Comcast, Time Warner Agree to Merge

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Comcast, Time Warner Agree to Merge

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

psydude posted:

These days, there's basically no excuse not to have symmetric lines.

Except docsis isn't symmetric. The standard itself has higher downstream than upstream. You would have to dedicate more channels for upstream then you have for downstream.

Also pretty much every cable modem allows for way more downstream channels than upstream.

Don Lapre fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Feb 14, 2014

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 16:37

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:46

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Dr. Jackal posted:

Comcast itself doesn't make any sense before this anyhow so I bet the regulators are going to bend over happily for this.

I think my favorite part from the USA Today Article is

like no duh you dumb f***s, you wont share access lines and compete purely on the service level because you guys hate competing.

I really wish the government would split them apart...

I think its a fair point.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 17:15

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

brothertim posted:

Comcast? Also, do they not grandfather you into it?

No grandfathering. 300gb/m. $10 for each 50gb over that. Business accounts do not have the cap.

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 19:17

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

brothertim posted:

That's pretty stupid. 300GB can go extremely fast if you spend any amount of time on steam (endless updates). Are they trying to curtail the transition to digital downloading? Most people don't want to leave the house to rent movies/buy games these days.

Yes, they are trying to make it harder to watch netflix/hulu/hbogo/piracy

# ¿ Feb 14, 2014 22:21

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Cenodoxus posted:

From the consumer's point of view, sure, but how do four electric companies on the same block play nicely with each other? Four sets of lines on four poles?

It's tough for me to imagine because everywhere I've ever lived, you have one choice, and it's either municipal public power ($0.07/kWh ) or a single private company.

Everyone feeds into the same grid.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 04:01

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

brothertim posted:

My specialty is bird law, so I'm not entirely certain what the government would think about two major companies merging, when the result would cause monopolies (whether anticipated or not) in a large amount of cities/towns. I was pretty sure that's illegal...

A monopoly isn't illegal.

There would be no more a monopoly in cities and towns as there is now.

# ¿ Feb 15, 2014 06:32

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

brothertim posted:

If you're right, and you probably will be, this is horse poo poo. This is one huge reason this merger shouldn't be allowed. When they have no competition, they have no reason to improve their networks and knowing how comcast/capitalism works, they wont.

Its not like time warner was going to start offering services in comcast areas.

# ¿ Feb 16, 2014 20:41

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

If the FCC puts special requirements on comcast for the merger to go through then i hope it happens, as im in one of the only markets with an enforced data cap.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 20:11

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Yea, stop thinking of them as competitors. Just because you are in the same business does not mean you compete with each other.

Think of it like Verizon buying vodofone. It doesn't lower competition because they arn't in the same markets.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 20:38

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Largo Usagi posted:

Its easier to just buy out a company if you had intended to compete in that area though.

In this case if Comcast wanted to expand into areas where TWC has service it would be another competitor and should yield a better market for the consumer; by buying out TWC both halves get the benefit of not having to compete and being able to arbitrarily set a price to what ever suites them, generally higher because its easier on the bottom line.

In the end the only thing that wins here is Comcast unless the FCC declares internet a utility.

Except comcast wouldn't have moved into TWC areas. Cable companies have agreements with the local governments to build out their network in exchange for the rights to be the only cable provider. Its not like Comcast would setup shop and start using TWC cable lines.

# ¿ Feb 17, 2014 20:59

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Install Windows posted:

Again, explain why it's outdated. Please don't tell me you think they run coax all the way from the cable central office to your door!

DOCSIS 3.0 is currently capable of 1 gigabit per subscriber from the node to the house. None of the cable companies currently implement it at that, because they haven't run sufficient fiber capacity to the nodes, but it's right there ready to be used.

Technically docsis 3 is only limited by the number of channels the cable company wants to allocate. There is no max defined in the spec. The only limit right now is that modems only go up to 24 down stream channels.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 03:56

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

thelightguy posted:

An assfucking is an assfucking, it's true.

