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There aren’t many things I hate more than misleading advertisements. Flip through the print edition of the Wall Street Journal today and you’ll see one such ad from Comcast and Time Warner.
The ad is posed as a multiple choice question listing 4 potential benefits from the proposed Comcast and Time Warner merger. It leads with “Net Neutrality Protection” but of course has “All Of The Above” selected, suggesting the merger will also create faster, more secure, more reliable, and more readily available internet for its customers.
Comcast leading with Net Neutrality is laughable, but unfortunately, Net Neutrality isn’t a laughing matter.
Ever wonder why Netflix used to be so slow on Comcast? It’s because Netflix hadn’t yet started paying Comcast for preferential treatment to ensure better speeds for its customers. The idea that Internet Service Providers like Comcast can pick and choose which sites and services get good speeds and which get worse speeds is what the entire net neutrality debate hinges upon. Yet they’ve created an entire site to spout about their dedication to net neutrality.
“There has been no company that has had a stronger commitment to openness of the Internet than Comcast.”
Yeah and Donald Sterling is the next Gandhi.
Technically speaking, Comcast does support Net Neutrality… but only because the current proposed version of Net Neutrality laws are in direct conflict with the spirit of a free and open Internet. Comcast supports the version of Net Neutrality where things aren’t neutral because they can sell preferred access to specific companies. So by my measure there are at least 150 companies that have a stronger commitment to openness of the Internet.
So how can Comcast stoop so low as to masquerade the net neutrality buzzword around like a crown jewel achievement when most people think a merger with Time Warner will be a disaster for users and severe blow to net neutrality? Where do they derive the gusto to promote participation in a movement when they’re widely considered the number one threat to that movement’s success?
In an open letter to the FCC, a long list of powerhouse tech companies shunned a proposal to legally allow for Internet “Fast Lanes”. Signed by the likes of Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and 147 others, here’s a snippet of what they had to say:
According to recent news reports, the Commission intends to propose rules that would enable phone and cable Internet service providers to discriminate both technically and financially against Internet companies and to impose new tolls on them. If these reports are correct, this represents a grave threat to the Internet.
As you’ll notice, Comcast isn’t among those that signed. That’s because they’re among the Internet Service Providers who would (and do) charge tolls. They stand to make huge profits by charging companies like Netflix extra to ensure Netflix streaming videos load quick enough through Comcast’s bandwidth. You can bet those costs will be passed onto the consumer, so don’t blame Netflix if subscription hikes come soon- blame Comcast and the FCC.
If Comcast and the FCC have their way, it could prove to be a complete disaster for the Internet. It could be the start of something much bigger. We’re putting our toes on the tippy top of a slippery slope with an Internet iceberg underneath.
This Comcast advertisement is maddening, because in my mind, it couldn’t be more misleading. Or maybe they’re just delusional. This is the type of smoke and mirror advertising typically reserved for presidential campaigns, so disturbingly filled with BS propaganda that it makes me lack faith in humanity. It makes me loathe whoever schemed up these ads in some thought polluted, idiot filled backroom. It makes me more desperately crave Google Fiber.
But most of all… it makes me want to cancel my Comcast service.
[Thanks Tokugawa!]
Screw you comcast!!
I call your “Screw you comcast” and raise “F**k you comcast”
“Yeah and Donald Silver is the next Ghandi.”
I think you meant Donald Sterling there.
LOL guess he was thinking about sterling silver
Actually, Donald Sterling has a lot in common with Ghandi. Mainly the racism.
Gandhi was racist? I suppose you can sympathise with disliking imperialist England.
Whoops! Thanks. Fixed :)
Donald Silver, Adam Sterling… potato, potahto.
I hate comcast with the heat of 1000 suns. A cable in my area got cut 3 houses down and I was without internet for near 3 weeks because that’s how long it took for them to get someone out there in Houston. And then they tried to charge me $50 for the guy to come out there! The customer service is a joke it’s always some Indian I can’t understand reading off a canned response list and I get so frustrated just trying to talk to someone who can actually help when something goes wrong ( and it often does ). I’m paying like $85 a month for their ” blast internet ” no TV or anything and I’m supposed to get wifi speeds of 50 Mbps. HA more like 6-9 mbps on a good day. Once in a blue moon it will go up to 25 but I think that’s divine intervention. I would cancel and go to someone else but there’s very little choice in my area besides clear.
I think before Comcast tries to take over other companies it should fix it’s own company first…
/rant
I’d drop Comcast like its hot if I could. Its the only “fast” option I’ve got though. Strong monopoly -.-
One thing about their Blast internet is that it’s exactly that, just a “blast” of speed for the first 20MB or something like that, and then it drops to the lower speeds.
As far as getting the 50Mbps speeds, you’ll probably never see that. It’s pretty common that a user won’t ever see the actual advertised speeds.
I was so glad when I moved to a town that Comcast didn’t cover. The ISP I’m with now is great, and their customer service is amazing. I called once for a random billing issue, and before I was off the call they noticed I was paying more than I needed for the speeds I was getting, and actually offered to either lower my bill or bump my speeds for the same price I was paying, something I’d NEVER had with Comcast. Didn’t extend my contract with them or anything. So amazing.
