Comcast throws down gauntlet to residential accounts

[Barton F Bruce]

*This message was transferred with a trial version of CommuniGate(r) Pro*


Last fall I sat through the whole day public FCC hearing on Comcast's 
outrageous behavior to P2P traffic (and presumably other traffic, too, but 
that was the biggie) held at Harvard Law School.

Things started LATE because Comcast had stacked the room with their dummies 
that had no idea what was happening and were just trying to stay awake. The 
FCC Chairman, in commenting on the late start while we all waited for the 
146 or so overflow attendees to be accomodated in another room via a video 
and audio feed, also made it quite clear the FCC was well aware that a lot 
of attendees in the main hall were only there because Comcast had arranged 
for them to be filling seats.

Congressman Markey was there, too, to say his opening remarks since his 
committee has oversight over the FCC.

One or two minutes of listening to the Comcast chief counsel and I was 
convinced the FCC wasn't going to get anything out of him, but at least they 
could turn the flames up as they stirred the pot periodically. I doubt any 
additional oil or grease was needed to prevent sticking to the pan, though 
maybe I missed when they had to ladel some off lest what was probably oozing 
out and collecting spill over.

It just went downhill all day for Comcast. After the official ceremony was 
over, there was a beer/wine/cheese/cracker type reception in another campus 
building, and I heard the FCC's Chair's private comments to those of us 
walking with him. If you thought he was pissed at them from his public 
comments, you got very sure from his more private ones.

They were just out of control! That the entire FCC made a whole day hearing 
on the East Coast, and then on the West Coast, meant that the FCC was 
getting a LOT of complaints.

The fix as far as I can tell is DOCSIS 3 modems and more bandwidth, but that 
is still over what would have been revenue bearing video channels Comcast 
misses and Comcasts engineering approach is just to cover light weight 
normal browsing, and the "fix" is nothing but temporary!!!

We all need to let the FCC know how terrible Comcast still is.

There was one VENDOR allowed in and who had a display table and screen right 
up front where everyone could see! The product however was FREE nad the 
vendor was MIRO (or still is Democracy Player for those yet gagging on the 
new name).

They POINTED TO MIRO and said here is a great new technology to empower 
anyone to distribure their videos to the masses virtually for free. This is 
the kind of goodness and change the internet can make and this is exactly 
what Comcast's SandVine deep packet inspection boxes were stalking to kill.

TOR may not be quite as warm and fuzzy as MIRO, but both are important when 
we live in a world of lies and spin doctors and corporate "media" that can't 
tell the truth (if they even know it) lest they be fired.

We need to find the exact sore points and buttons that will excite the FCC 
and panic Comcast.  Mumbling "I may call the FCC" isn't the same as "I'm one 
of the authors  of document X over 10,000 of which have been sent to the 
FCC - please continue to give us more material for the updated version being 
sent later this month. I understand you must have already heard of the first 
version by now...".

Can TOR folks TORture Comcast? Don't know, but can't hurt to try.

FWIW, Comcast did not appear at the reception, but VZ's two very sharp 
representatives were there. One was I suspect a Lobbyist, and the other was 
very technical and holds several of the patents VZ used against Vonage. Both 
very clean cut and well spoken and in stark contrast to Comcast's well 
deserved "image" at the hearing.

FIOS is using CWDM (Coarse Wave Division Multiplexing) with 3 seperate 
lambdas. Even in just what has been already deployed, there is a vast amount 
of idle bandwidth they can sell. They can trivially add more colors and then 
only need to equip the CO end of any 32 subscriber fiber and as needed 
selected PON end points to be able to add some random other new high 
bandwidth offerings that do not share the wave/lambda/color of the base 
three. There is nothing to preclude packing a *LOT* more in as DWDM 
(Dense....) simply by using the more expensive components but only as 
necessary.

In other words, Comcast is still very limited, and FIOS can crank out as 
much bandwidth as needed trivially with what is already being deployed. VZ 
has always to me seemed to be a do less charge more sort of company, but as 
long as they don't sleeze past the local town cable folks by buying whomever 
else they need at state or Washington level, and are supporting the PEG 
video channels, I'm delighted they are making the RCNs and Comcasts of the 
world work hard for our money.

I'm paying $65 per month for 20 meg UP and DOWN FIOS with one dynamic IP. 
Some early on home folks got grandfathered in at about that price with 
several fixed IPs. It is always the last mile where the choke point is. Long 
haul and transit is dirt cheap these days.

I get any fixed IPs I need over a work provided T1 (yes I can and may yet 
just tunnel them over the FIOS link), but my big problem is I can't figure 
out how to have some things in a windows machine run with one set of IP 
addresses and others use others without messing with virtual machines or 
having the electric bill rocket with too many physical machines.

Ideally, individual applications should be able to handle multiple IPs, too. 
Torrents or even TOR should be able to deal with a multihomed machine, and 
keep selected things running in appropriate IP space. Something like 
Communigate PRO does let me use specific IP addresses for selected email 
domains as needed.

Many folks have housemates with different internet access, and then there is 
that 25 DB parabolic getting idle WiFi bandwidth off hours from the 
library/coffieeshop/laundromat in sight a block or few away. Applications 
and OSes need to make using multiple addresses trivial even just in IPV4 
space.

Creamed spinach dip was excellent, too. A shame Comcast didn't come over to 
socialize. I bet a lot of rude remarks were poised and ready to fly.