The concern is that they'll shift from only assfucking their customers to assfucking the content producers and the customers.

If the FCC handles this well they have quite a bit of leverage and can make demands to approve the merger.

# ¿ Feb 18, 2014 06:17

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Google just announced a bunch of potential fiber cities so you may have that going for you.

http://www.slashgear.com/google-fiber-spread-34-cities-in-9-metro-areas-up-for-bid-19317448/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews

Thankfully im on the list.

# ¿ Feb 19, 2014 20:46

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Caged posted:

But Netflix pay their providers to carry that traffic already, and those providers make the peering agreements.

Netflix wants/needs direct connection to each isp now.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 17:59

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Caged posted:

Haven't they been doing something like that for a while? I know some ISPs can run "Super HD" and some can't.

I guess not since they just started paying comcast to do it.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 18:04

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Crotch Fruit posted:

I consider Netflix a special exception to the rules only because Netflix requires so much data. I am under the impression that Netflix has caused a lot problems and required upgrades for ISPs, is that wrong?

Upgrades that should have already been done.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2014 18:42

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

beejay posted:

Can someone explain the below graph, from here

Xbox one came out and the tens of millions of people buying it overloaded netflix.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2014 05:41

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Flagrama posted:

So how hosed is anyone else if Comcast decides to implement bandwidth caps in their area after the merger?

Hopefully calling them up for support won't be a dramatic show of incompetence though.

You can get a business account for 2x the money and a 3 year contract.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 17:06

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

EugeneJ posted:

Comcast rates look worse since they require you to have TV or phone before you can have broadband:

http://www.comcast.com/internet-service.html

Verizon is the same with not offering standalone internet in my area.

Time to rig up a Cantenna and troll for public wi-fi.

You can get standalone internet with comcast, but it does cost more. Its usually cheaper to get starter digital and not hook it up.

# ¿ May 29, 2014 17:44

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

adorai posted:

Yeah but the rules will ultimately be written by lobbyists in such a way as to protect the incumbent. Let the market sort it out, and eliminate the barriers to that. Because otherwise the head of the FCC ends up working for Comcast after giving them a sweetheart deal.

The barriers of entry are basically insurmountable unless you can literally burn ~~milions~~ billions of dollars like google is doing on fiber.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2014 05:58

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

But I was told everyone in Europe had $10/m gigabit Ethernet

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 02:31

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Nintendo Kid posted:

And yet they haven't done either of those, why is that?

Except the fact they have bandwidth caps.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 15:33

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

computer parts posted:

Because of a ruling that said that if a user can't download until literally the heat death of the universe you can't market it as "unlimited" internet.

Streaming services like netflix and amazon will eat through some data. Especially netflix at the high quality setting or even worse, UHD. Also video games now are 30-50gb downloads. Talk to the people who downloaded 50gb's of halo and had to redownload it cause of a bug.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 15:47

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

The point is low caps can be anti competitive. If i get to 90% of my usage they start calling me and popping up messages in my browser session reminding me of it, at 300gb they charge me $10 extra per 50gb.

But if i use comcast on demand or subscribe to comcast phone service none of those services count. towards this. If i use vonage or netflix they do.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:17

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

computer parts posted:

Key word is "can be".

You don't understand. They are literally doing this, right now, where i live.

Im not being hypothetical here.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 16:41

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# ¿ May 14, 2024 09:46

Don Lapre: Mar 28, 2001; If you're having problems you're either holding the phone wrong or you have tiny girl hands.

Nintendo Kid posted:

They weren't doing it before the merger either, friend. And other cable companies that are not under the obligations of that particular deal also aren't doing it, even though all are arguably "in competition" with the services people rant about.

Except Comcast did and is where a lot of the current poo poo stems from

https://www.franken.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=2724

# ¿ Nov 14, 2014 04:37

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > Comcast, Time Warner Agree to Merge