Comcast thinks it ok to install public wifi in your house

Thu Dec 11 20:06:53 UTC 2014

>From the wired side, since the AP's bandwitdh is separate from the
paying customer's, the later really has no complaint to make. Taken to
the extreme, yeah, all those APs may end up adding to the load on the
coax segment and creating congestion. But somehow I doubt this is a huge
issue.

One the Wi-Fi side, it all depends on how much capacity on the paying
customer's Wi-Fi SSID is reduced by the presence of the Xfinity SSID.

I think Comcast should have spun this totally differently.

"Guests coming home ?, go to your Comcast web site and enable Xfinity,
and they can sign in with their credentials to your Wi-Fi, and won't
slow you down or consume your monthly usage limits".

This would have been seen as a true service given to consumers instead
of being seen as Comcast "stealing" consumer's bandwidth without their
consent to serve others. (which is what the perception appears to be)

As far as the electricity issue, I have to assume that any alleged
additional power consumption would be very minimal compared to a router
that has single SSID.  The principle may be worth fighting for, but the
amounts are not.