Why Is Mighty Time Warner So Scared of Tiny Salisbury, North Carolina?

[marmar]

from OnTheCommons.org:



Why Is Mighty Time Warner So Scared of Tiny Salisbury, North Carolina?
Private telecom companies work to outlaw public competitors

By David Morris


Conservatives would have us believe the public sector can’t compete with the private sector. The private sector itself knows better. Nowhere is this more evident than in the telecommunications sector.

People hate their telecommunications companies. The poster child for poor customer service in the public sector may be the Department of Motor Vehicle Bureau, but its unresponsiveness and arrogance pales into insignificance to those of Time Warner Cable, Comcast, and AT&T. In 2010 Comcast, the largest cable company in America bested 31 other companies from all sectors to win Consumerist.com’s Worst Company in America award.

As if to prove it was worthy of the award, Comcast recently pulled $18,000 in funding for a girl’s summer camp because one of the organizers had disapprovingly tweeted about Commissioner Meredith Baker’s jump from the FCC to Comcast just four months after approving Comcast’s $13.75 billion union with NBC. In an e-mail to the group, Steve Kipp, a vice president of communications for Comcast explained, “Given the fact that Comcast has been a major supporter of Reel Grrls for several years now, I am frankly shocked that your organization is slamming us on Twitter. I cannot in good conscience continue to provide you with funding — especially when there are so many other deserving nonprofits in town.” (The resulting uproar from the mainstream media’s reporting led Comcast to rescind the cutoff.)

The increased importance of high speed broadband in everything from business to education to entertainment coupled with soaring prices, slow speeds and bad service from private providers finally led cities to take matters into their own hands and build their own broadband networks. ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/why-mighty-time-warner-so-scared-tiny-salisbury-north-carolina

[Kurmudgeon]

1. And that's how corporations will take our free speech if we allow them.

[Demeter]

3. So? We Just Take THEIR Free Speech (aka MONEY) as Taxes and Fees and Penalties

Then we take away their bandwidth, as a coup de gras.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[toddwv]

4. An excellent read that should piss people off.

Broadband companies in the US are holding us back as other areas of the world rush to provide MORE bandwidth, not throttle their customers to speeds that were prevalent 10 years ago.

[The Big Vetolski]

5. Mussolini would be very proud of North Carolina and Pennsyvania...

Governor Rendell. After all, Mussolini defined fascism as the use of state power to advance corporate interests. Using the power of the state to prevent municipalities from competing with private corporations surely fits that definition.

[Doctor_J]

9. You might be in the wrong place

just a wild guess

[Quantess]

6. K & R

[GeorgeGist]

7. The private sector fears socialism ...

because they can't compete in a free market economy.

[avebury]

8. K&R

[Quantess]

10. little one, so brave

[underpants]

11. This is one of the greatest posts/links I have ever read on DU - Thank You

I can't rec this but I will repost it in GD today.

BTW- I can give a long long response about how horrible Comcast is. The blamed our lack of internet service on (first) squirrels and (then) static. The tech called into the same phone number that we all have to call into to report problems or any other customer service complaint.

[bertman]

12. Kick. Excellent thread. nt