Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Mon Dec 20 20:19:09 UTC 2010

Once upon a time, Leo Bicknell <bicknell at ufp.org> said:
> And yet, I don't know of any location in the US with two cable
> operators.

Huntsville, AL has Comcast and Knology (originally CableAlabama) cable
available at virtually every address (except for some apartment
complexes, which tend to only be wired for one cable plant and negotiate
a deal with one company or the other).  I believe some of the
surrounding areas have overlap between Knology and Mediacom.

A number of years ago (15 or so?), CableAlabama wanted to sell out to
Comcast, and the city refused to allow it under the franchise agreement.
CA sued and eventually won a settlement, but didn't end up merging (and
became or was bought out by Knology).  IIRC the settlement was 50% off
of the franchise fee for 20 years or so.

For a long time, we had the lowest cable prices in the country because
of the competition, but I don't think that's the case anymore (Comcast,
being the big corporate entity, doesn't care about competition with
Knology, and Knology just raises their prices to keep up).

-- 
Chris Adams <cmadams at hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.