said by TIGERON:This is a letter that a friend of mine wrote to the FCC about his and the experience of many former subscribers by this abusive company that has a monopoly in many areas of the country.
Dear Sirs,
I wanted to make you aware of a situation a couple people including myself ran into with Comcast in 2007.
We were disconnected for using the internet too much after 4 years of on time payments to the company. The advertisement we received when we signed up said "Unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee". I can show you the advertisement today if you're interested. It's archived in archive.org's web site.
We use P2P along with dozens of other applications and web sites. I can imagine we're probably using the Internet very heavily. But in this world of online multimedia, online banking and so on, isn't that encouraged?
Comcast terminated our Internet for 12 months along with another family 6 houses down within a month time and for the same reason. We were downloading too much using services such as P2P and Web streaming video.
The company refused to provide either of us any guidance on what is acceptable usage. Only that we were using it too much and had to reduce our usage. At one point I was told they were not allowed to disclose that information to the customer. And their online documentation didn't provide any clue what is acceptable use.
So why is Comcast terminating people's accounts if they provide no guidance on acceptable usage and the content is legal? P2P isn't just used for evil. There are businesses built on top of it providing content which they created themselves. P2P provides a wonderful vehicle to share this content. However Comcast wants to restrict or terminate what people can do with it. Totally unacceptable in my opinion.
We contacted Comcast and spoke with over 4 dozen representatives from a dozen departments over 3 weeks including their escalation department. The solution they offered was to install a dedicated line for up to $10,000 and our monthly service cost would be $2,000.
In a world in which fiber to the home is normal in developed countries and costs less than $30 a month (US Dollars) for 100 Meg up/down speeds, I'm amazed this is acceptable especially when America invented the Internet. And yet we have one of the worst in the world compared to most developed countries.
I've been pushing for the NII fiber infrastructure which President Bill Clinton and Al Gore enacted in 1994. Billions of dollars have been given to the Telco's for 45 meg up/down fiber to the home by 2006 I believe. Telco's are still reaping the benefits of those tax dollars and we have yet to see the expected push by the Industry to build it out.
I'm also pushing for Utopia fiber to the home here in my State of Utah. However it's those very same Telco's along with Comcast which have been fighting to prevent Utopia's build out which would bring the free market into the Internet sector. You are free to choose from many companies with most services today. But not the Internet. Citizens would be able to switch providers rather than take the abuse a regional monopoly (such as Comcast) has been dishing out.
I hope this has helped in some way in understanding how the company has operated in addition to their filtering of Internet traffic.
I would hate to wake up to the day which my children try to bring up google.com, download say the firefox web browser or download a legal P2P file and can't because of filters or are terminated because the company doesn't like what you are legally doing. But so far I haven't seen anything that suggests this isn't on the way. We're already seeing the beginning of restricting traffic.
Companies such as Comcast are also content providers. So if I retrieve content from another service (which I frequently did over 4 years) I'm a bad customer as they don't get a dime from it. They see revenue only from the flat Internet rate I'm charged.
This is a conflict of interest!
I've been writing letters to my Local and Federal Senators and Representatives to find some way to resolve this problem with no success. Technically Comcast has broken no law which allows them to get away with this outrageous policy.
Now we are using a service for Internet access which is at least 5 times slower than what Comcast offered. We could go back with Comcast as the 12 months termination is over. Comcast even had the audacity to send us mailers asking to come back!!
Would you go back to a company which refused to resolve an abusive experience?
We're not. And neither is the family just down the street.
Most companies would be interested in fixing a problem if they did something wrong and especially injured a customer. Rather than fix the problem, they make up excuses and break promises. Even after bringing this problem to the attention of the newspapers and local TV, the problem is unresolved.
If you wish more information I'm willing to provide it including provide the contact information for that other family. You might be interested in just how similar our experience was. They are also on the slower DSL service only because there is nothing better available unless we move to another country.
I implore you to help fix this problem. If the Internet is so important that Congress must debate Internet taxes and pass laws banning their passage, shouldn't we consider it as important as any other Utility such as water or electricity?
Thank you for your patience.
I look forward to the FCC's actions in encouraging the growth of the Internet in America.
Comcast pulled the same shady stunt with me, and when I reported them to the FCC, the FCC told me that this should be reported to the FTC, as it is in their area. I did report Comcast to the FTC, who seemed quite disturbed by the events that took place, and promised if there was evidence of other similar stories, they would investigate. So far, nothing has been done.
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