Comcast Wants A Cookie For Suspending Its Bullshit Broadband Caps For a Few Months

from the do-not-pass-go,-do-not-collect-$200 dept

For years, Comcast has slowly but surely expanded its pointless and arbitrary broadband usage caps and overage fees into all of its markets (picture the boiling frog metaphor, with you as the frog). And for most of that time, the company avoided doing so in the Northeast where it faces more competition from competitors like (uncapped) Verizon FiOS. But recently, likely fearing an incoming Biden FCC willing to do its job, Comcast rushed to finally push these useless, confusing, and expensive restrictions into the Northeast. In the middle of a pandemic. When people were already struggling to pay for basic utilities and rent.

Needless to say, lawmakers weren't happy about it. Massachusetts lawmakers were quick to complain about the practice, noting that price gouging captive customers during a financial and health crisis isn't a good look. This morning, Pennsylvania AG nabbed headlines after Comcast announced it would be pausing the expansion of usage caps for a few months (until July):

"The Philadelphia-based cable giant said it would postpone the new charges after Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro (D) raised concerns that Comcast’s policy threatened to disproportionately harm cash-strapped Americans who are learning, working and communicating primarily online."

There are a couple problems here. One, The Washington Post (like a lot of outlets) never even informs readers that the caps are technically unnecessary. They're literally the monopolistic price gouging of captive customers using technically unnecessary nonsense. That's kind of important context, without which the reader walks away possibly thinking Comcast is somehow being altruistic here. This is pretty standard practice for a mainstream US tech press which has a violent allergic reaction to calling a duck a duck (in this case, monopolistic price gouging).

Two, I know from my conversations with Massachusetts lawmakers last week that briefly suspending the caps for a few months was Comcast's idea. It was their base offer in negotiations, and they're unwilling to go further. As such, what's portrayed here as a savvy win for PA AG Josh Shapiro is really just him agreeing to let Comcast get away with doing what is effectively nothing. These restrictions shouldn't exist in the first place. Suspending them for just a few months in one portion of the country is an empty gesture. Comcast will simply bring them back once the PR heat dies down a bit.

If there's an area the modern FCC and state regulators have failed miserably, under both parties, it's broadband caps. It shouldn't take a pandemic to realize that monopolies imposing costly, confusing, and unnecessary restrictions to drive up the already high cost of broadband access isn't a great idea (such restrictions are also also abused competitively in the streaming space). And, with only the occasional exception, and despite endless, breathless yammering on about the "digital divide," most federal and state regulators clearly couldn't give any less of a shit.

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Filed Under: broadband caps, covid, fees, josh shapiro, pennsylvania, usage caps
Companies: comcast


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2021 @ 6:07am

    Comcast is the Mafia. They create a problem where one never existed and then charge people for the "benefit" of being "protected" from the problem they created in the first place.

    Forget trying to go after them as a monopoly. Charge them with the RICO act.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 6:35am

    Nobody deserves a reward for doing the bare minimum.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2021 @ 9:04am

    Daily reminder: “Corporations are private and can do what they want — no matter how nasty or undemocratic — as long as it aligns with our worldview. Otherwise, the government should clamp down on them.” -Techdirt

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 9:19am

    Re:

    Maybe you should see that Mike Masnick, Tim Cushing, Tim Geigner, and Karl Bode are four different people.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Samuel Abram (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 9:21am

    Re:

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Stephen T. Stone (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 9:29am

    I’m sorry that you’re upset about support for platforms being legally allowed to kick off racists, transphobes, misogynists, anti-vaxxers, and Fifty Shades of Grey fans for being racists, transphobes, etc. But your anger is no reason to be this intentionally ignorant.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Toom1275 (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 10:29am

    Re:

    [Projects facts not in evidence]

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2021 @ 11:30am

    And who pays for all the data I don't want?

    I am fine with caps. Just don't count all the extra bits I didn't request. Like say, ads, spam and commercials. Also, I expect Comcast to rewrite their webpages as static simple HTML without all the scripts (that consumes data too).

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. icon
    nasch (profile), 4 Feb 2021 @ 11:34am

    Re: And who pays for all the data I don't want?

    It's very unlikely ads and spam will take you over the cap. The amount of data used by streaming video generally is completely dominant.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Dave, 4 Feb 2021 @ 12:18pm

    Re:

    The big legacy ISPs, just like all other big corporations, are untouchable. You try anything to reduce their profits and they will immediately and ruthlessly exterminate you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Pixelation, 4 Feb 2021 @ 7:09pm

    Let's give AT&T a cookie

    Hey AT&T, bend over, we have a cookie for you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 4 Feb 2021 @ 9:32pm

    Re: Re: And who pays for all the data I don't want?

    It doesn't matter the amount, if they want to charge by bits of data, then they have an obligation to ensure ALL the bits are what the user requested. We charge by the gallon for gasoline and I am pretty sure most folks would be upset if they were handed a cup of dirty water and 15 cups of fuel and told hey, it's just a little bit off the top.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    nasch (profile), 5 Feb 2021 @ 7:23am

    Re: Re: Re: And who pays for all the data I don't want?

    It doesn't matter the amount, if they want to charge by bits of data, then they have an obligation to ensure ALL the bits are what the user requested.

    They're not charging by the bit. They're charging if you go over a threshold. So it only makes a difference if the bits you didn't request cause you to go over the threshold.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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