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FCC Puts Comcast and Time Warner Merger On Hold
An anonymous reader writes "In a public letter to both Time Warner and Comcast, the FCC said they are putting a hold on the merger deal between the two companies. Citing inadequate responses by both cable companies to earlier FCC requests for additional information, the agency is stopping the clock on its 180-day review period until late October. Comcast and Time Warner together control most of the Internet services in the country. However, the companies said they are in different regions and are not going to suppress the competition.
...please raise your hands.
Anybody? /didn't think so
Time to give more politicians free cable tv and HSI.
Just don't piss off the sports fans who have Directv with it's way more HD. But maybe Comcast this your wake up call to get moving on that part.
is getting pretty deep.Competition?In Most areas,THERE IS NO COMPETITION! Like here where I live in Southeastern Kentucky,It is either Warner Cable or nothing. And yes,customer service sucks like a Black Hole.
The Geek Hillbilly
Internet would be deemed a public utility and regulated as such.
It's raging BS that all the companies involved were given buttloads of public dollars to build out the infrastructure and did not even come close to meeting the promises they made.
Should they merge? yes, only if they are forced to common carrier status for internet and fall under telephone regulation and requirements.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Anyone else think this is simply an attempt to let the issue calm down and be forgotten by the public?
everybody!.
Seriously this is good news that I honestly did not expect. I assumed that the FCC was paying us lip service and was going to allow it to go through unimpeded. this doesnt mean that its NOT true (they still could simply be paying lip service now) but its a good start. The logner it takes, the more time we have to bitch and moan
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
My experience is AT&T is worse than Comcast.
I'm actually still trying to figure out why the *FCC* is getting involved in this, and not the *FTC* ...
Jason Van Patten
"However, the companies said that they are in different regions and are not going to suppress the competition."
Technically, they are telling the truth, because they had already suppressed all competition the BEFORE merging, and there isn't any left to suppress.
You really want Eric Holder (who thinks backdoors should be left open for police, and that search warrants shouldn't be neccesary for drone use or cell-tapping) controlling our countries information infrastructure?
We would end up with rules requiring all new TV sets to have always-on cameras built in, in order to spy on the TV viewers (like the viewscreen from 1984)
That works until at&t buys directtv, and then merges with comcast-time warner
The FCC isn't reading FCC comments either.....
It doesn't work to give the franchise to a smaller competitor. As soon as the smaller competitor wins the contract, it just gets bought-out by whatever mega-corp you were trying to keep out in the first place.
This happened twice in the small town where I grew up. Every time the city tried to get rid of Charter by picking someone else, Charter would just by that other company out after the contract was awarded.
However, the companies said that they are in different regions and are not going to suppress the competition.
By surreptitiously "agreeing" to operate and different areas, they ARE suppressing competition. In most areas your "one" cable operator is the only game in town for broadband.
DirecTV might be great for TV, but not so much for internet.
Actually I think their argument is closer to:
Trust us, Comcast and Time Warner have already colluded to suppress competition, so the merger won't change anything.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
If I hear the "no reduction in competition" argument one more time, I am going to have an aneurysm. I don't even need to say what is wrong with that argument. This is about the immense power Comcast will gain by controlling a full third of Internet subscribers. Lawmakers in congress whine and moan about giving the FCC too much power with Title II, and yet some of them support letting such a behemoth, unchained monster loose on everyone? This is beyond ridiculous.
For years, I used a small ISP called Hiwaay Information Services here in Alabama. Great people, I was on a first-name basis with tech support and sales. ATT owned the lines, of course, but Hiwaay bought the service wholesale and resold it to individuals like me. It cost me a little more, but if I had a problem, instead of going through ATT's byzantine voice menus and slower-than-molasses "escalations," I called and they'd hound ATT until it was fixed.
Well worth it, in my book. I MUST have high-speed access at home for remote administration of our servers after hours.
Then ATT introduced Uverse. We received monthly offers to switch to Uverse; I ignored them and stayed with Hiwaay. But Hiwaay finally sent me a letter: sorry, ATT is no longer making these products available to us, so we'll have to cancel your DSL. I had no choice but to go with UVerse.
Right now, the price is less, but they could raise it in the future and there is no competition (unless I want to use dialup; forget that). They send me WEEKLY offers to use the UVerse "cable" television service. They can't stop DirecTV from selling to me, so I'm still with that. For now. :)
Now: you decide if the big-hearted folks at Comcast and Time-Warner will do similar or equivalent things. Add to this the service that our company gets from them in some of our other markets, and I'm afraid I'm just not quite as impressed with their protestations as I might otherwise be.
Cogito, igitur comedam pizza.
Comcast: Most obviously abusive -- In my opinion, Comcast is apparently the most obviously abusive organization in the United States. (The financial system of the U.S. government is more abusive, in my opinion, but not as obvious.)
I've just started Comcast internet service. It took several hours of my time to get connected because of needing to avoid the dishonesty. I've been over-billed perhaps 7 times, spent hours protesting that, and my first bill is not due yet.
Comcast employees abuse Comcast. It's interesting to note that, when Comcast encourages employees to abuse customers, Comcast employees hear that as permission to also abuse Comcast. Comcast employees waste an enormous amount of time pretending to be friendly, apparently so they can get good results on surveys.
Comcast abuse discussion on Reddit -- The Comcast abuse Sub-Reddit is one place to voice complaints.
DSL Reports has information about Comcast. For example, Comcast High Speed Internet FAQ.
Reddit has many stories in other sub-reddits like this one: Comcast, without my permission and knowledge, adds services to my account and charges me extra for it.
The real internet connection speeds are much lower than the advertised speeds. Try the DSL Reports Flash Speed Test. There are other DSL Reports speed tests, also.
The Numion speed test is accurate, but requires the Java plug-in.
Most "speed tests" just show electrical connection speeds (the "line speed"), not actual data delivery speeds. They know what you want, and they lie.