Lots of other good reasons to oppose this (Comcast customers parking in your driveway to get the service, etc.)
What would you tell AT&T if they installed a coin phone at every residential outside demarc? Matthew Kaufman (Sent from my iPhone) > On Dec 11, 2014, at 4:33 PM, Owen DeLong <o...@delong.com> wrote: > > This thread is out of control... I will attempt to summarize the salient > points in hopes we can stop arguing about inaccurate minutiae. > > I don't like the way Comcast went about doing what they are doing, but I do > like the general idea... > > Reasonably ubiquitous free WiFi for your subscribers when they are away from > their home location is not a bad idea. > > The way Comcast has gone about it is a bit underhanded and sneaky. The flaws > in their plan are not technical, they are ethical and communication-oriented > in nature. > > To wit: > There's nothing wrong with Comcast adding a separate SSID with dedicated > upstream bandwidth on a WAP I rent from them[1]. > There's no theft of power, as the amount of additional power used is > imperceptible, if any. > There's no theft of space, climate control, or other overhead as this is > performed by existing CPE. > There's probably no legal liability being transferred by this to the > subscriber. > > In short, the only thing really truly wrong with this scenario is that > Comcast is using equipment that the subscriber should have exclusive control > over (they are renting it, so while Comcast retains ownership, they have > relinquished most rights of control to the "tenant") how the device is used. > > As I see it, there are a couple of ways Comcast could have made this an > entirely voluntary (opt-in) program and communicated it to their customers > positively and achieved a high compliance rate. Unfortunately, in an action > worthy of their title as "America's worst company", instead of positively > communicating with their customers and seeking cooperation and permission to > build out something cool for everyone, they instead simply inflicted this > service on chosen subscribers without notice, warning, or permission. > > In short, Comcast's biggest real failure here is the failure to ask > permission from the subscriber before doing this on equipment the subscriber > should control. > > Arguing that some obscure phrase in updated ToS documents that nobody ever > reads permits this may keep Comcast from losing a law suit (though I hope > not), but it certainly won't improve their standing in the court of public > opinion. OTOH, Comcast seems to consider the court of public opinion mostly > irrelevant or they would be trying to find ways not to retain their title as > "America's worst company". > > I will say that my reaction to this, if Comcast had done it to me would be > quite different depending on how it was executed... > > > Scenario A: Positive outcome > > CC "Mr. DeLong, we would like to replace your existing cablemodem with a > DOCSIS 3.0 unit and give you faster service > for free. However, the catch is that we want to put up an additional > 2.4Ghz WiFi SSID on the WAP built into the modem > that will use separate cable channels (i.e. won't affect your bandwidth) > that our other subscribers can use once they > authenticate when they are in range. Would you mind if we did that?" > > ME "Well, since I currently own my modem, and it's already DOCSIS 3, I > don't want to give up any of my existing functionality > and I have no desire to start paying rental fees. If you can provide the > new one without monthly fees and it will do everything > my current one does (e.g. operating in transparent bridge mode), then I > don't see any reason why not." > > > Scenario B: Class Action? > > CC "" > > ME -- Discovers Xfinity WiFi SSID and wonders "WTF is this?" > -- Tracks down source of SSID and discovers CC Modem in my garage is doing > this. > -- Calls Comcast "WTF?" > > CC "blah blah blah, updated ToS, you agreed, blah blah" > > ME Starts calling lawyers > > ======== > > Unfortunately, it seems to me that Comcast (and apparently other Cable WiFi > assn. members) have chosen Scenario B. Very unfortunate, considering how much > easier and more productive scenario A could be. > > Owen >
