COMCAST vs Direct TVFollow

I started this thread thinking COMCAST, but I'm now leaning towards DTV. They have reasonable international packages. I Will have to check to see the local Internet Service Providers. Once you've experienced Korean Internet, everything else is a rip off... :(

I'm a bit optimistic in hoping Google will bring higher standards to the States as far as internet is concerned-- once they start up their cable/internet venture I've been hearing about. I could just be horribly, horribly wrong though.

Just to clarify, I have no issues with Comcast when it comes to getting a consistent connection. I honestly can't think of a single time that I've lost connection that wasn't a hardware problem on my end. It's that their customer service is atrocious and they tend to jack up their rates every two years. I've had them for about ten years now, and I'm paying almost twenty dollars more per month for the same package than I was when I first signed up. The last time that the upped the rate, I called them and after getting the run around for an hour or so, I was able to convince them to give me a ten dollar monthly discount that lasted for a year. That's expired now though and I really don't feel like calling them again. Maybe next year when the up the rate again...

I go through Charter. They seem to be big enough to be good, but still small enough to want to compete against the rest.

Very few fights with the content providers, and decent internet speeds. No data caps to speak of (100s of GB per month and never slow down)

What is censored?

I'm pretty sure that the three major providers in SK have about the same level of competition (probably less actually). The price is lower in SK because the government heavily subsidizes the infrastructure (and heavily regulates/censors the content).

I don't know about "heavily". They do monitor political news and block NK sympathetic websites and categorizes of ****, but to the average user it's not something one would notice much. The US does basically identical things with "illegal" content. The law in SK is codified differently, but not particularly more comprehensively than here. On balance, I'd prefer the $10 a month gigabit fiber with the lack of pubic hair and pro NK sites if given the choice.

The only issues I had with Comcast were wanting to put "Billy" from Kolkata, Idaho through a wall.

I still have about 2 months before I actually move back to the US. I'm just trying to be proactive.

You're the kind of person who would bask in the warm embrace of big government anyway, so that's not saying much.

Only when it's more efficient at providing basic services. Which turns out to be pretty much always because capitalism doesn't work for that sort of thing. Not really my fault it worked out that way, I have no particular affinity for government, if the private sector made people safer and happier, I'd be all for that.

It doesn't.

Which is rarely. It's just better at hiding the cost.

And yet, you were just praising the $10/month gigabit internet speeds in SK. I get that only one of us actually works in the industry, but you can't possibly think that's remotely close to the true cost for that speed.



Government does it as a means of control though. Which is the more relevant point to this discussion.

Are you implying that our data access is expensive because it guarantees us some sort of freedom from government censorship?



Our data is expensive because Comcast - Verizon - AT&T - TWC have set themselves up to essentially monopolize local markets.

Can you elaborate, because the way that reads to me is that the big 4 have allowed each other to have their own markets and are gouging customers. But the problem with that, is that if they're gouging people, then their profit margins are ridiculously high and thereby enticing other competitors to start up and offer competition. And that doesn't appear to be happening, or is it?