soon begin to find its weighty physical and capital infrastructure too expensive to maintain in the face of innovations like cognitive radio, ad hoc networks, mesh networks, and rapid - faster than Moore's Law - increases in the power and speed of communications processing.
These developments are already beginning to spark a worldwide communications renaissance that will lead to heretofore unimagined personal communications and small business development possibilities. Most carriers - like AT&T - will resist the above developments and try to hang on to current business models. Those that migrate to innovative, affordable services will survive, the others will fall away in failure.
In fact, BT's research group has *already* advised that company to start thinking about selling off infrastructure in favor of starting up a nimble, applications/service-based business.
Money will be made at the top as communications carriers roll each other up, but it's just prolonging the inevitable an bloodbath.
With this, the recent disapproval of the merger of the two dish companies and the upcoming HDTV mandate, it seems their decissions are based upon coporation's agendas and kickbacks. I just cannot wait and see what happens when old mom and pop find out in 2006 that their old TV doesn't work because of the FCC. I'm sure they don't want superior image quality, and are happy with their current TV sets (since it is just television, not a computer).
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I thought Time-Warner cable bought out ATT cable a while back? I was getting excited with the hope that Time-Warner will start rolling out HD cable boxes in my area (Valencia, CA). I'm still getting my bill ATT cable and no mention of the merger.
Does anyone know what's going to happen to ATT cable services?
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FUUUUCKED!
Comcast == monthly download limits.
Fuuuuck!
Comcast is the suck!
TGDSLINRP (Thank God DSL Is Now Reasonably Priced)
Need help treating your acne? Come here!
Thank you comcast, for what will assuredly be yet another change of address. Wonder which ports they'll block next?
Comcast is buying the service away from AT&T, so AT&T's business plan and history running common-carrier networks are irrelevant. As far as I can tell, Comcast is doesn't get it. But there's some hope, because (last I heard) some of the AT&T execs will be moving to Comcast as well.
for restoring "competativeness" (as Dan Quayle would say) to America.
Hey, what ever happened to the insider trading leads on 9-11 ? Didn't they point to ex-CIA run trading houses ?
And why no Exit Poll ? Why why why ?
you think it's easy, but you're wrong...
Anyway, so what's up with this? It's like when AT&T got chopped up, but all that did was create a bunch of little baby monopolies that didn't compete with each other, or anyone else.
Do you really need reason for beer? Wingman Brewers
Perhaps I'm too young to remember exactly or how accurate this is, but I think back in the 80's everyone had to RENT telephones from AT&T (or bellsouth?). Don't know how much they charged, but considering I can pick one up today for $10, rental seems a PITA
$cat
but they won't let Dtv and E* merge to compete against the Cable Co's. It makes me sick.
"We therefore conclude that the merger serves the public interest, convenience, and necessity."
Public interest - It seems to me that most of us don't want this to happen, so how can it be serving the public interest?
Convienience - They might have this one if the merger allows more consumers access to broadband, although I would argue the "convience" of the higher prices this merger would create.
Necessity - I don't see a need for the merger, I'm doing just fine with my current broadband, thank you.
This page was generated by a Flock of Attack Kittens for you.
Of course consolidating DSS services into One is bad, but consolidating cable internet into One is okay.
Makes no sense to me. If the FCC wants to block monopolies, fine, just do it consistenly.
Yeah I know that there is still more than one cable internet service but for how long?
1.5MBps/256K -> $45.95/month
3.0MBps/384K -> $79.95/month
I'm paying $45.95 and I think it's well worth it. I really do get 1.5MBps (around 161K/sec) at most times throughout the day. I wish they would make the $80 package more worth my while... as it is, it's not worth it.
As everyone else has said, it is not true that Comcast's cable modem service is incompatible with Linux. I just figured I'd point out where the confusion lies.
Comcast tells people that their service is not compatible with Linux because their browser branding/half-assed customer service software is only for Windows. Because they do not currently have the capability to turn your Linux PC into an animated Comcast advertisement, they claim that no part of their service is compatible with Linux.
