4 ms·

The 10-K for 2017 is great. You pointed out some great reasons the infrastructure and programming sides could be split. > Cable companies borrow lots of money

The 10-K for 2017 is great. You pointed out some great reasons the infrastructure and programming sides could be split. > Cable companies borrow lots of money in order to do this -- Comcast's Form 10-K shows that they have 64 billion dollars of debt. In order to get bank loans that big, you need to show that you can pay it back. But they only have 3.4 billion in cash; the way they keep their balance sheet from falling apart is knowing you pay your monthly cable bill ("Receivables, net" of 8.4 billion). I wonder would these look like split out into "internet infrastructure", and "media infrastructure". I bet it would be a stable business with low, but expected, returns, and another with lots of volatility. As a United States Citizen, I wouldn't mind providing subsidies and incentives for an internet company to expand internet connectivity. I do take offense to a media company taking subsidies to _also_ expand a media empire with those funds. > Comcast had 41 billion dollars of "Residential" revenue last year, but only 14.7 billion dollars of that was for Internet. Yes, a split out company would have a smaller market cap. That's actually larger than I expected! > The big expense line item is 13 billion on "Programming" Exactly. Get that shit out of my internet provider. In my opinion, the American Public's real long-term business risk is the over consolidation of businesses. That means that Comcast gets to continue posting record breaking profits while offering shitter services, meanwhile expanding their media empire.

Casseres 8y ago
> As a United States Citizen, I wouldn't mind providing subsidies and incentives for an internet company to expand internet connectivity. We already did, to the tune of somewhere between 100 to 400 billion dollars in tax breaks in the 1990s for fiber that they never delivered. Search terms: broadband scandal
- __jal 8y ago
  Not to mention the seemingly endless series of subsidies at the city level, in return for bupkis. Some examples having to do with one connectivity slumlord: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131012/02124724852/decades-failed-promises-verizon-it-promises-fiber-to-get-tax-breaks-then-never-delivers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131012/02124724852/decad...
- rayiner 8y ago
  Read the actual source of those claims. It’s not “100 to 400 billion in tax breaks.” See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709556.
rayiner 8y ago
Comcast doesn’t get any significant subsidies. In fact the opposite is true. Cable service is subject to special municipal taxes (5% of gross revenue is typical) that other businesses don’t pay. We put special taxes on broadband like we do with things we want to discourage: cigarettes and alcohol, soda, etc. Also, wired broadband is not a “low but expected return” business right now. People are moving to wireless in droves (a growing percentage of households with $100k+ income have no wired service). 5G could make wired broadband obsolete for a big chunk of the population.
- pavs 8y ago
  > People are moving to wireless in droves Some source would be nice. Are you saying they are moving to 4g or satellite? Both seem highly unlikely, considering 4g internet is billed on usage. Wireless connectivity has read QOS issues, I don't know how 5g is going to solve that. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-in-5G https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-in-5G
  - rayiner 8y ago
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/new-data-americans-are-abandoning-wired-home-internet http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/...
    - pavs 8y ago
      This is why context is important. The traditional definition of a personal computer has changed from Bulky PC to tablets or phones, which for most is more than good enough for their daily use case. Since tablets and phones have built in 4g connectivity and the device is mobile in nature, it makes sense for those users to user 4g internet for their mobile devices. So to put things in context. People are not moving to wireless in droves because there is something wrong with wired services. They are moving almost at the same rate as people are ditching traditional PC for Mobile devices. Gaming, Video Streaming is a huge market. Unless telco is giving out unlimited data at a cheaper rate and not charging per device with low latency + mobile devices having large battery time while playing games and watching Netflix or youtube, I don't see it as a concern for wired internet. Those droves of people moving to 4g and ditching wired will remain a niche market. Because it doesn't make any practical or economic sense.

Casseres 8y ago

> As a United States Citizen, I wouldn't mind providing subsidies and incentives for an internet company to expand internet connectivity. We already did, to the tune of somewhere between 100 to 400 billion dollars in tax breaks in the 1990s for fiber that they never delivered. Search terms: broadband scandal

__jal 8y ago
Not to mention the seemingly endless series of subsidies at the city level, in return for bupkis. Some examples having to do with one connectivity slumlord: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131012/02124724852/decades-failed-promises-verizon-it-promises-fiber-to-get-tax-breaks-then-never-delivers.shtml https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131012/02124724852/decad...
rayiner 8y ago
Read the actual source of those claims. It’s not “100 to 400 billion in tax breaks.” See: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709556 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7709556.

rayiner 8y ago

Comcast doesn’t get any significant subsidies. In fact the opposite is true. Cable service is subject to special municipal taxes (5% of gross revenue is typical) that other businesses don’t pay. We put special taxes on broadband like we do with things we want to discourage: cigarettes and alcohol, soda, etc. Also, wired broadband is not a “low but expected return” business right now. People are moving to wireless in droves (a growing percentage of households with $100k+ income have no wired service). 5G could make wired broadband obsolete for a big chunk of the population.

pavs 8y ago
> People are moving to wireless in droves Some source would be nice. Are you saying they are moving to 4g or satellite? Both seem highly unlikely, considering 4g internet is billed on usage. Wireless connectivity has read QOS issues, I don't know how 5g is going to solve that. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-in-5G https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-problems-in-5G
- rayiner 8y ago
  http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/new-data-americans-are-abandoning-wired-home-internet http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/04/18/...
  - pavs 8y ago
    This is why context is important. The traditional definition of a personal computer has changed from Bulky PC to tablets or phones, which for most is more than good enough for their daily use case. Since tablets and phones have built in 4g connectivity and the device is mobile in nature, it makes sense for those users to user 4g internet for their mobile devices. So to put things in context. People are not moving to wireless in droves because there is something wrong with wired services. They are moving almost at the same rate as people are ditching traditional PC for Mobile devices. Gaming, Video Streaming is a huge market. Unless telco is giving out unlimited data at a cheaper rate and not charging per device with low latency + mobile devices having large battery time while playing games and watching Netflix or youtube, I don't see it as a concern for wired internet. Those droves of people moving to 4g and ditching wired will remain a niche market. Because it doesn't make any practical or economic sense.