Clark Howard's Tips
Comcast admits to degrading your Internet experienceFebruary 14, 2008
The nation's largest cable company has now admitted that it's purposely degrading your Internet experience when you watch a competitor's video online.
At first Comcast was not forthcoming about its practices, but now the company has fessed up in a federal filing.
Clark asked a Comcast spokesperson to explain how they can justify their actions. Their excuse is that they're trying to make sure your Internet experience is reliable. Huh? Clark is really scratching his head over that one.
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CLARK'S TIP TOPICS
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What they're really doing is purposely conspiring against your good experience by forcing you to their content -- especially their cable service.
If you pay Comcast, who are they to be judge, jury and executioner and prevent you from accessing what you want online? This goes back to the issue of Net neutrality. For example, the phone company is required to complete your call as dialed; they can't decide that there's not enough revenue in the call for them and just disconnect you. Net neutrality does not permit it. Likewise, Comcast can't infringe on your rights.
Congress will soon have hearings to discuss the Internet Freedom Preservation Act. Comcast is essentially deciding what speech you can and can't access.
Clark knows that the cable providers are monopolies. Yet he's not aware of any of the other cable monopolies engaging in this despicable behavior. This has got to be stopped. If it's not, how soon will it be before the others try to engage in this funny business too?
Clark has never feared media companies getting bigger, but there have to be some rules of engagement for capitalism and a cop on the beat.