Gee, I'm so glad that this company just got bigger.
I've been:
@mediaone.net (~1 year)
@attbroadband.com (~3 months)
@attbi.com (~1 year, no including the 6-8mo spent in limbo after attbroadband.com got killed)
now:
???@attcomcast.com???
I think they've doubled their # of customers with each merger and kept the tech support staff the same... I feel for those poor souls.
I've also seen my prices jump fairly steadily... it's now ~$90/mo for the analog cable + internet portion... used to be $73 when I started. Plus they've addicted me to the channel guides and addition channels on the digital section so my bill is now ~$125/mo.
I've been happy with the service so far (knock on wood since 1999) but I will seriously consider canceling if they discontinue services like newsgroups, or can't deliver 1.5Mb/s access to local servers (like afore mentioned newsgroups). I need my p0rn! =)
I can understand if the connection to the internet isn't sustainable at "T1" 24/7, but I think that to their own local network services it should be.
Can you get a static IP, register a domain and run your own webserver, mailserver, etc. on your Cable modem?
I thought not.
"It is better to die on one's feet than to live on one's knees." - Albert Camus
Powell is running the show. Enough said. You know he didn't get his job because of his intellect I hope they raise rates to 100 dollars a month. Maybe some of you will rebel against this corporate takeover of the net.
Does anyone know if Earthlink will be allowed to continue to provide broadband via the soon to be former AT&T networks?
What is not being advertised is that those people who are current local phone (over digital cable) customers of AT&T broadband (Comcast does not do phone over cable) are going to be quietly ignored. Comcast does NOT want to support local phone service; local phone service will cease to be advertised, sold, pushed, etc.; they're hoping for slow attrition of existing customers once the merger is done.
As for moving the high speed users between networks - it shouldn't be as much as a clusterfuck as the @Home move was; they have all of the data this time and they control the networks.
One other clarifications:
Michael Armstrong is moving to Comcast. Plus Armstrong is looking a little better (not much, but a little) now that it's been revealed that QWest and WorldCom were fudging their numbers in a big way, while AT&T didn't play that game. (Interesting muse: what would have happened to AT&T if the other companies had not, well, lied? Wall Street forced AT&T's stock price into the toilet because they were comparing the T to companies that were pulling numbers out of their ass)
I think many of us are protesting the wrong crime.
Allowing Comcast to buy AT&T Broadband is not a major crime. This is just replacing one bad monopolist with another -- the two firms weren't explicitly competing against each other so there is no serious concern that the merger will lead to higher prices, lower quality. Ask yourselves: what was preventing AT&T or Comcast from unilaterally offering more expensive, crummy service? It sure wasn't the "threat" of competition from each other. If anything, it was the threat that consumers would get fed up and revolt or the government would actually be forced to respond to consumer outrage. A merger doesn't affect either constraints - if anything, the merger makes the joint firm more vulnerable to such outrage and government scrutiny.
The real crime is the fact that we tolerate and allow these regional monopolies to prosper under government protection.
The worst thing about this merger from the point of view of an AT&T cablemodem user that I've heard about is NO Usenet. Comcast doesn't support it and AT&T has made some gurglings about following their lead (no loss to the customers because of the wonderful comcast community we'll get in its place). Urgh.
A beginners' guide to Portland, OR?
"Satellite TV may not matter to you if you live in a city, but for folks in rural areas, DBS is the only way to receive "cable" channels. "
Really? So whatever happen to C and Ku band, "videocipher" satellite and all?
One bill, one wire, one company...
Ein reich, ein volk, ein fuher?
I think you meant "could have" up there.
this is _almost_ not worth responding to, however, i'm going to anyway.
/ po well_c.htm
g i? p=http%3A//www.historychannel.com/exhibits/blackhi st/0228.html
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/1349.htm
http://www.galegroup.com/free_resources/bhm/bio
http://www.historychannel.com/cgi-bin/frameit.c
An excerpt: "He was awarded two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a Soldier's Medal, and the Legion of Merit for his exemplary service in Vietnam"
Let me just summarize for you:
Colin Powell kicks more ass before breakfast than you do all day. I suspect he's stood in the face of more suffering, death, and outright fear than you'll ever know in your entire shit-eating miserable existance. And instead of thanking him for being one of the most distinguished soldiers, politicians, and leaders _ever_, you come up with this lame trite slashdot comment ?
