Comcast: Too Much Control

[Commentary] In many markets, Comcast and other big telecommunications companies don’t directly compete with each other, meaning consumers don’t have other options to turn to. The companies prefer to control their respective domains -- and our pocketbooks.

And this is all about to get worse. Much, much worse.

Comcast, the nation’s No. 1 cable and Internet company, wants to take over Time Warner Cable, the No. 2 cable provider. Put them together and you get one media giant controlling the vast majority of pay-TV and Internet access in America.

A bloated Comcast will likely engage in all kinds of shenanigans that hurt consumers -- everything from instituting totally unnecessary data caps to restricting what kinds of devices customers attach to the network to forcing folks to purchase expensive equipment. And though Comcast is obliged to adhere to the FCC’s now-overturned (and loophole-ridden) open Internet rules, this condition will expire in January 2018.

All of this will result in higher prices. This much power in the hands of one company is bad news for all US residents, including those who live in communities Comcast and Time Warner Cable don’t serve. Comcast would be able to use its market power to dictate the terms of broadband openness, cost and access at a time when the US is falling behind other nations on each of these measures. With Comcast in charge we’ll continue to sink in the ratings.