City That Called Comcast “Terrible” Strikes Deal With Comcast

When they say "Comcast made several commitments," I'm sure that translates into "made several campaign contributions."

Three weeks ago, the City Council in Worcester, MA voted 8-3 to urge the city manager to deny a transfer of the city's cable TV license from Charter to Comcast. Charter is involved in the Comcast/TWC merger through a series of customer swaps that are contingent on the main deal. One Worcester councilor called Comcast "a terrible company" and said "they should not be welcome in this city."

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And all it cost Comcast was agreeing to keep a Charter call center open, preserving 150 low paying, no benefit jobs, yay! For at least 3 years (then those jobs most likely go away).

of course if Comcast has that city monopolized, then the city does not have much of a choice

"You mean this won't even show up on our Quarterly statements? Sure, you can be a rounding error for 3 years."

"Transfer to Comcast"!?

These idiots keep doing it to themselves.

Remove the charter completely, open up your city or town to whomever wants to compete.

Until you do that, cable and internet service will ALWAYS be crappy, as the provider is a freaking monopoly!

Kueller said:

And all it cost Comcast was agreeing to keep a Charter call center open, preserving 150 low paying, no benefit jobs, yay! For at least 3 years (then those jobs most likely go away).

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So you're poo-pooing the importance of the The Mayor’s Forum?
You, sir, are a cad!

Kueller said:

And all it cost Comcast was agreeing to keep a Charter call center open, preserving 150 low paying, no benefit jobs, yay! For at least 3 years (then those jobs most likely go away).

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and you'll be force-fed a sale pitch with every call

Zarathustra[H];1041214883 said:

"Transfer to Comcast"!?

These idiots keep doing it to themselves.

Remove the charter completely, open up your city or town to whomever wants to compete.

Until you do that, cable and internet service will ALWAYS be crappy, as the provider is a freaking monopoly!

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Those lines belong to someone though, and it isn't the town...

When you say open up your city, are you suggesting cutting red tape, licensing fees, right-of-way fees, mandatory 90 day public comment periods, 6 month environmental studies, etc, etc? Because that's what it takes to increase competition - reducing the cost of installation to a level where a provider can recoup their outlay in a reasonable time frame.

You don't actually even need these agreements to not have competition - why would I spend x million dollars to potentially attract maybe half of a town, and the only way to compete is to under price the incumbent? I'm not going to make back my initial investment in any kind of acceptable time, especially not if I have multiple shareholders.

Dear god wish I was a whore, err, politician to keep getting all that money to screw everyone around me.

Kueller said:

And all it cost Comcast was agreeing to keep a Charter call center open, preserving 150 low paying, no benefit jobs, yay! For at least 3 years (then those jobs most likely go away).

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Having been on the receiving end of one of these deals, I can tell you exactly how it will go down.

They will announce everything as all rosy and a great opportunity for everyone there. Then will begin the calculated "Culling" of "Under performing" departments. This process will start around 6 months after the ink dries, and in the next 6 months will result in the elimination of 40-60% of the existing positions. Of course this will lead to another percentage of natural attrition of people leaving due to "reasons". By the end of the year the call center will be basically a skeleton crew that will largely be ignored and given zero raises or anything until they quit or until they shutter the call center on the Day that 3 year agreement ends. Working conditions will be as hostile as legally possible to "Encourage" people to be on their way and prevent comcast from having to pay more than a handful of severance packages, most of which will be executives who know all this ahead of time and exactly what they are getting.

Yep, some lining of pockets certainly happened, and the ones who actually work are going to be getting a good old fashioned ass fucking.

Aren't these types of deals illegal?

flashoverride said:

When you say open up your city, are you suggesting cutting red tape, licensing fees, right-of-way fees, mandatory 90 day public comment periods, 6 month environmental studies, etc, etc? Because that's what it takes to increase competition - reducing the cost of installation to a level where a provider can recoup their outlay in a reasonable time frame.

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Right, but the flipside of that coin is more corruption as well. No 90 day comment periods sound great, until the mayor's brother's company is tearing through your backyard through a right of way. And your kids, or their kids, will likely appreciate the environmental studies down the line instead of getting your internet bill 5% cheaper.