Comcast used to own me, then they sold me to TWC, now they buy me back.
In what analysts are calling an atypically brazen move, company lawyers are expected to argue in favor of FTC approval on the grounds that āin the absence of competition, a merger can hardly be anticompetitive, can it?ā
Seems to me, Cableās real competition, when it comes to internet service, is wireless. Right now, Iāve got Comcast at work and home and a T-Mobile phone. Iām often getting more bandwidth from the phone than the hard-wire. It makes me think seriously about switching to the phone for bandwidth and dropping the hardwired cable the same way Iāve dropped my home phone line.
ā¦Timely example: David Cohen, Comcastās head of lobbying, corporate communications, etc was a guest at the WH state dinner last night.
ā¦ David Cohen, Comcastās Ambassador to Washington ā¦
somebody call the fcc and ftc
What a fucking joke.
Is the new company going to call itself Zorg?
Yea, wasnāt it awesome when there were agencies that enforced the law?
As a google fiber customer I was getting a bit paranoid about googleās tracking stuff, but holy crap I will take the most paranoid conspiracy theorists creepiest google actions over this abomination.
Btw bitching at FTC & FCC is in appropriate at the moment, they havenāt signed off on this yet. They typically arenāt involved until after the announce the plan.
I just donāt see how this changes much. Comcast and Time Warner do not compete. They operate in different geographic ares. All it really does is change from one kind of monopoly to another kind of monopoly. For practical purposes, any given person only ever had one option. Changing the name of that option doesnāt really change anything much that I can see.
And now they donāt have to compete to grow their market. Aināt it wonderful?
I considered that as well, since my tmobile 4g seems to pull about 1.5x the speed as my Comcast, until I saw the part about the 9GB/mo. max (up to 18GB plans available, but you have to call to get the price that Iām pretty sure I want nothing to do with) I donāt think that the cell companies have the capacity for everyone to do that.
These megamergers benefit megalomaniacs and screw consumers.
The next idiot that says thereās a free market at play in the USA gets smacked. These oligopolies are corporate communism and as far away from competitive free enterprise as you can get.
DINGDINGDINGDINGDING!
Aināt it funny how allocating $10 million to a food aid program is āgoddamn socialismā that will destroy the very fabric of our country, but letting the two largest companies in their industry consolidate and reduce choice for the consumer is just business?
My TWC/Roadrunner cable internet is currently very good. Fast down, fast up, no caps. Sure, Iām paying $50/mo for it, but I think itās worth it for just downloading whatever I want whenever I want in a reasonable timeframe.
If Comcast takes over that is extremely likely to go in the shitter. Thatās what Iām very afraid will change.
Thatās a perfectly valid point, but its also appropriate at this time to draw the parallel to the Bell system and regulate those fuckers like a public utility.
The Bell system was a government-granted nationwide monopoly even worse than Comcast and TWC - at least they have some competition. Why on earth would you want to make things worse?
And the idea that this merger will face a ātoughā review by the FCC is laughable. These people are the FCC. The FCC chairman, Tom Wheeler, was a cable lobbyist for years before donating tens of thousands of dollars to the Obama campaign and securing the nomination.
AT&T and Comcast are ecstatic about the FCCās new chairman
[quote=ājim1234, post:4, topic:22659ā]
Seems to me, Cableās real competition, when it comes to internet service, is wireless.
[/quote]So, Comcast will only have competition when Iām near a Starbucks?
Tens of thousands of dollars? That must be one of the best ROIs in history!
