NYC Wants Comcast to offer 10Mbps for $10

[Trik'Stari]

So, I woke up, got online, checked google news for headlines, and found this:

 

http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/03/nyc-official-wants-comcast-to-offer-10-10mbps-internet-after-merger/

 

 

New York City’s public advocate wants Comcast to promise “universal broadband for all New York City consumers” in exchange for buying Time Warner Cable.

 

NYC Public Advocate Letitia James, who has served in the elected position since January 2014 after a career on the city council and as a lawyer, urged the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to impose tough conditions on the merger in anew report. New York City can't stop the acquisition, but the PSC can approve or deny it because Time Warner Cable licenses would be transferred to Comcast.

James is concerned about the $45.2 billion merger, she told Ars in a phone interview, noting that "Comcast and Time Warner have the lowest customer satisfaction ratings of any Internet service provider in the United States."

*facepalm*

 

For a minute there, I thought she said "Comcast and Time Warner have the loveliest customer satisfaction ratings of any internet service provider in the United States". If it had actually said that, I'd have probably had a stroke.... from the stupidity.

 

Never mind that what they are asking is the equivalent of asking Satan to release all the souls in hell, but NYC doesn't even have the authority to block the merger,

 

 

James has no authority over the merger herself. In fact, her report says that New York City gave up control over mergers when it negotiated its latest franchise agreement with Time Warner Cable.

“Prior to 2008, New York City retained greater authority when a franchisee such as TWC sought to merge with another company,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, when New York City renewed its Cable Franchise Agreement with TWC in 2008, the Bloomberg Administration effectively relinquished all ability for the City to protect its interests and leverage the value of its extremely important and profitable franchise.”

New York City should restore “its power to approve or deny changes of control of a Franchisee, hold public hearings and set conditions that must be satisfied before any merger takes place,” the report said.

James was on the City Council during that franchise negotiation.

I guess someone wants a bit more money all of a sudden? Although she claims that during said negotiation, the city council had no idea that the mayor was relinquishing said power.

 

 

 

“When I was a member of the City Council, there was a hearing with regard to the franchise agreement, but we had no idea the mayor of the City of New York was relinquishing power of the City of New York. He did that without notifying the City Council,” she said. Besides serving on the City Council for 10 years, James was also an assistant attorney general for New York state, counsel in the state legislature, and a public defender.

 

And then, finally, there's this.

 

 

James considered recommending an outright rejection of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, but decided against that “given the political realities,” meaning the likelihood that it will be approved.-

 

Separately from the merger, James criticized Governor Andrew Cuomo's plan to use $500 million from bank settlements to provide incentives to private providers to build in underserved and unserved areas.

"My position is the private sector should be responsible for buildout, and we should not be using public resources to provide for infrastructure improvements," she said.

 

....My brain hurts from reading this, how can they even possibly consider allowing two of the worst companies in this country, to merge and become even larger, and have even more of a monopoly.

 

 

I wonder how long it will be before Comcast, or some other company, actually bargains with the government for our souls?

 

Edit: I set every bit of text to automatic color, not sure why some isn't showing up.

Edit: Couldn't get the automatic color to work correctly, made the quoted text red. Feel free to change it if you want mods.

[JoaoPRSousa]

Well, I pay 100€+ for 100Mbps / 12MB/s

And I only get download speeds of 1.6MB/s. But I live in the middle of no where. And I'll shift ISP in like a month or so. Let's just wait for the best.

Best of luck for the NYC residents

[Trik'Stari]

Well, I pay 100€+ for 12Mbps / 100MB/s.

And I only get download speeds of 1.6MB/s. But I live in the middle of no where. And I'll shift ISP in like a month or so. Let's just wait for the best.

Best of luck for the NYC residents

It's not going to happen. There is 0.000000000000000% chance that this merger will do anything other than make the resulting company more wealthy, and care less about their customers.

[pdv789]

Down/Up speeds are not everything. In my case at least I would prefer a very low latency 15-20mbps over a slower 25-40mbps. That helps with streams and games, which I care more about than total bandwidth available because I am the only one here to use my connection. Although I am about to upgrade to 100 up/down with 40 latency in 99% cases and cutting my bill in half. I'm fortunate of my situation though.

