Man uses 35 residential accounts to fuel wireless business...
According to the
Maryland Daily Record (via
Telecompetitor), Comcast is suing a Gambrills, Maryland-based ISP for stealing service and then reselling it to others. Last week, the cable giant filed suit against Frank Clark and his company, OceanNet, which advertises itself on their
website as specializing in wireless broadband for condo buildings and other multi-dwelling units (MDUs). According to Comcast, Clark signed up for broadband service at thirty five different addresses, and while the technical specifics are scarce, says he then used the bandwidth at those addresses to fuel his wireless services. Clark's defense is that well hey, a lot of coffee shops do it too:
On Thursday, Clark said he planned to fight the lawsuit and declined to comment on the specifics of the case. However, he said Comcast signals are often used to power wireless networks at places like Internet cafes and other businesses that charge users for access. "This is a practice that happens throughout any city," Clark said. "Unfortunately, we're one of the bigger guys in town - so, here we are."
Clark's
website "technical description" makes no mention of Comcast. OceanNet charges users of their service from $8.95 a day to $199.40 per year. Comcast is looking for damages of up to $60,000 for each OceanNet sale.
