comcast

Comcast exec: Expect more Web regulation

WASHINGTON--Web companies had better get used to more government interference, intervention, and regulation targeting their businesses, Kevin Kuzas, vice president and general counsel for Comcast Interactive Media, said on Wednesday.

Kuzas gave a keynote address at a Web 2.0 forum on Wednesday hosted by business and legal publisher Pike & Fischer.

There's a myth among Web entrepreneurs, Kuzas said, that the government is irrelevant to their business.

"There's a little bit of truth to this idea that policy makers are undoubtedly far behind," he said. "Government regulation can take years, while a Web 2.… Read more

Clever commercial, Comcast...but you're wrong

This post will no doubt confuse those who accused me of taking money from Comcast for writing last week's piece on Comcast's Internet usage cap.

If it helps them feel better, they have my permission to suppose that DirecTV offered me a larger bribe. It isn't true, but they don't seem to care about the truth, anyway.

But those of you who have read some of my even earlier posts may have noticed that I'm not exactly happy with Comcast, and that while I get my Internet access from Comcast, I actually get my TV service from DirecTV, a company I happen to like a lot. (Even though it disappoints me sometimes, I pay my DirecTV bill every month--and the company has never paid me a dime.)

So when Comcast picks a fight with DirecTV, I'm not just going to stand idly by.

In this case, it's a fight over which television provider offers more high-definition programming.

Comcast is currently running a clever commercial based on a fictitious game show called "You might think DirectTV has more HD than Comcast...but you're wrong."

In this show, contestants are asked whether Comcast or DirecTV offers more HD "choices" in a given place and time--for example, in Chicago at 7:12pm.

The answer, according to Comcast, is always Comcast. (I'm as shocked as you are!)

The trick here is that Comcast includes… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 803: Limp-wristed robot handshakes

If a robot has a firm handshake, does that mean its creator is a stand-up guy, or just that he programmed his robot to have a firm handshake? That and other serious technology topics are examined today, and we also give our official Buzz Out Loud reviews of the new Microsoft commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. Brian Cooley joins us for Friday goodness.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 803

LHC will not destroy the universe in 5 days http://www.boingboing.net/2008/09/04/lhc-will-not-destroy.html

Microsoft begins big ad push http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10033375-56.html http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/9/seinfeld-s-first-microsoft-commercial-awkward-not-funny… Read more

Comcast appeals FCC traffic-blocking ruling

Comcast is appealing a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission that found the broadband provider had illegally blocked some customers' Web traffic.

The appeal, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, challenges the FCC's ruling on August 1 that Comcast's throttling of BitTorrent traffic last year was unlawful--the first time any U.S. broadband provider has ever been found to violate Net neutrality rules. The FCC issued a cease-and-desist order and required the company to disclose to subscribers in the future how it plans to manage traffic.

"We filed this appeal … Read more

Comcast's usage cap: Is the sky really falling?

When Comcast announced last week that it was instituting a formal usage cap for residential customers--a total of 250 gigabytes of data transfer (uploading plus downloading), as described here--I didn't think much of it, except to be happy they finally defined a critical element of their service guarantee. The previous level of ambiguity was annoying and arguably unlawful, as I described here last October.

Few Comcast customers will ever consume that much bandwidth, and in fact it's probably several times what Comcast's network can provide to all users anyway. If a large fraction of Comcast's customer base is now encouraged to start sharing its own high-definition home movies on peer-to-peer file-sharing services, network congestion will impose a much lower limit.

But over the weekend I read some of the news coverage and blogger opinions of the cap, and I have to say that some of it is just astonishing. People are making claims and demands that violate the basic rules of mathematics and the laws of physics. It looked like a digital form of mass panic, like the sky was falling.

In this story, the falling acorn was represented by Karl Bode at Dslreports.com, whose article announcing the cap (here) was highly speculative but still reasonable.

Blogger Om Malik volunteered for the role of Chicken Little in calling the cap "the end of the Internet as we know it," assuming other carriers follow Comcast's lead.

But Malik's analysis is preposterous. The video-on-demand services Malik claims Comcast is trying to block… Read more

Broadband price war brews

Verizon Communications and AT&T have thrown the first blows in an impending broadband pricing war.

Last week, Verizon Communications said it will offer six months of free DSL service to new customers who sign up for a one-year contract and also use the company's traditional landline voice service. The promotion is available until the end of October.

Verizon's DSL service typically costs between $19.99 per month for 768Kbps downloads and $42.99 a month for 7.1Mbps downloads. Add traditional telephone service, and subscribers can get high-speed DSL and phone service for as little as $… Read more

Buzz Out Loud 799: Pop a cap in your usage

Comcast comes clean with its bandwidth cap: it's coming, it's coming in October, it's 250GB, and they won't give you any tools for monitoring their use, and if you exceed your cap twice, you get the boot for a year. So, we have a little fun with that. Also, a little fun with IE 8 Beta 2 bugs, the lack of Kindle this year, and the pseudo-alphabetical distribution of spam. Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 799

Comcast puts a cap on Net usage http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/08/25/daily35.html … Read more

CNET News Daily Podcast: You only need 250GB of downloads a month, says Comcast

Do you download more than 250GB of data per month? If you're a Comcast customer, you'll likely want to get out of the habit--quickly. Beginning October 1, the Internet provider said customers that use more than 250GB per month, per account will get their account disabled. It's got a lot of people in an uproar. Make sure to check out Webware.com's coverage of the news.

Also on Friday's podcast: Apple and AT&T could be looking at a plan to allow tethering of the iPhone, Nintendo Wii sales continue to propel the company … Read more

More tidbits on the new Comcast cap (updated)

Thursday's news about the upcoming 250 GB monthly cap for Comcast data subscribers left some questions unanswered. I shot a few of my own, as well as some from readers over to Comcast to get them answered. These are mostly items that did not appear in both the post about the amendment, or the otherwise comprehensive FAQ page.

Update at 5:05 p.m. PDT: In a bizarre twist, the previous answers to my questions were answered by someone named Bill G., who Comcast says is not an authorized spokesperson for the company, despite answering my e-mail sent through … Read more