[SonoDanshi]

James considered recommending an outright rejection of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable merger, but decided against that “given the political realities,” meaning the likelihood that it will be approved.-

 

 

What ever happened to standing up for principals?

 

I am in NYC and currently pay $37 for 200mbps down so $10 for 10mbps doesn't seem like a good deal for me. 

 

I actually think the focus is wrong here as generally speaking the internet isn't the expensive part of the package from the likes of Comcast and TWC - it's the TV and telephone packages. That needs to see more regulation and unbundling imo.

[TooManyErrors]

On the bright side, theres a fiber company that supposedly going to start servicing everyone in the future.

[Misanthrope]

Comcast: "Sure we can make that happen....with a 10gb hard data cap HA HA HA HA HA! *thunder heard on the background* HAAA HA HA HA HA!

[terrytek]

I should start a petition to ban Comcast in America. They have no right to rip us off for cheap service and crazy ass prices.

[dragosudeki]

Well, I pay 100€+ for 12Mbps / 100MB/s.

And I only get download speeds of 1.6MB/s. 

Aren't you getting speeds better than what you're paying for? 12Mbps is 1.5MBps (do you mean 100MB/s upload? I doubt any ISP gives 100MB/s). That price is pretty crazy though.

[JoaoPRSousa]

Aren't you getting speeds better than what you're paying for? 12Mbps is 1.5MBps (not sure what your 100MB/s means, but I doubt any ISP gives 100MB/s). That price is pretty crazy though.

I don't even know. But I might have written it wrong.

I think it is 100Megabits and 12Megabytes but I don't know its abbreviations

Yeah, I fixed it already

[bluescreeny]

Why would they not? In some parts of Norway you can get Gigabit internet for $65.

[Trik'Stari]

I should start a petition to ban Comcast in America. They have no right to rip us off for cheap service and crazy ass prices.

They do actually, the problem is that they have no right to prevent us from going elsewhere, which is basically what has happened.

 

Capitalism is supposed to be about competition, whatever the market will bear, the problem is that politicians have allowed so much bullshit, that these companies have no chance to fail, because there's no one else for the consumer to turn to for service.

 

What should happen, is that comcast is shitty, loses customers to competition, and goes out of business as a result, or changes their ways and maybe get some customers back.

 

Why would they not? In some parts of Norway you can get Gigabit internet for $65.

 

Because you have no alternative to Comcast or Time Warner Cable, so what are you gonna do?

[Blackie Sheen]

What ever happened to standing up for principals?

 

I am in NYC and currently pay $37 for 200mbps down so $10 for 10mbps doesn't seem like a good deal for me. 

 

I actually think the focus is wrong here as generally speaking the internet isn't the expensive part of the package from the likes of Comcast and TWC - it's the TV and telephone packages. That needs to see more regulation and unbundling imo.

37 $ for 200mbs. What? I live in Montreal and for 37$, you can only get 5mbs down and 1 up.  And thats with a ridiculous 10gb data cap

[SonoDanshi]

37 $ for 200mbs. What? I live in Montreal and for 37$, you can only get 5mbs down and 1 up.  And thats with a ridiculous 10gb data cap

I was on the old TWC 50Mbit package and they upgraded my little section of Manhattan and quadrupled my download speed for free. I then phoned up and cancelled TV/Telephone (no arguments, manipulation or heavy selling tactics from the TWC rep) and they gave me a $20/month discount for a year on my internet connection.

 

To say I was happy with that phone call would be an understatement.

[Trik'Stari]

I was on the old TWC 50Mbit package and they upgraded my little section of Manhattan and quadrupled my download speed for free. I then phoned up and cancelled TV/Telephone (no arguments, manipulation or heavy selling tactics from the TWC rep) and they gave me a $20/month discount for a year on my internet connection.

 

To say I was happy with that phone call would be an understatement.

