Comcast accused of cutting competitor’s wires to put it out of business • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by Clubber » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 3:11 AM UTC

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 I go to is usually slammed, but they have a decent queue system so I only wait about 10 minutes. It used to be a joke that the government was inefficient and companies were bastions of efficiency and customer service. That's how bad the US has gotten. We run a sham economy.

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

#152

Post by Clubber » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 3:15 AM UTC

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…

Is this your version of a parody of the Cable Guy?

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

#153

Post by drdeadringer » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 3:24 AM UTC

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…

At least you got a credit. I've been less lucky.

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

#154

Post by noonespecial » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 3:43 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #99

noonespecial wrote: post #14

Even if this was accidental and overblown (as lawsuits often are: one side of the story etc...), Comcast has a steep hill to climb because of their terrible reputation. I think they're going to get completely hosed in court over this. Being assholes to everyone you deal with can have surprising hidden costs.

Doubt they have enough evidence... Knowing if something was accidental or deliberate is super hard.

I would bet that if it ever gets to a jury phase the very first thing Comcast defense will do is try to use the jury selection process to dismiss jurors that have ever had Comcast service.

That will tell you everything you need to know about what's about to go down.

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

#155

Post by pishpash » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 3:53 AM UTC

So is this more or less evil than Uber's various unethical actions? Comcast CEO sure won't be stepping down. Corporations gonna corp.

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

#156

Post by CaptSpify » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 4:00 AM UTC

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?

Yes, I don't see why not.

I should be able to also sue the contractor or something, but ultimately my neighbor should absolutely be able to blame me.

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

#157

Post by grawlinson » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 4:01 AM UTC

jamiepenney wrote: post #148

ethbro wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

So glad the Sky-Voda merger was declined. Two shit companies coming together like that can only mean one hell of a monopoly.

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

#158

Post by milankragujevic » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 4:18 AM UTC

MertsA wrote: post #103

dalore wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's so easy to change a MAC address though. Also in the past (different cable provider) they had it MAC authorised so I couldn't use my new modem. But then I set the new modem to use the MAC of the old one and it worked. So same

It's not as easy as it sounds. We're talking about the MAC address of the modem itself. In any current DOCSIS network you're going to need to use BPI+ which encrypts everything between the modem and the CMTS as well as authenticates the modem itself. Basically there's a cert on the modem that's signed by the manufacturer and the manufacturers cert is added to the CMTS. In short you can't just impersonate a modem and…

I'm not an expert by any means, but for VDSL2, I think you only need to get the DSL login data (username and password) and then your modem will work. I used a friend's login details when I bought a different modem and my provider didn't give me my DSL login. But it's all linked to the physical port on the DSLAM so that you cannot get faster speeds or anything like that.

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

#159

Post by ajmurmann » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 4:51 AM UTC

BearGoesChirp wrote: post #52

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.

Behavior like this should end in a multi year ban of the corporation existing. Only with such extreme penalties that far out weigh any possible profit will corporate behavior change.

Yes! Law enforcement used to freak out when someone was taking photos of public infrastructure like bridges etc. Meanwhile we have companies go around and destroy infrastructure like this. I actually would prefer any nearby bridge be closed for a while over not having internet for that time.

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

#160

Post by toast0 » Fri, Jun 23, 2017, 5:01 AM UTC

moriarty-s3a wrote: post #69

pjc50 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Something akin to software-defined networking What you want is "local loop unbundling". It's how this works in Europe where you have artificial non-free markets with real price competition, rather than natural monopolies without price competition as in the US.

This used to be the case in the US after the Telecom Act of 1996. However, the FCC decided on their own to give the ILECs a grace period of a year to implement LLU and then kept extending the grace period. After the dot com bust and the following recession in the early 2000s, most of the CLECs went out of business and Congress gave up and removed that requirement in 2006. The state PUCs didn't do much enforcement eit…

I'm not sure you have the history quite right; at least in Califonia, the mandated LLU was alive and well[1] for incumbent telephone carriers (ILECs), but the FCC had decreed that it applied to ILECs and not cable operators; and eventually (after much complaining and lawsuits from ILECs) decided it applied to noone, because ILEC + Cable + Satellite + Power line (hah) was a competitive marketplace.

[1] not exactly well -- when the ILEC regularly offers individual customers service at rates under the wholesale rates; and the regulators don't do anything; that's not really working well.