Comcast thinks it ok to install public wifi in your house

Livingood, Jason Jason_Livingood at cable.comcast.com
Thu Dec 11 22:08:51 UTC 2014


On 12/11/14, 4:45 PM, "Jean-Francois Mezei" <jfmezei_nanog at vaxination.ca<mailto:jfmezei_nanog at vaxination.ca>> wrote:

Mr Livingood:

Out of curiosity, had Comcast decided to use an "opt-in" instead of "opt-out" method, did your marketing dept have any idea of percentage of customer base who would have opted in ?

No idea - I was just on the technical execution side of the project in the early phases. Behavioral economics would suggest that opt-in rates are almost always lower than opt-out. http://ozankocak.com/2011/01/18/dan-ariely-and-behavioral-economics-part–i/ . I suspect many tech companies have adopted similar views on opting in or out.

Secondly, at a more technical level:

In a MDU with a whole bunch of Comcast subscribers, could one router be able to detect existence of strong Xfinity signals and not enable its own ? This would reduce crowding of Wi-Fi spectrum.

I take it such a feature would require special rogramming/firmware by modem/router manufacturer ?

This is definitely specialized software logic and on the frontier of work called radio resource management. I am sure most WiFi chipsets have simple aspects of this built in but some companies are working on new technology & tools in this area for unlicensed spectrum like WiFi.

Jason



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