What sort of witchcraft are you practicing, that you managed to get that kind of service, out of TWC

[Stomplar]

What sort of witchcraft are you practicing, that you managed to get that kind of service, out of TWC

out of everyone here, you sir, seem to have this undying hatred for isps. I dont know why. You clearly over exaggerate the bad bits and completly ignore the good. It just seems like with you, no one can win. Wake up for a minute and realize these companies service millions of people. in case u missed it, i said MILLIONS. But you however only care to discuss the less than 1% that are not satisfied and disregard the rest. Heres a news flash for you. Say someone else buys comcast and TWC etc, what do you suppose is going to happen? Oh thats right, people are still going to bitch because all your doing is changing names around. The same people are gonna call and complain, and the same 1% that are having issues with them are going to be thankful for you because thats all you see. 

 

get off the forums and go write your congress person or something. feel free to reply. But just note, i will not read it.

[Trik'Stari]

out of everyone here, you sir, seem to have this undying hatred for isps. I dont know why. You clearly over exaggerate the bad bits and completly ignore the good. It just seems like with you, no one can win. Wake up for a minute and realize these companies service millions of people. in case u missed it, i said MILLIONS. But you however only care to discuss the less than 1% that are not satisfied and disregard the rest. Heres a news flash for you. Say someone else buys comcast and TWC etc, what do you suppose is going to happen? Oh thats right, people are still going to bitch because all your doing is changing names around. The same people are gonna call and complain, and the same 1% that are having issues with them are going to be thankful for you because thats all you see. 

 

get off the forums and go write your congress person or something. feel free to reply. But just note, i will not read it.

Ok, wow, what's the point of commenting in the first place, if you aren't going to respond to what people say to your comment? That's kind of the point of a forum.

 

Secondly, I dislike them because they were paid to upgrade their infrastructure with tax payer dollars (the 1996 telecommunications act), which they then spent on lobbying, buying each other out, and securing monopolies that prevent any legitimate competition. Not to mention them having 97% profit margins, while claiming that they can't afford to offer better services.

 

And then, they go and start slapping data caps on consumers, which make no sense because data isn't a limited resource, as well as throttling services like Netflix that compete with their cable TV services, which is just flatout wrong, and illegal to some extent, because the customer has already paid for the service, to turn around and demand money from Netflix, is double dipping.

 

Perhaps you should get informed about what this argument is about, before commenting at all. This merger does nothing but create an even larger monopoly, which means they can jack the prices up, without offering any faster service.

[kpreg]

haha that's cute nyc

 

but

 

comcast

 

ew

[Dezz]

What is wrong with the prices of internet connection in America?

 

(Slovakia) I lived in a small village which has less than 1000 residents and we had 5 Mbit/s for 11€

Then I moved for a half a year to Czech Republic when I had 240Mbit/s for 20€ (it was student promo, usually it's 120Mbit/s for 20€) - city has like 100k residents, so it's pretty small

And now I live in Bulgaria and I have 100Mbit/s for 15€ (including 100+ TV channels which I don't understand a word ) - capital city

[Trik'Stari]

What is wrong with the prices of internet connection in America?

 

(Slovakia) I lived in a small village which has less than 1000 residents and we had 5 Mbit/s for 11€

Then I moved for a half a year to Czech Republic when I had 240Mbit/s for 20€ (it was student promo, usually it's 120Mbit/s for 20€) - city has like 100k residents, so it's pretty small

And now I live in Bulgaria and I have 100Mbit/s for 15€ (including 100+ TV channels which I don't understand a word ) - capital city

Complete and total lack of real competition combined with morons running the country.

[Mr.Jackson]

Newyorker here.. I'm rockin' Optimum. Does this affect me? (Optimum = time warner owned?)

[mikeeginger]

Now we wait for a small ISP or Google to offer Fibre at 1gbps for less than people are paying at the moment 

[Trik'Stari]

Now we wait for a small ISP or Google to offer Fibre at 1gbps for less than people are paying at the moment 

Most likely outcome: Government steps in, finds a way to limit or ban fibre because "we need to protect these poor ISP's that can't compete, and would go out of business, think about all those people losing their jobs!"

[mikeeginger]

Most likely outcome: Government steps in, finds a way to limit or ban fibre because "we need to protect these poor ISP's that can't compete, and would go out of business, think about all those people losing their jobs!"

*Cough money *cough *cough 

Comcast: Now we take NYC mawhahaah ha!