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Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

arstechnica.com

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Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#41

Post by jimjimjim »

pwerner2 wrote: post #7

Former Comcast cable technician here. I was an in-house tech, and corporate has ludicrous quality standards and nitpicky, white-glove QC's after an in-house tech leaves a job. However, the company obviously employs a TON of _independent contractors_. Some of these contractors are excellent at their jobs, but a lot of them aren't, and as they're not subject to any real oversight by the corporation, you really don't kn…

In a near-monopoly situation: Never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by malice.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#42

Post by wavefunction »

pwerner2 wrote: post #22
rgbrenner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of malicious action on the part of Comcast. Im not so sure of that. The destruction occurred from June 15th to Aug 1st (when they lost their last customer) -- thats 6 weeks -- using over 4000ft of cable for repairs. If comcast was notified after the first incident, and it continued for 6 weeks.. doesn't that indicate malicious intent?

Comcast is huge, and again, a lot of the techs are independent. Some of the employees, especially management are totally incompetent too. Ever been to the DMV? Now imagine that they're the ones hooking up your internet. That's Comcast.

The DMVs I go to are staffed by highly-competent but over-worked and underpaid folks.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#43

Post by notyourwork »

r00fus wrote: post #37
jamroom wrote: post #2

Wow - if true I really hope Comcast gets taken to the cleaners over this. We REALLY need more ISP competition in the US- this is just ridiculous.

Competition will not exist due to natural monopolies for the last-mile wiring issues. What is required is effective regulation. Which the new FCC head just gutted.

I guess we should all go home and get off the internet.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#44

Post by greggyb »

r00fus wrote: post #37
jamroom wrote: post #2

Wow - if true I really hope Comcast gets taken to the cleaners over this. We REALLY need more ISP competition in the US- this is just ridiculous.

Competition will not exist due to natural monopolies for the last-mile wiring issues. What is required is effective regulation. Which the new FCC head just gutted.

Those monopolies have been explicitly granted by municipalities for decades.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#45

Post by DamnInteresting »

When we purchased a house a few years back, Comcast was our only broadband option, so we reluctantly called them. The previous owners had a Dish Network receiver on the roof, and the when the Comcast technician arrived he enthusiastically offered to remove it and haul it away for us at no charge, even though it was in no way interfering with Comcast's cabling.

I doubt I will ever have interest in subscribing to Dish Network, but I declined, not wanting to be party to such anti-competitive behavior. I can't imagine the tech would offer to remove it unless such is standard practice. He'd be doing extra work for no extra pay (unless Comcast offers a head hunting bounty).

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#46

Post by ghostly_s »

dragonwriter wrote: post #35
raarts wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very hard to believe the company has'ludicrous' quality standards but at the same time works with so many bad contractors without putting controls in place. I don't buy it.

It's quite easy to believe a company has much higher quality standards for things it can blame on some other actor that it nominally doesn't control. Outsourcing blame is fairly common.

I've literally never heard of anyone impressed with the quality standard on a single service Comcast provides soooo...gonna call bullshit on this, too.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#47

Post by blackflame7000 »

openmosix wrote: post #28
kodt wrote: post #4

This does not surprise me, in fact a Comcast technician told me they do this (on a much smaller scale) by disconnecting or cutting competitors' cable runs to buildings they are working on (and also sometimes their own). I lived in a multi-unit apartment building and one day noticed my internet was down (I was a Comcast subscriber). I was suspicious because a Comcast technician was just out earlier in the day installi…

If it is true, what is fascinating is that it means Comcast has no way to know who is a legitimate customer and who is not - if they have to rely on the customer to make the call and verify to be a legitimate user. How can they run a business like that?

Comcast knows who is on its network based upon the MAC address of the modem that is registered with your account when you sign up. It's not that simple to steal cable nowadays.

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#48

Post by pdeuchler »

pwerner2 wrote: post #7

Former Comcast cable technician here. I was an in-house tech, and corporate has ludicrous quality standards and nitpicky, white-glove QC's after an in-house tech leaves a job. However, the company obviously employs a TON of _independent contractors_. Some of these contractors are excellent at their jobs, but a lot of them aren't, and as they're not subject to any real oversight by the corporation, you really don't kn…

Not requiring sub-contractors go through the same "ludicrous quality standards" is a lazy, malicious act on the part of Comcast

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#49

Post by matt_wulfeck »

jajern wrote: post #5
kodt wrote: post #4

This does not surprise me, in fact a Comcast technician told me they do this (on a much smaller scale) by disconnecting or cutting competitors' cable runs to buildings they are working on (and also sometimes their own). I lived in a multi-unit apartment building and one day noticed my internet was down (I was a Comcast subscriber). I was suspicious because a Comcast technician was just out earlier in the day installi…

Typically all that is in those boxes is a coupler. A guy I used to know still had service running to his line. He was actually stealing it though. He just kept hooking it back up after they would come remove it.

Does that still work on the day and age of encrypted cable boxes and modems that require 802.whatever certs?

Re: Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business

#50

Post by radlad »

pwerner2 wrote: post #22
rgbrenner wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> instead of malicious action on the part of Comcast. Im not so sure of that. The destruction occurred from June 15th to Aug 1st (when they lost their last customer) -- thats 6 weeks -- using over 4000ft of cable for repairs. If comcast was notified after the first incident, and it continued for 6 weeks.. doesn't that indicate malicious intent?

Comcast is huge, and again, a lot of the techs are independent. Some of the employees, especially management are totally incompetent too. Ever been to the DMV? Now imagine that they're the ones hooking up your internet. That's Comcast.

The DMV didn't cut my friend's brake cables when I went in to get my driver's license.
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