Comcast Apparently Hopes No One Actually Looks At Its Ridiculously Misleading Claims Of Broadband Competition
from the where-are-those-29-competitors dept
Comcast is ratcheting up its charm offensive (or perhaps that's just offensive charm) in trying to get its attempted merger with Time Warner Cable approved. It's released its "public interest statement" and a blog post about how wonderful the merger will be. There are plenty of ridiculous claims in both, but let's focus on the key one -- Comcast's decision to completely fabricate "competitors" in various markets to argue that Comcast competes "in a dynamic, expanding and highly competitive marketplace." Of course, for anyone who actually knows what broadband options they have at home are, this statement is clearly bullshit. But Comcast is going to pretend otherwise, because it's Comcast. This chart really takes the cake:In the past, we've reasonably mocked the FCC's website listing broadband competitors, BroadbandMap.gov, because the results it gives are hilariously wrong and/or misleading. But Comcast's competitive claims take this to a new level entirely. Even if we rely on the National Broadband Map, I challenge anyone to find any spot in New York City where someone has anywhere close to 29 choices for actual broadband. Just for fun, I put in an address in the heart of midtown Manhattan, and it coughed up a (laughably misleading) claim of seven competitors. Except three of them (AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint) are just 3G/4G service over your phones with very low caps and limited speed. Those accounts are explicit that they're not to be used for regular home broadband. So they don't count. You have, of course, the traditional competitors: Time Warner Cable (who Comcast is trying to take over) and Verizon.
And who else? There's just Lightower Fiber Networks and Platinum Equity LLC. Platinum Equity is the private equity firm that bought out MegaPath, a DSL company that has been around (in various forms) for many years, but is only focused on business broadband. Ditto for Lightower Fiber, which only serves businesses. So, oh look, if you want true residential broadband, guess what: your choice is Time Warner Cable or Verizon. And, remember, Verizon is actively trying to get out of the wired broadband market, handing its users over to... their main cable competitors. So, it might not be left until your only real "choice" in the heart of midtown Manhattan is... Time Warner... I mean, Comcast.
So, um, what's that about 29 competitors?
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Filed Under: broadband, competition, merger, misleading
Companies: comcast, time warner cable
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This type of thing is exceedingly common in marketing and politics: lying without uttering an untruth.
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Of course you will have to rent the cans, along with a monthly "string management and maintenance fee", and you can't use your own cans or string because they're not company broadband approved.
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"Up to" is one of those red-flag phrases that indicates you are about to be deceived. Usually you see it used in relation to sales ("save up to 50%", sometimes followed by the logic-destroying addendum "or more"!)
There's tons more of these sorts of misleading idioms in every product category. Years ago, I had a handy little book that listed a ton of them (it was part of the syllabus for a marketing course I took). I really wish I still had it or remembered what it was called...
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I'm on that bandwagon in up to 50mbps flat!
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I should try that some time, just for the lulz.
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re
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Riverside
They all suck. But Charter takes the suck cake.
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Hang on...
What Comcast executives should be answering is, "Where are the services you promised to deliver 10 years ago?"
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Happy Fios user here (Fios always beat their claimed speeds but cost too much, but what else is new).
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Invisible Whiners
Tom Karinshak
ECare
Comcast
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Comcast has virtually no competition in Chicago either
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perhaps
That said, I think your test is perhaps equally as dishonest as the original claims made. The 29 figure is based on NY, NJ, and PA areas. They aren't claiming 29 competitors at every address. Nor for that matter are they claiming that the 29 competitors are equal, better, or lesser, only that they offer internet connectivity.
You almost got the real point of the story right for a while, but then you lost it. When you mention companies like LIghtower and Megapath, you should have seen the reality: These companies have not entered into the residential marketplace because there isn't any money in it.
The issue today is that cabling that last mile is cost prohibitive. The existing connections (cable tv or copper wire) is not going to be able to support a variety of service providers at the same time. So as an example, someone with cable TV from company A could not have that same wire deliver internet from company B.
In order for companies to move forward, they have to look at the Google Fiber model, which is to toss huge amounts of money at setting up a fiber network. Cash flush Google can afford to do it (and can afford to be very wrong), but most companies are not in that position. In pure investment terms, FTTH is no financial viable at this point, and anything less is a total waste of effort. Few companies are going to make the effort when the return on investment is too low. If the business internet people refuse to get into residential even though they are right there, that should tell you everything you need to know.
Blocking a merger won't change that reality.
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They have the money and the capacity to do this. But they don't need to. Because not one person has the stones to call these companies out on their bullshit. Because that's what they';re shoveling - to the public, to Congress and to the markets.
This is why there was such an outcry over Netflix paying Comcast - because Comcast has not lived up to its contractual obligations. But you bet your ass that if you did that to Comcast, they would sue your ass right out of your home. So they should eat the cost, or become common carriers, like the utilities that they are.
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Blocking a merger won't change that reality.
Allowing the merger to go through won't either.
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They all suck
Competition in cable/broadband is a joke. Something should have been done 40 years ago. But the they weren't horrible companies riding on the coat tails of a local monopoly.
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Comcast Analysis is Faulty and Very Much Inaccurate
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How come...
Instead, every sees those figures as a part of a fancy presentation and says "okay, 29 competitors, sure, moving on..."
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There's no profit in any of them doing that, and there is profit in them avoiding doing that.
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