Good Job, Mister Mayor. You are emerging as the serious, strong leader that Seattle needs. We must all be vigilant and aware of the emerging Corporate Media Dystopia.
Two of the most disliked companies on the planet to become one....get out your spanners and get used to that boiling cabbage smell and down a glass of Victory Gin; everything is fine.
I hate Comcast as much as the next person, but is there actually anything better (customer service aside)? That's a serious question, not meant to be provocative.
I've never understood the hate for Comcast. I've generally found them to be helpful on the phone, especially during outages, and I've never been unhappy with their technicians. The last one who came by (to set me up with a new DVR box) also replaced my outdated modem. And when he was finished, he rearranged the setup in my bedroom to better hide all the cables.
Is it the cost? The bundling? Or is it more a disdain for cable companies in general?
High-speed internet access has become a necessary utility, similar to electricity and telephones in the early 20th century. The United States is falling behind other nations when it comes to high-speed internet access. This interview sums it up well.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsider…
The federal government is so stalemated that there is no hope that it will take the initiative to regulate the industry and require it to install the infrastructure necessary to keep the US on a par with nations such as Sweden and South Korea. I think it is up to local municipalities to start the grassroots movement towards this end. Let's do what we can to make Seattle a trendsetter in this endeavor.
Did you forget to link to the survey the mayor suggested you fill out ? .... due by May 31, 2014 and the franchise agreements are 10 fricking years. http://www.seattle.gov/cable/cablesurvey…
The merger may be bad for Seattle, although I'm not sure how, other than causing another round of repetitive hand-wringing injuries. But it will be great for NYC-based employees of NBC and MSNBC who will now be getting cheaper cable from their employer than they're currently paying to Time Warner, who I assure you is much worse when it comes to price, service and managing the Knicks.
I just filled out the survey. People who have opinions about the Seattle channel and television programs will be pleased with the focus of the survey. People who have an opinion about their internet service will find the survey lacking.
"Mike McGinn tried to throw Comcast's donations to Murray at him during the campaign, and they didn't seem to stick."
I'm pretty sure the Stranger (in addition to McGinn himself) did all that it could to push that line of bullshit onto voters, suggesting Murray was in the pocket of Comcast.
Good job Ed Murray! The Comcast-TWC merger can't be allowed to go through.
In wireless we're seeing T-Mobile make some disruptive moves that are good for competition and good for consumers. Something similar might happen in the internet/cable provider market.
Example: TWC or some other company could expand well beyond their current geographic boundaries by selling subscriptions to their cable TV service, delivered over the internet. Even if Comcast provides your internet service there is no reason you couldn't get TV elsewhere. Maybe, if Comcast is not allowed to be a bigger monopoly than it already is, we could one day choose among several options for TV services, competing on price.
If Comcast owns the entire market and has an even larger stranglehold on content providers innovation is pretty much impossible.
@6 My problem with them is their semi-monopoly here and other cities. You want high-speed internet, you HAVE to go through Comcast (or Wave, if you live in the small pocket of the city serviced by them). There's no competition, which is stifling innovation and improvements in our infrastructure. Lots of stories in the past few years have highlighted just how far behind we are in our data infrastructure development, and the only way to get things to where they should be is by letting someone else jump in and try to do it better.
I've never actually had many problems with Comcast's services, and when I have had them, they've almost always responded quickly and efficiently. I just wish my connection wouldn't choke on Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu.
Our household hates Comcast. And especially so since they scrambled the HD signal for basic cable customers so that our new HD TV could no longer view HD. And then we were forced to use their stupid, energy wasting, cluttering set top boxes to view even the basic cable channels. The stupid set top boxes waste so much energy they are hot to the touch - hot enough to split the wood of our media console and energy wasting enough so that the increase in our electric bill was noticeable.
We spent $100 for an antenna and pretty much now keep the stupid set top box unplugged.
I will happily use my Comcast Internet access to complain about Comcast. Just let me know where to go.
Is it the cost? The bundling? Or is it more a disdain for cable companies in general?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsider…
The federal government is so stalemated that there is no hope that it will take the initiative to regulate the industry and require it to install the infrastructure necessary to keep the US on a par with nations such as Sweden and South Korea. I think it is up to local municipalities to start the grassroots movement towards this end. Let's do what we can to make Seattle a trendsetter in this endeavor.
www.npr.org/blogs/alltechconsidered/2014…
Did you forget to link to the survey the mayor suggested you fill out ? .... due by May 31, 2014 and the franchise agreements are 10 fricking years.
http://www.seattle.gov/cable/cablesurvey…
I'm pretty sure the Stranger (in addition to McGinn himself) did all that it could to push that line of bullshit onto voters, suggesting Murray was in the pocket of Comcast.
In wireless we're seeing T-Mobile make some disruptive moves that are good for competition and good for consumers. Something similar might happen in the internet/cable provider market.
Example: TWC or some other company could expand well beyond their current geographic boundaries by selling subscriptions to their cable TV service, delivered over the internet. Even if Comcast provides your internet service there is no reason you couldn't get TV elsewhere. Maybe, if Comcast is not allowed to be a bigger monopoly than it already is, we could one day choose among several options for TV services, competing on price.
If Comcast owns the entire market and has an even larger stranglehold on content providers innovation is pretty much impossible.
I've never actually had many problems with Comcast's services, and when I have had them, they've almost always responded quickly and efficiently. I just wish my connection wouldn't choke on Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu.
We spent $100 for an antenna and pretty much now keep the stupid set top box unplugged.