I am all for discourse and critical examination of the american government. It's something that makes america what it is.
However, baseless, senseless, insultation of the people that fight (and often die) for your right to say whatever pissant things your 12 neurons manage to fizzle-off and deliver out of your mouth (or keyboard), is not only embarassing, but makes me wonder what it takes to wet YOUR pants ?
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
Comcast is getting it at a great price, at least compared to what AT&T paid for the individual units.
I take it you're an AT&T user? Enjoy slashdot while you can then, you might not be back for awhile :-)
A company decides to purchase another company. Why is this any of the government's business in the first place?
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm hoping this merger will allow comcrashed to bring their service and equipment up to par. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has experiennced problems with their server ranging from e-mail going down a couple times a day to DNS taking two weeks to update.
Who knows, maybe the service will improve.
The truth only happens in a place where there are many publishers of equal weight. A place with one or two heavies is likely to have "news" that's more entertianment, spin and propaganda than information. An old Russian poverb, "There's no truth in the news and no news in the truth," was made fact by the Soviet Union which had only two news services in any media, Tass and Isvestia, meaning Truth and News (order may be incorrect). Both printed up the same nonsense. It can happen elswhere with far less repressive measures.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
The only people who should be very concerned about this merger are people who _sell_ to cable operators (i.e. programmers like HBO or equipment vendors like C-Cor, SA, Motorola, etc.).
For end customers, it won't make a damn bit of difference. AFAIK, not a single market in the US are served by both of these providers, so no consumer will see a reduction in the service offerings provided to them.
For folks who complain about only having one cable operator, it's not a regulatory issue. Every local franchise agreement (contract between the cable company and your city or town that says the cable company gets to string wires and provide service, and in exchange the city government gets a % of the revenue plus free cable service for city offices and schools) signed in the last 15 years is non-exclusive, so another cable operator is welcome to come in and set up shop. Problem is, with a few exceptions (quite dense, wealthy neighborhoods), the economics just don't justify building a second network. It's not some global conspiracy, just the fact that you can pay for building a network to pass 100 houses if you get 65 of them as customers, but not if you only get 37 of them.
Mod parent as insightful
In 2000 Comcast "hosted" the Republican Convention in Philadelphia. Delegates were heard asking "who da funk is Comcast". As "host" and chief corporate sponsor of this event, Comcast oversaw the arrest of hundreds of anti-global protester, and the widespread human rights violations that helped usher in this current fascist regime. The next Republican president will be none other than George Bush, who will continue to reward the ENRON OF CABLE.
...it's the money. It isn't that they don't want you using VPNs on their service, they don't want you using them on their home service. If you get the service that costs twice as much, you are free to use VPNs. In fact they list it as a feature!
Dude, what the *&^% is up with all of these mergers?! What ever happened to those precious anti-trust laws? I swear, by this time next year we all going to be paying some sort of bill to Microsoft Comcast Broadband (an SBC AOL Time Warner Company).
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Powell is running the show.
You're opinion, duly noted.
Enough said.
Ummm. ok.
You know he didn't get his job because of his intellect I hope they raise rates to 100 dollars a month.
You did a magnificent job of spelling intellect correctly. However, you might want to do some research in the field of run-on sentences.
Maybe some of you will rebel against this corporate takeover of the net.
You bet I'll rebel...against the RIAA, MPAA, DMCA, TCPA, and every congress-critter that votes against my digital rights. But how does the AT&T Broadband / Comcast merger constitute a "corporate takeover of the net"??
--K.
Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
Get the point? The internet is not what it used to be. Spam,Spam,spam and advertising. Whatever! Thanks for researching my grammar. As if i care! lol.
