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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

#141

Post by cvburgess »

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…

This happened to me with BrightHouse (now Charter) - they cut my line thinking it was a neighbor. They told me its customary because if they disconnect a paying customer they will call in. I went 5 days without internet because the tech's availability and my work schedule didn't match up until the weekend. I was credited for 5 days. I was NOT amused, but I hope there is some regulation in the future.

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

#143

Post by Spooky23 »

javiramos wrote: post #8
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…

Exactly this happened to me about a month ago. I switched from Provider_A to Provider_B. Provider_A totally sabotaged the connection hardware when it disconnected the service. Provider_B's technician had a very hard time redoing the connection hardware. It's amazing to me that all these connections are still physicial (as opposed to some software-defined switching between providers). Something akin to software-define…

It's amazing that traditional phone companies could do this in like 1995, and cable companies in New York could do this in 2000. (I had Earthlink service on Time Warner because my parents had a camp with phone but no cable service, and Earthlink gave you both)

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

#144

Post by [deleted] »

pwerner2 wrote: post #109
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…

I am astonished. This is not a complicated issue. This is sensationalism. Before any of you "vote" on anything, consider exactly what it is that you're criticising. As it is, I'll bet almost all of you have never turned a wrench, let alone crawled into some ungrateful asshole's filthy attic or appalling, sewage filled crawlspace to replace a corroded cable fitting so said customer could spank his monkey at 3am to shi…

[deleted]

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

#145

Post by zkms »

doctorshady wrote: post #134
rayiner wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, 100 Mbps availability hit 60% in 2014, and the next milestone is gigabit.

How often is the performance difference between 100 megabit and gigabit internet all that measurable, though? For that matter, how often do truly get even, say, 900 megabits allocated to you on that sort of connection? I'm not doubting they actually give you a gigabit connection, but especially during peak hours, I doubt the transit links you hit would necessarily have that much to spare.

> How often is the performance difference between 100 megabit and gigabit internet all that measurable, though?

For doing backups/restores, in this age of multi-terabyte disks, fast network links (especially in the upload direction) are a necessity.

I don't mind some oversubscription, I can work around peak hours, hell, I'd love to temporarily trade away most of my downlink bandwidth in exchange for uplink bandwidth -- average upload speed is all that matters for this sort of large transfer.

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

#146

Post by 0xcde4c3db »

jostmey wrote: post #29
kw71 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I previously worked inside Comcast systems for 10 years, I am always amazed by the competence and dedication to quality and service on the part of their engineering and technical operations staff. It makes me a bit sad that these guys do really great work and then the press are able to have all these terrible things to write about customer service reps, megacorp lobbying and conspiracies, and some hotspots of technic…

What planet are you from? I have nothing but negative things to say about comcast and the quality of comcast products I fully believe the press because as a customer of comcast they treated me like a turd on the sidewalk

To be fair, every exchange I've heard of with Comcast's actual network tech/admin people has given me the impression that they're extremely good at their jobs. Almost all of the problems I hear about with Comcast are related to extraordinarily poor customer service, neglected outside plant, or customer-hostile policy decisions.

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

#147

Post by Pxtl »

rayiner wrote: post #97
CaptSpify wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legally speaking, you are likely correct. I'm saying that they should be.

If you hire a contractor to trim your trees, should you be liable if they drop a branch on your neighbor's roof?

If you've been repeatedly informed that the contractors make no attempt to prevent damage and are unsafe to retain and you don't make sure the contractor has his own insurance to cover damage liability? Yes, I'd say so.

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

#148

Post by jamiepenney »

ethbro wrote: post #131
alexanderstocko wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something similar just happened to me yesterday. My condo building has multiple providers: AT&T, Comcast, and Gigamonster. Apparently a Comcast technician "accidentally" disconnected my 1gbps Gigamonster service while setting up a new Comcast client in my floor's Telecom utility closet. I've lived in highrise complexes for the past decade and have experienced this type of outage four times. The common denominator see…

A Comcast tech (who was out as a preliminary to getting a run buried to my then-unserved house) cut my ATT DSL line because he "assumed it wasn't being used." (Even though he wasn't installing anything that day) Since then, I watch Comcast techs work, tell them exactly where to term and where to stop, and then to get the hell off my property.

I live in New Zealand and had Vodafone do the same thing when they installed the cable internet for the previous owners. They cut both the phone line and the satellite lines leading into the house. No bloody reason for that to happen, the Chorus tech that came out to fix it said he found the same problem at a bunch of other houses in the area.

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

#149

Post by Clubber »

pwerner2 wrote: post #115
protomyth wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More like people who have had to deal with Comcast. Thankfully, I'm in rural ND where I can get good fiber and not the crap my Dad has had to put up with. The number of splitters in the wall was impressive though.

Excessive splitters usually is a sign of ancient cabling as well. I know for a fact that Comcast has passive gain amps specifically built for dealing with homes that have more than like 8 tv's and a modem. You (or your dad, it's unclear) probably were hooked up a long time ago, or the tech didn't know what he was doing.

When I have internet issues, sometimes the techs actually install splitters that don't do anything because, "the signal is too strong."

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

#150

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

The Verizon FiOS installer did this in my apartment when I wanted to get cable IP service set up. What should have been a simple self install required a service call to have a tech come out and crawl through the attic to splice the cable back together.
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