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Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

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Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#42

Post by ryanSrich »

famousactress wrote: post #3

As a TWC customer I've been long certain based on conversations with others that I have the second worst cable company in the country. So my reaction to this announcement is approximately "FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK."

I can confirm that you do.

Nothing in your life has prepared you for Comcast.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#43

Post by beambot »

bryanpaluch wrote: post #10
iandanforth wrote: post #5

I was proud of the DOJ Antitrust division when they objected to the ATT/T-Mobile merger. I can only hope they do the same here.

It's a bit different in this situation. Comcast and Time Warner do not currently compete with each other.

Isn't that simply because they have a "gentlemans agreement" not to have overlapping coverage, so that (to an individual customer) they are essentially a monopoly?

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#45

Post by cenhyperion »

suprgeek wrote: post #11

If this merger goes thru, (and the AnitTrust people would have to be really asleep at the wheel for that) two things are certain: 1) Americans can expect some of the worst Cable price gouging they have ever seen 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"

> 2) NetFlix, Amazon Prime et al will become really popular as a result of all the customers saying "FU ComcastWarner"

Not when they're direct competitors to Comcast, Comcast is the only ISP for most people, and Comcast can legally charge Netflix et al out of the market.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#49

Post by harshreality »

dreamdu5t wrote: post #35
delucain wrote: post #15

Will this really matter in the long run? I mean don't most cable companies have a local monopoly anyway? I don't think there are many Comcast subscribers who can switch to TWC. I know there's still a diversity of offerings across the market that will change, but that seems a minor thing compared to the fact that most broadband users don't have a choice who they get their broadband from anyway.

People get up in arms about them being monopolies and their solution is to grant them monopolies. It's stupid. How about this? No monopolies at all. If I want to run cable and I get the easements, I should be able to...

Suppose there weren't any official monopoly grant from way-back-whenever to your existing local telco and cable companies. There would still be a de-facto monopoly or duopoly: The easement permitting process, currently entirely blocked due to the monopoly grants, would exist, but as a sham... with the (mono|duo)polies coercing city politicians not to let upstarts dig up roads or string new cables. I've lived in a city with lots of fiber being put in. It's a nuisance, and without vocal public support it's easy for entrenched ISPs to argue that the nuisance isn't worth the increased choice, particularly in markets where there is already "competition" between one [horrible] "cable" provider and one [horrible] "telco" provider.

Re: Comcast Acquiring Time Warner Cable In All Stock Deal Worth $45.2 Billion

#50

Post by Killswitch »

doubt_me wrote: post #31
mkr-hn wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no problem with Netflix on Comcast's lowest tier. 6mbps, 10 TV channels.

Literally the same situation here. No throttling yet I just hope it doesn't take 10 years for fiber to get to Chicago

That's good to hear, I just moved to Chicago and my biggest fear was using these big named companies because of all the horror stories.
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