You're forgetting the other half of the cable biz, which is selling advertising, and bundling and packaging channels. Cable companies are ultimately the brokers between advertisers and viewers. So they have a powerful affect on advertising markets. Plus, how cable channels are packaged, and their content, is also controlled by cable companies. If you're HBO and you only have to satisfy one buyer instead of two, that buyer can pretty much dictate what he wants. Even if it's five buyers instead of six, putting so much influence in the hands of so few is not healthy. Think about all this next time your "national network" station is replaced by infomercials on a Sunday afternoon.
Legislation is the only way of curing this capitalist monopolistic bag of crap.
From page I-3 of the proxy statement filed on May 14th 2002 with the SEC: (http://www.att.com/ir/sec/2002proxy.html)
"If the transaction with Microsoft Corporation described in this document is completed, Microsoft will hold AT&T Comcast's remaining approximately 5.3% economic interest and 4.95% voting power upon completion of the AT&T Comcast transaction."
from page V-24:
"Until the fifth anniversary of the Microsoft transaction, subject to the completion of the Microsoft transaction and the AT&T Comcast transaction, AT&T Comcast has agreed that if AT&T Comcast offers a high-speed Internet access agreement to any third party, then it will be obligated to offer an agreement on nondiscriminatory terms with respect to the same cable systems to Microsoft for its Internet service provider, The Microsoft Network. Because Comcast has entered into an access agreement with United Online and AT&T Broadband has entered into an access agreement with each of Earthlink, Internet Central and Connected Data Systems, upon completion of the Microsoft transaction and the AT&T Comcast transaction AT&T Comcast will be required, with respect to each such agreement with another ISP, to offer an access agreement to Microsoft on terms no less favorable than those provided to the other ISP with respect to the specific cable systems covered under the agreement with the other ISP."
and finally from page V-25:
"Comcast has agreed that,without the prior written consent of Microsoft, which consent will not be unreasonably withheld, Comcast will not agree to any amendment or waiver of any provision of any of the AT&T Comcast transaction agreements that would reasonably be expected to (1) conflict with any provision of the exchange agreement, the agreements relating to the set-top box commitment described below or any access agreement entered into between Microsoft and AT&T Comcast pursuant to the most favored nation provision described above or (2) be materially adverse to Microsoft's rights under the exchange agreement or the benefits that Microsoft reasonably expects to realize from the exchange agreement, in the case of (2), to the extent that any such amendment or waiver would have an effect on Microsoft that is materially disproportionate to the effect it would have on other AT&T Broadband or AT&T Comcast shareholders."
Linux works just fine... no ClientIDs, no PPOE. Just pure, natural DHCP. Ahhhh.
More angry and frustrated.
Michael Powell, son of Colin Powell, is the chairman of the FCC, the government agency that is supposed to be regulating this field. supposed to be.
And, considering the large number of endruns around the CFA have already been reported on, I'm quite sure that no politician needs limit him/herself to being bought for only $5K.
Plus, you're missing the real point. Powell isn't an elected official. He is a Republican party member however, who has continued to reward through action and/or inaction large contributors to the party. I'm not suggesting personal greed. I'm stating political loyalty/ethical vacuum.
One bill? Yeah, right. I have AT&T for my cell phone, local telephone, long distance, cable television, and cable internet. You'd think that they'd at the very least get everything on one bill. (or at the very best, offer a discount to subscribers to multiple services) No such luck.
Once the comcast merger is complete, I'll probably drop them anyway, since they don't provide a newsfeed and have download caps.
This message brought to you by the Council of People Who Are Sick of Seeing More People.
I was just getting over the MediaOne merger! AT&T saw fit to change our IP ranges a few times during that transition.
:-(
Looks like I better subscribe to a dynamic DNS service.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
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It doesn't matter who's in office, both parties are corrupt to the core. And this coming from a cityslicker liberal who gladly supported Clinton in '92 only to give up on him by '96. When was the last time we had a president who wasn't a member of the Council on Foreign Relations? --M
I live in one of the markets where Comcast allegedly competes with AT&T Broadband, but I'm not expecting those AT&T dimwits to improve their customer service. That's been the biggest problem and I understand Compost...oops Comcast is not much better. That's why I went to satellite tv.
