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.""

Comments

Benefits/Harms

[burgburgburg]

Chairman Michael Powell says: The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible.

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.

Mikey seems confused

[dirvish]

Chairman Michael Powell stated, "The benefits of this transaction are considerable, the potential harms negligible."

I am pretty sure he got that backwards...

Re:Mikey seems confused

[HiThere]

No. You are just misunderstanding what imporantance he attributes to who getting harmed. And who he figures is going to benefit.

Hint: It's not you.

Costs will probably go up

[BShive]

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.

Re:bad news for linux users

[david4286]

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.

Re:bad news for linux users

[Istealmymusic]

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.

Re:Why merge cable cos but not sattelite?

[theonetruekeebler]

Did not the FCC block the merger of DirecTV and Dish Network? Or was that some other government organization?

27 million Comcast/AT&T subscribers still leaves almost 50 million households getting their cable from elsewhere.

If DirecTV and Dish Network merged, the new company would have over 80% of the US DBS marketmore than enough to claim monopoly status. 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.

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[account_deleted]

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Protesting the wrong crime

[gradji]

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.