Comcast Keen to Avoid 'Worst Company in America' Award: [24th Mar 2011]

Comcast has been urging its employees to do their bit to avoid the company being voted as "the worst company in America" in this years Consumerist poll. Comcast won the coveted award last year and does not want a repeat. They are therefore asking employees to stuff online ballot boxes by voting with a number of different devices. They are making it very clear they should vote for another company - not Comcast and as many times as possible. Despite this Comcast is currently in the lead.


It was revealed this week that AT&T wants to purchase T-Mobile for $39 billion which would give the company a 39% market share. This would effectively mean that two providers would own 79% of the entire US market. Not surprisingly Sprint, as the third player in the market, has objected to the deal and feels that it would stifle innovation and give tremendous power to AT&T. Sprint will be submitting its concerns to Congress and the FCC. Jim Coconni from AT&T has commented that it is not surprising that Sprint would have objections but they feel ready to counter any arguments which may be put forward by the FCC or Congress.


AT&T have found themselves in hot water after they were sued over their inside wiring and maintenance protection plans. The insurance adds between $6 and $10 to the average bill despite the chances of anything going wrong being very slim. Even if something does go wrong it is very cheap to fix usually. The $10 million lawsuit targets AT&T even though other companies sell similar plans because it automatically charges people who live in apartments even tough this type of wiring is taken care of by landlords. There has also been a claim that the AT&T contract forces people to accept binding arbitration despite being told this is not legal.


Meanwhile Daniel Mead, the CEO of Verizon Wireless has made it clear that the company has no interest in buying Sprint despite losing their position as top player in the US wireless market. Mead said that the company does not need Sprint and that they would not be opposing AT&T's plans. He points out that it is likely the acquisition will go through even if AT&T has to make some concessions such as selling some assets. Mead says that Verizon still plans to be the most profitable provider, if not the biggest.


It has been suggested that the FCC should look at companies which hoard wireless spectrum before they ask TV stations to voluntarily give up theirs. The National Association of Broadcasters has said that companies like Verizon and Time Warner Cable have failed to develop the spectrum they hold and that this should be used before smaller broadcasters are asked to give up 40% of theirs. They point out that any spectrum shortage is only likely in large cities and that TV stations have made plans about what they want their spectrum for. They want it for niche programming such as religious channels and school sports. They also want to deliver local broadcasts to mobiles and laptops.


Research from the NPD group has found that just 9% of Internet users use peer to peer which is down from 16% three years ago. It seems that streaming of video has taken over from shared copies of movies or music. It seems that a letter campaign run by providers may have led users to mask their ISP with a proxy or to shift to another way of sourcing pirated material.