> As far as getting the 50Mbps speeds, you’ll probably never see that. It’s pretty common that a user won’t ever see the actual advertised speeds.
I’m on the Charter 30Mbps plan. I get 28-35Mbps pretty regularly.
My gigabit Internet consistently maxes out at around 950 (Ethernet overhead, etc.), so yeah, I do get my advertised speeds
I actually do get 50Mbps from Comcast. Speed tests (using a wired connection of course) are consistently in the 48-51 Mbps range.
I’ve got Blast! and regularly get sustained 56/57Mbps down and 11Mbps up (yep, that is MORE than advertised)
Your problem is saying you are supposed to get 50 over WiFi. I’m not trying to be mean but do you truly understand the limitations of WiFi? Not only the limitations but then you have to take into account the equipment receiving the signal. There are so many variables. Wireless internet is really more of a convince, wired internet is where you should really measure your speeds for an accurate account of what you are supposed to get.
And I’m not saying 50 isn’t possible, I get almost 60 all day long wireless through Comcast but I have a dual band router and that’s on 5.0 GHz.
Edit: the above goes for any ISP and speeds wirelessly. I don’t want anyone thinking I’m rushing to Comcast’s defense here.
No offense taken, I do understand how it works and am pondering options on how I can get a better signal. I guess I worded it wrong maybe but my point was I don’t even get half of 50 90% of the time on any of my devices between my wife and I we’ve got about a dozen devices that connect to it and none of them get a decent speed and comcast won’t help me with it.
Maybe I should trash their crappy router / modem they gave me and get a new one that is a beast.
I would definitely buy my own router but More important try and get a good speed test on a hard wired computer if you can. If you aren’t getting the speeds you pay for that way something is probably wrong. Truthfully I would spend as much as you could on a router. I’ve had several cheap routers and the best router I’ve ever owned is my Asus wireless ac router, nit cheap but always great speeds and a good reliable connection. Wireless can be a major pain in the a
Thanks for the advice. I’ll look into that :) if I can’t switch companies hopefully I can at least improve the service myself.
I have gigabit internet at my house and get about 250mbit on the wireless and ~900mbit on the wired gigabit ethernet so the idea that you can’t get over 50mbit “over WiFi” is asinine
Reading is fundamental. The only thing asinine here is your comment.
“War is Peace.”
“Ignorance is Strength.”
“Freedom is Slavery.”
And now Comcast: “We had to destroy Net Neutrality to Save it.”
Comcast wins 1st place in the Big Brother Sponsored Annual Doublethink Awards.
The future looks grim.
I fear this will get bad enough where lives will start to be at risk. Desperation, exploitation, greed, exhaustion.. things like this can stem from this net neutrality mess where a minority of folks will do something rash. I’m talking about the straw breaking the camel’s back, net neutrality may be that straw.
Yeah…I trust them about as far as I can throw a potato chip.
Comcast and Verizon began joint marketing here shortly after uVerse showed up as that’s Verizon’s next best alternative to Fios, I guess. Those two crooks are made for each other.
As much as I dislike Verizon, I dislike Comcast ten times more. At least Verizon backs up their cockiness with something of substance- a strong network.
Netflix has just sent me an email that says they’re upping the price by £1 pm for new customers and that I’m safe for 2 years. If that’s because of this nonsense across the other side of the Atlantic then damn you Comcast!
It is part of it. The other part is because of their new shows and stuff.
Isn’t there some organisation you can complain about that ad to in US? They’d get slapped down by the ASA in a heartbeat if they ran that in UK…
Well we haven’t reached full nanny-state/socialist status in the US yet, so no
There is nothing socialist about passing laws to protect people. Or are you also against such petty “regulations” as those that prohibit murder?
Also, regulation is not socialism.
It’s for consumer protection and allows for companies to get fined for lying, so obviously there isn’t such a thing in US, silly me for thinking that.
Welcome to America, where everything that isn’t full unregulated, capitalist, screw everybody over for a dollar, is labeled as socialist.
To these people net neutrality is socialist. Free/open is socialist. Any type of protection for the consumer, environment etc. is socialist.
Thank you for clarifying that to those who think the US is the best country in the world.
If people in the US stopped flipping out about socialism and accusing people they dislike of being socialist just because things will start going better. Trust me, England and most first-world countries have things better than the US.
test
Comcast is still subject to the FCC’s NN rules, even though they were overturned in court, as a condition of the NBCU merger. I’m thinking since the FCC hasn’t punished them for it, the Netflix peering point saturation issue is not a NN issue. In addition, the FCC’s NN Order specifically said interconnection matters were outside the scope of the NN rules. So pointing to that issue (as everyone likes to do) is not a good example of a NN violation.
I just dumped those f√¢k$ for UVerse (blows Comcrap away for half the price) I know att has it’s evils but Comcast is the demon. If you dump them just say “i’m moving out of state” I just LOVED the dead-air from the retention department when they realized they couldn’t sell me more crappy service to try and make me stay.
Yet Comcast charges Netflix to make sure their video streams are optimized for their network. How does this differ?