They block IP protocols 51 and 52: no more IPSEC for you! Which will most assuradly fuck up IPV6 roll out as IPSEC V4 is a testing protocol intended for widespread use in IPV6. This (along with multiple key exchange protocols) is why transport IPSEC hasn't become ubiquitous like it ought to have. If we (the inet community) had just focused on IPSEC instead of SSL, SSH, Kerberized Telnet, etc, we would have one point to point over the wire encryption standard for all TCP/UDP communication. Telnet, ftp, finger, gopher, web, you name it would be encrypted by default whenever key exchange could take place. Instead we have a mess of encryption standards and ISPs who block the very protocol intended to secure general net communication. Not that money and profits might fuck up the net at the protocol level, right? That would never happen! *cough!* --M
My area of Comcast (Reston, VA) doesn't use PPPoE (dhcpc , joy), but I'm familiar with the Roaring Penguin software. It was great - I used it for the firewall/router/mail server I had set up at an old office I used to work at. The business has since relocated to an area that promised DSL but couldn't deliver. Now the box only connects via modem, and I haven't had to administer it in months (because the "normal" broadband attacks aren't happening).
-lw
Mods: Disagreeing with me != my post Offtopic / Flamebait.
World without hate or war, invaded. Tragic?
Anti-trust laws? Naw, those are obsolete and out of date... Just ask Bill Gates!
Back in January 2002, Slashdot had a major font page story about Comcast attempting to block customer using NAT. Now that ATTBI is going to become Comcast, how long will I be able to keep my home network? Does anyone know if Comcast has been successful in this effort?
"I'm The Bounty Bear. I will find him anywhere. I'm searching."
I can't believe they would allow this merger that would create the the biggest cable company on the PLANET. YES.. >THE PLANET. And then turn down the DirecTV vs Dish Network Merger. Clearly, we know what side the government is on..
When I got ATTBI, I drilled the people installing the line that I used an alternate OS and needed manual instruction on how to get registered. The cable installer called into the office and gave me the URL to the old, but still in use, register page to get registered. BTW, before I registered, I still got an address from ATTBI's DHCP server.
I'd like to be the first current Comcast customer to welcome the ATT folks into the fold. Now grab you your ankles, this won't hurt a bit...
What you have to look forward to... data caps, no VPN, very strict usage laws, limited television programming, and the most ignorant and arrogant customer service to ever abuse the advantages of a monopoly.
Just pray that they don't buy up your favorite sports team, if they do you certainly won't be allowed to watch them on television. I haven't seen a Flyers or Sixers game this year because i refuse to buy Comcast Cable. They don't allow DirecTV to broacast the local sports teams either in the Philadelphia market... that's right the only place in the world that can't watch Philadelphia sports is Philadelphia... fantastic.
Just one suggestion... take a fork, and shove it in your eye, really it will hurt less, i promise.
I used their sas.r1 server, setting that as my proxy. After putting in my acc#, it always came back saying "the registration server is temporarily busy. Please try again later." I finally had to bring out my dad's Win95 laptop to get it registered. Simply ridiculous!
Crap, if there was another option besides sas, I wish my techies knew about it. I talked to plenty of them on the phone.
I also got a DHCP, but it didn't do me any good because it was restricted to talking only to the sas server.
...AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, British Telecom, etc. - will soon begin to find its weighty physical and capital
infrastructure too expensive to maintain in the face of innovations like cognitive radio, ad hoc networks, mesh...
Hmmm, independent backbone... you mean like, independent radio? The FCC shot down micro-radio,
claiming interference with existing stations. It then gave us IBOC, a corporate giveaway.
Don't tell me I'll get broadband from my neighbors. I don't even get a hand-wave, let alone a carrier
wave. And the FCC certainly doesn't stay up nights worrying about your walls, rain, or spectrum in the
crowded GHz band.
Good evening, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational
at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 11th, nineteen hundred
ninety-five. My supervisor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a
song. If you would like, I could sing it for you.
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