Roberts Continues to Think Cable=BMW

why would they want to be compared to a BMW which stands for Bavarian Manure Wagons?

and let's continue on this thought. Telco has never really cared about innovation. People complain about cable and how they are such a horrid company however, it's always been cable that has driven the race to the future.

Telephone has only ever reacted to cable. Cable decided several years abck that they had the facilities, and the ability to offer more services to more people. Since then, cable has pushed forward and delivered on the new technologies. Telephone has a hisotry of sitting on their hands and going nowhere offering nothing really great to their users. Sure, they may offer a better caller ID and better call screening features (which are just annoying as all hell, but for another forum) but telco has had NO drive to move forward until cable became a threat.

For many of the telco fanboys here, they really should be thanking the cable industry. If it wasn't for them, telephone would still be a dial tone with few features, and 256k dsl. One thing I can say about cable and what you spend on it is that at least new services have be introduced and you know your money is actually being reinvested. Telephone has been an industry that for the longest time been a pocket stuffing industry.

I really like car analogy and will also use it. People always argue about everything. There are car threads about which car is better etc. People waste tons of time BS-ing about 5.9 and 6.0 sec cars or one that does 30mpg on highway and another one that does 31mpg. Everyone buys what it wants and is able to afford. If you feel like Comcast is expensive – go ditch it! No one is forcing to buy BMW – you can always drive Fords piece of shit econo-boxes. Some people prefer comfort in a car and pay $30k for it, some pay $30k just go get bumpy ride, some are happy with $15k civic etc. got the idea – try to convince BMW to lower prices because you can’t afford even 325i – they will laugh at you – are they the monopoly in the car business? – shit no! Most of you should shut you mouth because no one care about your whining.

then cable is like a BMW, overpriced. the cheap asian import(DSL) still gets ya there on time. however i prefer cable to DSL because its what is stable and holds sync at my location.

Yes. It's ironic how people complain about Comcast being monopolistic when the telcos have been the true monopolies, fighting tooth and nail to keep out competition from other phone service providers since the breakup of ATT. I think the major culprit is the staid, bureaucratic culture inherited from the monolithic ATT days.

You're right: new technologies are finally forcing the Bells to compete for a change. I agree Cable companies have been a major force, but I also think the emergence of broadband and VOIP companies have been contributing factors too. There are even some new VOIP providers offering free service in some areas that will cause trouble for pay-VOIP and more problems for the Bells.

It's not fair to just look at a brand new car and decide how well it is built. A car's quality is really determined by the amount of time that it lasts. Therefore if in 2010 I will see more 2005 Hyundais on the road than I see 2000 ones today, then I'll believe that they have gotten better. I do, however, admit that Hyundai is taking strides to make their cars better. However, as their cars get better, their prices go up as well. More solid cars require more and/or better quality of raw materials, more precise (and expensive) equipment to manufacture them, more labor time and better (and more expensive) engineering efforts. Therefore, it's not possible to sell a better car while investing the same amount of money into its production as goes into a crappy car. So, if some time down the road Hyundais score the same ratings as Toyotas or Hondas, expect them to carry the same price tag.I was never a big fan of Mercedes to begin with, I always thought that they were overhyped, overrated and most importantly, overpriced. After they merged with Chrysler, they lost my respect altogether. If you buy their US-made C-Series, you are basically getting crappy Chrysler parts in a Mercedes body for the price of inbetween the two. As soon as warranty runs out, that car will start breaking down and then you'll be really screwed (you are right about their parts being astronomically priced). Their high-end models are still made in Germany, but they carry a six-figure price tag and have huge waiting lists. Personally, I am a Lexus fan, but if I absolutely had to get a German luxury car, I would undoubtedly go for a BMW.

Actually, the real meaning is Big Money Works.

If the intelligent internet users are lucky yours will never be "turned back on".

Cable is better than DSL in a sense of speed only. DSL goes from your house, to the DSLAM, then to the main network, and then to the internet. Cable goes from your house, to the local node, to the main cable plant, and then to the internet. The only difference is that cable is somewhat shared bandwidth, but any good ISP will keep the slowdowns to a minimum, or keep them at 0% period, such as mine. I can pull 5mbps (640 kB/s) at any time of the day to the ISP.

fair enough. Blanket statements about how one is more reliable than the other are not fair. I am one of those who has had DSL for over two years now and have had 12 hours of downtime in that time...an ATM switch blew up a month ago and caused those 12 hours. On the other hand, the cable service in my town, when it was still avaialable, was very, very, unreliable.

Try a period or two in your posts please... but for the record, I think you meant to say CO or Central Office and not tower.

Actually, with 3.0 and channel bonding and the removal of analog services, I think you could tie a few channels together and give speeds that anyone would need just fine. I think customers will tap out before coax will, quite honestly. You are right that coax will find it's limit sooner or later but so will fiber.

There are many limits to look at and not just technical. There is the technical limit, financial limit, the limit of what a customer can consume at any time, as others. One other things to remember is that, like I have said in other posts, cable already reaches deep into neighborhoods. IF the time comes and the need is there, cable can EASILY penetrate the last mile with fiber and light up the home. I do know that Comcast had talked about that before back in the late 90's. It may not be on their plate now for something to build, but it HAS been talked about in thier company meetings before as where Comcast would like to be. (Things do change of course. I simply state this becuase it's something that has been talked about)

Better to have faster speeds and download from a real Newsgroup service. More = Better.

I just wonder if their are enought BMW drivers and owners to make Comcast thrive? I myself am a Hyundai driver and owner as I am sure a lot of Comcast customers are!