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Lawsuit Accuses Comcast of Cutting Competitor's Wires To Put It Out of Business (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: A tiny Internet service provider has sued Comcast, alleging that the cable giant and its hired contractors cut the smaller company's wires in order to take over its customer base. Telecom Cable LLC had "229 satisfied customers" in Weston Lakes and Corrigan, Texas when Comcast and its contractors sabotaged its network, the lawsuit filed last week in Harris County District Court said. Comcast had tried to buy Telecom Cable's Weston Lakes operations in 2013 "but refused to pay what they were worth," the complaint says. Starting in June 2015, Comcast and two contractors it hired "systematically destroyed Telecom's business by cutting its lines and running off its customers," the lawsuit says. Comcast destroyed or damaged the lines serving all Telecom Cable customers in Weston Lakes and never repaired them, the lawsuit claims. Telecom Cable owner Anthony Luna estimated the value of his business at about $1.8 million, which he is seeking to recover. He is also seeking other damages from Comcast and its contractors, including exemplary damages that under state statute could "amount to a maximum of twice the amount of economic damages, plus up to $750,000 of non-economic damages," the complaint says. CourtHouse News Service has a story about the lawsuit, and it posted a copy of the complaint.
1.8 million for 229 internet customers. How?
229 customers even paying $100 month, is 22,900 in revenue per month, 274,800 per year, in gross sales. The company had limited growth potential. I can't see an ISP that small needing or havving massive capital infrastructure to put more value on the books...
What? Does the company own its own offices on lakefront property or something, and that is part of the sale?
Otherwise where is 1.8 Million dollar valuation coming from? His ass?
That's not to say I support comcast sabotaging the network and destroying the business, but if a business owner can't sell his business for what "he thinks it is worth" its usually because "its not worth that much".
In place of #3, I'd like to see the court use eminent domain to take Comcast's wires and give them to the city so each customer or each neighborhood can choose their own ISP.
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
At a home in Rogers, MN out in the country. We had Verizon recently installed at the time, and Saw a Comcast Truck out by our pole one morning. Figuring he was just hooking up another customer, we thought nothing of it and went about our surfing and Netflix... Then the internet cut out. By the time we made it to the street, all we saw was him pulling a fast U-turn and heading off at high speed. When we walked over to the pole, the lines had just been fresh cut. So we got permission from the city to install a steel conduit over them, 4 feet into the ground, and 20 feet in the air up the side of the pole. Interestingly enough, we had great service from Verizon after that! :-D
25 years ago when my family finally went from antenna to Comcast cable, one thing they did when installing their cable runs was to snip the connectors off then end of all of the in-house antenna coax that was there before... Tough to go back to antenna when you can't hook it up any more.
Just reading the various reports - from multiple witnesses or directly impacted residents - there appears to be more than enough evidence to suggest that Comcast have been engaging in systematic and wilful criminal behaviour. Deliberately cutting cables belonging to a commercial rival is at minimum criminal damage. Doing so to such a degree and over such an extended period starts to look like a conspiracy to commit a criminal act.
I would like to see a District Attorney offer immunity from prosecution to any Comcast employee willing to come forward with evidence that this practice was being unofficially promoted or condoned by Comcast Management. I am sure that there is at least one employee or former employee who would be willing to talk.
This kind of wholesale sabotage isn't just about the defrauded companies who were injured by Comcast's actions, or the subscribers to those other companies who were disenfranchised and similarly defrauded [companies forced into liquidation aren't going to be able to offer refunds]. This is a test of the entire criminal justice system. This is a bell-weather indicator of whether or not there actually *is* justice today.
We hear a lot of talk about how governments "get business" and how they want to support the "little guy" and "promote growth". Well, here's a golden opportunity for someone to put their grandiose words into action.
We're waiting.
for decades! I founded what I think was the first commercial ISP in my state in 1994. I bought Internet access from Sprint. My connection was down more than up for the first two years since HellSouth kept disconnecting our T1. It sucked paying over $3,500 per month for access when it was down so often. In 1996 I switched to MCI since they claimed to have a better relationship with BellSouth, and I found-out they were wrong. BellSouth ripped-out all of the wiring to our office building and left everyone without POTS lines and me without a T1. BellSouth disconnected an entire five story office building just to try to put us out of business.
If the claims are true, there also should be a criminal trial and jail time. This is deliberate destruction of a productive enterprise for financial gain, far worse than getting drunk and smashing a few windows, or burglary, each of which would result in jail.
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Comcast employees admit they cut the wires, but they claim that they thought the wires were abandoned. This is a pretty good defense against the kind of punishments you listed.
If I were the judge, I would rule as follows:
Comcast, if you declare this was accidental, then your right to service that area is hereby denied. You have 6 months to break up that area into a separate company, which will be given to the plaintiff, in addition to any profits you declared for that area, from the time you acted to the time you give the company away.
If instead you declare this was intentional, give us a list of the employees that committed the theft, and actively help us prosecute them. You now owe the plaintiff twice what they requested, but you can keep the service area.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
This is my anecdotal evidence on why I don't think it's suspect. When I moved into my new house, Comcast and Verizon FIOS, were the common providers in the neighborhood. The fiber lines were already ran through the neighborhood, but not everyone used FIOS. I had FIOS before and wanted to avoid Comcast. One super shitty experience with Comcast has made me swear them off for a really long time. Anyway, the guy comes in and installs the necessary bits that Verizon installs and leaves. Everything looks good initially and he tells me to give them a call if anything seems out of whack.
Cool, no problem. TV worked and I didn't yet have a desk for my computer, so I wasn't going to hook it up right away. I was buying a desk the next week and could wait. TV worked the entire time with little issues. I get my desk, assemble it, and turn on the PC. After looking at my router lights I realize I didn't have any internet. So I call them up and explain this all to them and they said they would send a guy out.
The guy comes out, runs his diagnostic test and tells me my line must be fucked. He digs up my yard for the line and finds that Comcast had purposely partially split the cable when they were here last for the previous resident. He told me this was a common tactic they did. If the line isn't theirs, they hack at it.
My take from this is that Comcast hopes people don't call to have their issues resolved and cancel their current carrier to go with them. This lawsuit confirms my suspicions.
Comcast employees admit they cut the wires, but they claim that they thought the wires were abandoned.
Wires on utility poles are labeled as to who the owner is. If the wires were not marked as belonging to Comcast the contractors legally cannot touch them, regardless of if they appear in use or not, unless they are authorized to by the owner.
This is part of the reason there is lots of red tape involved in getting utility poles replaced.