Former FCC Chair sets Comcast probe into motion on his way out
By Donald Melanson 
posted Jan 21st 2009 12:49PM
posted Jan 21st 2009 12:49PM
Comcast and now-former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin haven't exactly been the best of buddies during Martin's tenure at the regulatory agency, and it looks like things weren't about to change as he made his way out the door. As The Wall Street Journal reports, Martin announced yet another investigation into Comcast in his final hours on the job, with this one focused on allegations that Comcast is deliberately downgrading its rivals' phone services -- an allegation that may sound strikingly familiar to those that follow such things. For its part, Comcast simply says that it has "fully complied" with the FCC's so-called congestion-management practices, and that it is "reviewing the FCC staff's letter." In related news, Martin has also proposed $500,000 in fines against several cable companies, including Comcast, saying that they have failed to provide enough information about whether they have improperly shifted channels from analog to digital tiers. Of course, all of this is still up in the air at the moment, and could possibly be rolled back if and when President Obama's expected choice to head the agency, Julius Genachowski, takes the reins.
reins.
And Comcast, not Comast.
Someone should provide a free internet service/technology (Like OTA HD) at lets say 8Mbps max.
Then I could dump comcrap completely and watch them die as customers abandon ship.
FUC& the FCC!
uhh, nooo... we like this...
The problem with this is the FCC makes Comcast bend over and take it. Then Comcast turns around and does the same to their customers in the ways of fees. While AT&T sits over there like you can have our internet service...oh we don't offer it in your area.
What is wrong with the FCC going after Comcast; other than that they are a friggin' monopoly and do nothing but pass their fines on down to me and you.
How about personally fining the CEO by yanking his colden paracute? Anything else is just fighting shadows.
This is what the FCC should be doing instead of limiting our freedom of speech over the radio and television.
It's good to see that the FCC is taking action to protect our rights from the companies. I hope his replacement continues his aggressive actions against companies that continue to abuse their customers.
Did we not pass English class, Donald? Or did you forget to spellcheck and edit?
wow spell check nazi much?
"Comast"... Why not just go right for "Comass?"
YES!!!! Probe their anal cavities to the fullest!
Every since my "free upgrade" to "16 Mbps", my connection has been slow, at less than 8Mbps and this week 3Mbps? When I was at "8 Mbps" I always got a consistent speed.
When I called comcrap support they told me to delete my browser cookies to fix the problem???
Stop fucking with my connection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Try living in the UK, the average here when you pay for 8mbps connection is 1-2mbps if lucky. And 16-20mbps achieve around 5-9mbps and most are throttled back to 1mbps when you actually want to use the internet. And going down to 2mbps will mean your speed also goes down to 256kbps-ish even if you know your line is capable of 2.
Lighten up there, Francis.
comcast is awful
Maybe Obama should have kept this guy as FCC chair.
Errr, no...he's got a better one coming in
How about an inquisition into their overall crappy service and bad habit of stuffing my mail box with advertising.
If Comcast spent more on providing great service they wouldn't have to advertise as much. Their ads are everywhere: TV, radio, billboards, bus stops, mail, etc.
Please stop.
FCC=Fvck Com Cast
man comcast kills me, I have a whole blog about it at comcast sucks balls
The headline should really read: "Former FCC Chair sets Comcast probe into motion on his way out to AT&T's headquarters". None of these companies comply with the FCC, that Comcast and all these other cable companies are at target here is just cause of the gigantic conflict of interest with the telco's.
You guys need to quit whining how bad Comcast is and CANCEL YOUR SERVICE. This is the ONLY thing that Comcast understands. I refuse to use them since they would not listen to me when I had network traces of their DHCP servers proving that they were sending responses that were incorrect.
The last 'customer service' call I had went like this:
Me: "I can't get an address because your DHCP servers are sending incorrect responses."
'Service' rep: "Do you have a router installed?"
Me: "Yes, but that is not the issue here."
'Service' rep: "We do not support routers. Please take the router out of the setup, connect your computer directly to the modem, and reboot everything."
Me: "Yes, I get an IP address with that configuration, but I have a network trace that shows why I do not get one with the router in place."
'Service' rep: "I am sorry, sir, we do not support routers. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Me: "Yes, please transfer me to your cancellations department."
I dropped Comcast, went to DSL and never looked back. No shared bandwidth, nobody screwing with my traffic flow. It has been rock-solid reliable without a single issue for over four years.
Yeah, but DSL is so much slower. Thats the problem a lot of people have, I think, is that if there WAS a different choice for high speed internet, they'd definitely take it. But there isn't, and ComCast and a lot of other cable companies (ahem, mediacom!) take advantage of that. I have to pay $70 a month for a 5 Mbps connection because I don't get their stupid cable package. Hope Obama's FCC guy will fix some of this ridiculousness!
Best thing to do with Comcast is to cancel service. We told them that and all of a sudden they were super nice. We left and got Fios. I like it more than Comcast. But in someplaces like where I currently am I dont have an option. Comcast is faster than the DSL here and they dont offer Fios here either. Ugh I wish comcast would learn.
Good! Having deal with Comcast many times, I can honestly say the service they provide is the worst of any major business I've dealt with in my entire life.
This is good news.
I'm an authorized provider of a VoIP service and many of my customers who use Comcast internet report terrible call quality, and even dropped calls. Meanwhile my customers on DSL and Time-Warner cable reported no such problem. I've always suspected that Comcast was mucking with its customers' VoIP usage, especially after they were suspected ad proven to have interfered with BitTorrent traffic.
Not everyone has the option to leave Comcast. In my area, they are the only cable ISP around. Areas where it doesn't are either covered by Time Warner or some smaller company. While DSL has gotten faster, it still has its limitations leaving only cable internet the only choice.
As a vonage and comcast customer I fully believe that comcast f'd with my connection to vonage. droped calls and poor quality when I could go and run the speed test on vonage's server with no problem.
LOL, people crack me up. Without Comcast and all the other cable companies you guys would be STUCK with 56k modems on analog phone lines.
EVERY phone company switch installed for the last 20 years has been capable WITH NO ADDITIONAL HARDWARE of doing ISDN. And the phone companies NEVER sold it to you for a price you could afford.
Without Cable companies doing high speed internet you'd be paying hundreds of dollars a month for DSL services.
Stop your crying.