Comcast's fight for the pipes of the Internet

If it seems as if Comcast has acted arrogantly in addressing widespread complaints that it favors its own video streams on its Internet service over those of its competitors, it could be in part because the company so dominates the Internet-service business in the markets where it operates. And that's a lot of markets.

Internet access is the company's biggest area of growth. Comcast lost 37,000 cable customers last quarter, which was more than expected, but that was offset by a 5.7% rise in broadband revenues. That might help explain why the company at first thought it could brush off the loud complaints about its video-streaming policies. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted a diatribe on Facebook last month noting that off all the various streaming services he watched through his Xbox -- Netflix , Hulu, HBOgo, and Xfinity -- only Comcast's Xfinity didn't count against the 250-gigabyte monthly data cap Comcast was imposing on its customers. That seemed to violate at least the spirit of net-neutrality rules, and the FCC said it would look into the matter. Comcast has since abandoned data caps temporarily, and is testing alternative methods of addressing so-called bandwidth hogs. But at first, the company reacted with what many described as supreme disingenuousness. It claimed that because its Xfinity for Microsoft's Xbox service runs on a "private network" that is distinct from the Internet, net-neutrality rules (which demand that ISPs treat all data the same) didn't apply. But in practice, the service is sent into customers' homes via the same pipe as all other Internet traffic, so this didn't fly with critics. Neither did Comcast vice president for video David Cohen's dismissal of the criticism as mere "noise."