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Comment by rubbingalcohol | Hacker News Reader

I would be more angry if the government allows monopolies to throttle our Internet speeds and discriminate content delivery towards major players who can afford to pay extortion money.. To me it's worth a few annoyances over the next few days if it helps raise popular awareness of this important issue.

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The monopolies haven't been allowed since 1992. http://articles.philly.com/1992-10-19/business/26000502_1_ca...

… and yet in practice many people live in an area where they have only one option either at all or for greater than DSL (or even ISDN) speed. I'm not talking about rural areas, either, but places like New Haven, CT or Washington, DC.

Theoretically a new company could try to compete but the major companies tend to choose not to start price wars and it's a very expensive proposition to run competing cable out to houses, particularly since the incumbent will usually lower prices to make it more expensive for the new entrant. Around here, in the areas which have competition both Verizon and Comcast will cut and remove the other company's cables when they do a new install to maximize the cost and inconvenience of switching providers.

> Theoretically a new company could try to compete but the major companies tend to choose not to start price wars and it's a very expensive proposition to run competing cable out to houses, particularly since the incumbent will usually lower prices to make it more expensive for the new entrant. Around here, in the areas which have competition both Verizon and Comcast will cut and remove the other company's cables when they do a new install to maximize the cost and inconvenience of switching providers.

I have no idea where you heard this fairy tale. Comcast and Verizon sub out almost all their installs and line work to local contractors -- and most of these contractors have contracts with multiple telcos and cable companies. If the contractors are maliciously cutting wires, it's to get more work for themselves.

The worst experience I had with cutting wires was a condo separated into 4 units, all at 1 junction box, and when someone new would move in, it would be 50/50 on the phone company -- the same phone company servicing everyone -- botching the new person's installation by cutting off someone else's.

I have both DSL and cable modem at my house. There was no cutting of the first when the second was installed. The installer has no way to tell if that phone line is running DSL or if I'm still getting cable TV over that coax. That would not be tolerated for a second.

> I have no idea where you heard this fairy tale.

4 friends and coworkers who had it happen, mentioned separately and on several occasions this happened in a group setting and was immediately confirmed by other people who had the same experience.

You'll forgive me for finding them more convincing than your argument from incredulity. It's entirely possible that this a grassroots thing but the people affected spanned ~100 miles and multiple states.

I don't doubt that it happens; just not for the reasons you ascribe to it. It's probably just the fact that the wiring boxes are usually a complete mess and totally inconsistent from job to job. The contractors get paid by the job, so their attitude tends to be "fuck it, rip it all out and make it work so I can get to the next job".

Perhaps but they're doing it in a Comcast/Verizon truck, wearing their uniform, talking about that as their company with no mention of being a contractor, and in at least two of those cases they specifically went to extra work to remove the cable even though it didn't come in the same box / conduit as the new fiber. That was actually why I first heard about it: a coworker mentioned his surprise that the FIOS installer spent the extra time removing Comcast's cabling all the way out to the street after finishing their install.

This is probably the origin of this rumor, which applies to DSL:

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2007-0...

http://www.cnet.com/news/cutting-the-copper-on-fios/

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/352765.page

Note, however, that there also do appear to be a significant number of anecdotal cases of 'vandalism' that are exactly as described (competitors getting their lines cut), especially in the case of multi-unit dwellings with different subs.

the problem with this one is that the message is unclear. when I first read it 'we' sounded like the webmaster rather than Comcast. I got the point because I have context. they need clearer messaging. also on mobile chrome it is impossible to click the 'x'

I agree, I also do not think that automatically subscribing those who agree to future mailings ("Free Press will contact you about future campaigns.") is a good way to garner good will from the audience this banner would target.

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