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June 15, 2008
Comcast Giveth and Comcast Taketh Away
Even before I had my books unpacked, and way before I had furniture arranged, I was on the phone with Comcast to arrange home internet service. Our Minnesota service was with Comcast, and it was generally satisfactory (except for the bloated prices.) Comcast seemed to be the vendor of choice here, so I signed on.
The friendly fellow on the other end of the line (their sales folk are very friendly -- not quite the same as their service people) assured me that it would be easy to set up my wireless network. They would provide a do-it-yourself "kit" that a 3rd grader could configure.
Well, when I opened it up and saw that there were only 2 small pages of large-print instructions, I knew that that was a lie. (I ended up having to hire someone to come out and make all the machines talk to each other. It was well worth the price of avoiding all the haad-banging that would have ensued.) But I digress...
Several days after my service was up and running, I got a call from one of their people. He wanted to take a few minutes to show me some of their new services. I consented, and he walked me through quite a few features I wasn't familiar with, including a large menu of free downloads, videos, games, etc. -- all kinds of gadgets and gizmos to use up all that spare time of mine.
Fast forward to the article in today's NYT: "Charging by the byte to curb internet traffic." In order to deal with bandwith hogs, three of the nation's largest internet providers are taking steps to change our habits. Time Warner is now "metering" service and will be asking customers to select rate plans depending on anticipated usage (think: cell phone minutes plans); AT&T is considering charging, and Comcast is going to manage internet traffic by "slowing down the connections of the heaviest users, so-called bandwidth hogs, at peak times." They need to get their signals straight. If they want to promote use of their resources (and of course, the ad revenue that goes along with it), they don't need to give it with one hand and ration it with the other.
By the way, Happy Father's Day to all those Dads out there. Next weekend, my sister and I will be going to Dallas to hold a final memorial service for our Dad, who passed away March 1st. Rest in peace, Dad.
Posted by hgroteva at June 15, 2008 08:33 AM | Technology