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In true capitalism you have competition, and in many cases Comcast is a monopoly when it comes to cable television — so that really makes them a utility. And li

In true capitalism you have competition, and in many cases Comcast is a monopoly when it comes to cable television — so that really makes them a utility. And like any other utility (phone, gas or electric) that means there needs to be some government regulation to balance things out. So yes they're a business and of course they should make money, but that needs to be balanced out by the needs of their customers. It might be overdue for cable companies and the phone companies to be broken up. In fact it might be a good idea that they be broken up every ten years or so given their immediate power over consumers.

grecy 14y ago
I agree with everything you just said. That doesn't change the reality of today.
smsm42 14y ago
How breaking up would help? Instead of one huge Comcast you'd have 1000 regional mini-comcasts, with the same people and same rules. If some region has only one cabling network, they'd have only one mini-comcast controlling it, and so nothing would change for them - except for mini-comcast eating up the costs of natural disaster actually may be a huge hit, unlike Comcast today for which it would cost them less than salad dressings on annual employee appreciation barbecue (provided they have one).
- batgaijin 14y ago
  Dude, what? The whole point is that the little comcasts could offer fiber to other areas in order to gain subscribers.
- crusso 14y ago
  How breaking up would help? They would need to be broken up the same way that AT&T was broken up back in the day. The breakups allowed for the sharing of infrastructure by various competitors so that you could call Sprint, MCI, or whomever for (at very least) your long distance service and possibly your local service as well. You only really competition if you can choose your cable provider wherever you live.
- bathat 14y ago
  Obviously breaking it into 1000 mini-comcasts, like AT&T, wouldn't, by itself, do anything useful. I think the unstated assumption is that in addition to breaking up Comcast, you'd also break the franchise agreements in order to allow competing cable companies within each territory. It's very difficult for a start-up cable company or ISP with an innovative product, say, a la carte pricing, to get going because Comcast can undersell them (or offer the same innovative product) for as long as it takes for the start-up to burn through their capital. They can do this because 1) The start-up's limited capital prevents them from opening in every market at once; and 2) Comcast's national presence allows them to use the profits from one region to subsidize service in the region where the start-up is competing. It's probably cheaper to just buy Comcast than to try to beat them in a race to the bottom.

grecy 14y ago

I agree with everything you just said. That doesn't change the reality of today.

smsm42 14y ago

How breaking up would help? Instead of one huge Comcast you'd have 1000 regional mini-comcasts, with the same people and same rules. If some region has only one cabling network, they'd have only one mini-comcast controlling it, and so nothing would change for them - except for mini-comcast eating up the costs of natural disaster actually may be a huge hit, unlike Comcast today for which it would cost them less than salad dressings on annual employee appreciation barbecue (provided they have one).

batgaijin 14y ago
Dude, what? The whole point is that the little comcasts could offer fiber to other areas in order to gain subscribers.
crusso 14y ago
How breaking up would help? They would need to be broken up the same way that AT&T was broken up back in the day. The breakups allowed for the sharing of infrastructure by various competitors so that you could call Sprint, MCI, or whomever for (at very least) your long distance service and possibly your local service as well. You only really competition if you can choose your cable provider wherever you live.
bathat 14y ago
Obviously breaking it into 1000 mini-comcasts, like AT&T, wouldn't, by itself, do anything useful. I think the unstated assumption is that in addition to breaking up Comcast, you'd also break the franchise agreements in order to allow competing cable companies within each territory. It's very difficult for a start-up cable company or ISP with an innovative product, say, a la carte pricing, to get going because Comcast can undersell them (or offer the same innovative product) for as long as it takes for the start-up to burn through their capital. They can do this because 1) The start-up's limited capital prevents them from opening in every market at once; and 2) Comcast's national presence allows them to use the profits from one region to subsidize service in the region where the start-up is competing. It's probably cheaper to just buy Comcast than to try to beat them in a race to the bottom.