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Comcast Pays $800,000 To U.S. For Hiding Stand-Alone Broadband
First time accepted submitter vu1986 writes "The Federal Communications Commission has settled with Comcast over charges that the cable company made it hard for consumers to find stand-alone broadband packages that don't cost an arm and leg. As part of the settlement Comcast paid the U.S. Treasury $800,000 and the FCC extended the length of time Comcast had to provide such a service."
Hmm. $800,000 fine. For a company that grossed 4.4 billion last year. If this was an individual making median income (47k USD), then this would be like fining them $0.09. That'll teach them!
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Does Comcast have to make it any easier for customers to find the stand alone-packages? I don't see that requirement anywhere in the summary or article ..
It's a settlement. Basically the FCC and Comcast sat down and decided that it would be... cheaper... if they simply didn't use 2 point font to describe the alternatives than to put it through the legal system and an endless appeals process. If you're a conservative, it amounts to a government agency fleecing an innocent business to support their habit of taking businesses to court to enforce arbitrary standards. If you're a liberal, then it's a way of making a monopolistic business play well with others. And if you're politically agnostic, then it's a slow news day and this just confirms your belief that people are stupid and lazy.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Yes, we do with only 2 viable options in most of the US, if you're lucky, we can't count on market forces. Ultimately, it's either settle for whatever the ISPs want to give or force them to something about it. Having watched the prices rise and the connection speed not for over a decade, I definitely think we need more government as less isn't working.
To which they reply, if you buy my phone service *I* won't call you as long as you are stay subscribed!
Science advances one funeral at a time- Max Planck
When you have monopolies or near-monopolies like these Internet companies seem to be in certain places, the government is the only power that can rein them in and keep them from buggering you up the ass. Since it appears that there is no meaningful competition for Internet service in many parts of the United States, the government stepping in to regulate these companies is an appropriate thing for them to do. Otherwise, these monopoly companies can provide crap service, hide options that they can provide because doing so will increase their profits, and you have no recourse whatsoever, because your only other option will then be to do without their service or product.
A reasonable conservative wants .. a reasonable amount of regulation.
Unfortunately for you (and everyone else, actually), reasonable conservatives are a dying breed in many places. You're saying the sort of things that are frequently treated as outright heresy, at least among conservative politicians and media personalities held in esteem in certain parts of the United States. They are perfectly happy to have businesses rip us off in any way possible, under the make believe principle that the free market is a bag of magical fairy dust that can solve any problem that faces mankind. How appropriate or effective a market can be to a specific enterprise is entirely irrelevant, because there isn't any rational thought behind the belief. They literally believe that free market capitalism is Jesus Wizard Sauce that just needs to be slathered on.
If you don't believe these things? More power to you. Don't go running for office anytime in a red state, though. Here in Texas, candidates for most offices only compete on how far to the right they can claim to be and how much they hate Obama (even if they are running for state and local offices and are unlikely to actually interact with him at all during the course of their term). Candidates go down in flames for uttering much less liberal blasphemy than what you've mentioned.
Slashdot replies normally try to provide a correction when a person posts something wrong. Alternatively, there's the moderation system. But since I don't have mod points and I'm tired and have karma to burn, I'm gonna make this short and sweet.
Fuck you, shill.
Unfortunately for you (and everyone else, actually), reasonable conservatives are a dying breed in many places
From a non-american POV, Obama walks and talks like a "reasonable conservative".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
There is no true 'left' in American politics anymore; there's the Democrats at the center, the Republicans on the right, with a few far-right groups like Libertarians thrown in for good measure.
If you're a conservative, it amounts to a government agency fleecing an innocent business to support their habit of taking businesses to court to enforce arbitrary standards.
A reasonable conservative wants .. a reasonable amount of regulation. They don't want businesses regulated to a crazy and excessive degree. But they want business to be done openly and honestly too.
Unfortunately, there don't seem to be that many "reasonable conservatives" left. It's a shame... there are two distinct political philosophies that need representing and can coexist, but today's GOP doesn't do a very good job of it. I'm almost a socialist, but I firmly believe that the free market does most things better - even electricity, if the market is properly set up.
If today's GOP were really in favor of the free market, they'd see cap-and-trade as a reasonable way to hold people accountable for the externalities of pollution, and create an incentive to improve. But they're more interested in give-the-rich-guys-money-ism. It was pretty well understood in Reagan's time that trickle-down "economics" was a political sham with no basis in reality, but a lot of people seem to actually believe it nowadays...
tl;dr - Republicans need to be like you describe, for the health of our nation. Unfortunately, they seem to be forcing those people out as RINOs if they don't also buy the line about gay marriage and so on.
I have developed a truly marvelous proof of this comment, which this signature is too narrow to contain.
The key word in your paragraph is "monopoly". Conservatives and libertarians have no problem with regulating a natural monopoly (water, electric) or government-granted monopoly (Comcast). As far as I am concerned the government should not only require Comcast advertise their Basic CATV and Naked-internet options, but also place a cap on how much they charge. (As is down with the electric monopoly.)
Alternatively the state government could revoke the monopoly and open the state to any cable company that wishes to come. Bring some competition against Comcast.
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