Are You Sick of Terrible Service from Comcast and Time Warner? It's About to Get Much Worse.

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/are-you-sick-terrible-service-comcast-and-time-warner-its-about-get-much-worse



There are plenty of reasons to worry about the proposal to combine Comcast, America’s largest cable and broadband company, with Time Warner Cable, the second-largest cable firm and third-largest broadband provider.

For one, there’s ever more consolidated control over content. There’s also the possibility of certain types of content being given special (or worse) treatment based on the provider’s relationship with Comcast and Time Warner Cable. And there’s the prospect of even higher prices. Indeed a Comcast executive recently admitted that the company will not promise bills “are going to go down or even that they’re going to increase less rapidly.”

In the capital of a properly functioning democracy, all of these concerns would prompt the federal government to block the deal. But Washington is an occupied city – occupied by Comcast’s vast army. As Time magazine recently reported, “The company has registered at least 76 lobbyists across 24 firms.” Those figures include neither telecom lobbyist turned FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler nor Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s chief of staff, who was a Comcast vice president and raked in $1.2 million in Comcast payments since taking his government job.

All of that political power is enhanced by the $9.3 million Comcast, Time Warner Cable and their affiliates have spent on campaign contributions to federal officials in just the last few years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

[Historic NY]

1. I working on cutting the cord...

I'm looking at Amazon Fire. TWC sucks.

[Shandris]

2. When people say there is no difference between the parties, THIS is the kind of thing...

...that makes them say it. It's not how they treat social issues, it's not how often they filibuster or shut down the government, it's not whether they are or are not approved by the NRA or MRA or Jezebel or Twitter or whoever...it's what they experience in their everyday life. It's stuff like this.

Why don't people show up for mid-term elections? Why should they? 10 more Democrats or 10 more Republicans won't keep the bills down, and when your life options are 'keep your head down, shut up, and pay your bills', whether or not someone proposed an abortion bill 6 years ago means precisely nothing.

We -must- make a difference on -these- kinds of issues as well as our pet social issues if we're going to combat the idiocy that is the Republican Party. And if we can't - if our politicians won't - then maybe we deserve the gridlock we're getting.

[mfcorey1]

3. They have a monopoly in my area and I hate their service. I just fired off a letter

to the FCC about a drop cable they have left exposed in my yard for three months. Calls for them to rectify the situation has had no results. Who in the hell attaches a drop cable from a pole and leaves the cable lying across 10 feet in the consumer's yard from the pole to the connection on the home? Answer: Comcast.