FCC Orders Comcast To Stop Labeling Equipment Rental a Service Fee

An anonymous reader writes "The FCC denied an appeal by Comcast, which argued that its practice of charging customers separately for a DTA (digital terminal adapter) -- a converter box that allows cable subscribers with older televisions to receive digital channels, which the company said would be provided at no charge -- is not subject to rate regulation, because it is a service fee. The ruling was issued on March 19." Also from the article: "In an e-mail last week to the Star Tribune, Comcast vice president of corporate affairs Mary Beth Schubert said the case “involved a relatively minor dispute about the way certain items are presented on the rate card but has no effect on overall pricing.” But, [Michael Bradley, an attorney whose firm represented Minneapolis-area franchising authorities in the dispute] argued the FCC’s decision sets a strong precedent for transparency within the cable industry."

Comcast does what they want

[pete6677]

Comcast does not care what the FCC says. They have legislators in their pockets to make sure no real action will ever be taken against them. They will flat out ignore FCC regs and know that nothing will ever come of it.

A simple solution

[TWX]

How about cancelling cable TV and finding something else to do with your time?

We had cable. "Extended analog cable" if I remember, which was to say, no premium channels, no "digital" channels (this was as DTV was kicking off but was not yet mandatory), so about 80 channels of content, perhaps 60 channels that weren't some variation of an OTA broadcast.

With eighty channels there were times when we couldn't find anything that we wanted to watch. We would end up watching complete and total crap, because we were paying for it and felt obligated to watch it. One day I realized that I was coming home from work, watching four or more episodes of CSI, and going to bed. Eventually I started seeing the same episodes over again, and realized that this needed to stop.

We got rid of our cable TV subscription. Still have Internet, still have phone, but now I don't have to pay to find that there's nothing on TV, and since TV doesn't cost me anything I don't feel guilty about not turning it on. I go play music or work on something or read or even surf the Internet.

Just let it go. Trust me, it will be okay.