https://finance.yahoo.com/news/comcast-customer-still-more-hated-irs-214241365.html
Moving this over here from the Olympics thread...
The reason that Comcast,
and other government-granted monopolies, are hated is simple. They're monopolies. They don't have to compete on an even playing field, which means that
they don't have to compete for consumers. The implications are simply--why work seriously on customer service if they have no other options?
Where I live, Cox Communications is the cable company, and obviously offers cable internet. AT&T provides landline phone service, and offers DSL for internet. As it relates to internet, those are my ONLY two options. And AT&T has a maximum
1.5 Mbps download speed for my address. That's not a typo. I'm an engineer and I know what Mbps means. It means I don't have two options; I have one. It's Cox or effectively no internet. I'm sure that other cable or phone providers are barred by law from attempting to compete...
Is it any surprise that I'm overpaying for internet here? I have good internet--200 Mbps download. But I pay >$100/month for that (w/o TV or anything else).
If at some point we get 5G coverage and I have access to a wireless home gateway, my guess is that it'll come in at reasonable speeds for less money than that. And at that point Cox will have to lower prices to compete.
But for now, nobody wants to put in fixed infrastructure wired to the home, so I'm stuck waiting for wireless that won't be subject to a government-granted monopoly.