If AT&T is truely worried about ifastructure they can pony up and over build T-Mobile if they chose. Its lame that they would use that as an excuse to justify a blatiant power grab. Good on you DOJ you don't often get things right.

working in broadband i can personally test first hand that mice / rats cause these types of outages in the system i work in squirrels are particularly problematic because of how close the Arial plant is to trees... its just something that has to be dealt with with distribution systems...

really..

<quote><p> I wouldn't say the Cable Guy is in the IT business.</p></quote>

Then clearly you don't have a sound understanding of the industry.... this is a common misconception let me explain. cable in the 80 was primarily a job that was done by basically unskilled untrained labor up until the introduction of Digital Cable and High Speed Data in the 90's. With the addition of product lines that are becoming increasingly complex and an end user who cares more about their Internet then even TV reception computer knowledge and repair experience is fast becoming a make or break skill set in terms of getting one of these jobs. If your strictly defining IT as only computer work then your narrow view of the field tracks however cable has been forced to move closer and closer to the beading edge of technology to keep up with completion.

That being said cable techs are't all college trained computer scientists, but there is a larger number of displaced IT workers run out of their jobs by lower cost over seas completion who fit very nicely into the field. The average pay of a cable tech has grown also to reflect this as well with most repair techs in the filed making wages that compete for modest entry level to mid grade IT Jobs. Additionally cable company's have had to expand training budgets to train existing employees on new products / services which translates into higher skilled more educated technicians.

All this being considered its hard to see how somebody would not clump cable work (or telico work in general) with IT. It might be more accurate to say; "I woudn't say the Cable Guy is ONLY in the IT business ".

Robot Football ...

Discuss

this will never work....

one of the great things about netflix is the fullness of selection, unfortunately netflix is now discovering what being a content provider is all about getting screwed by the content owners ... have fun being a cable company netflix it was fun while it lasted.

IANAL ---- but, legal or not you can not sign a contract that eliminates / mitigates the law or your rights; this nullifies the contract (at least in the US) this is why binding arbitration agreements are becoming more and more ineffective.

really, this shouldn't worry Comcast tho.... everybody with netflix has to have some kind of internet connecton and by in large, high speed data takes less time to recover profitability than cable tv on an install and the total profitability on HSD is more than cable and phone products combined... everybody wins. Last year Time Warner (as an example) lost subscriber base in its video products but still managed to turn a larger profit than the previous year because it expanded its HSD product. Its all in how you look at this. Now if Netflix were to suddenly start providing internet service to go along with streaming video service then the cable companies would have something to worry about. Honestly i think that cable company's by in large have more to worry about from the emerging 3G and 4G markets than from netflix, or other streming video services. As i said its all in how you look at it. What I don't see talked about much here is how inflated netflix has made the streaming video market. as an example the 9ish bucks a month they charge a month is very high considering that most cable companies practically give away nearly 70% of their streaming video product, pay per view aside most streaming video channels on cable come as a sidecar to selling the accompanying product. Don't get me wrong Netflix is a fabulous product and I am a subscriber but it seams a little preemptive to call the cable company's on the decline here.... specifically when you consider the other markets they continue to expand in such as phone, alarm systems and wireless.

don't talk to the SEC about Geek Fight Club.

I agree but to a point... if you are in a constant flux between changing job processes and production, nothing will ever get done. You can't be so focused on streamlining the process that the production side gets mangled. There is a point that maintaining a high set of production standards is ideal but once you've decided on a course of action its far better stick with them if you can.
  I can tell you from first hand experience, with working with one of these heretic types, for the most part it's the conflict that drives them. Once this is the point nothing will be good enough. Simple adherence to a plan is not poor team work, at times it might blind you to opportunities not taken but it will not hinder production which is by in large more important for a company to stay in business than innovation.

LMFAO

--Of course, then the legislative charter would have to be carefully set up to prevent it's use as a giant patronage job bank for do-nothing political allies.

you made a funny!

what!? (fist pound ala shawn spencer..)

Ahh junk science, nobody loves me like you do...

that was fast....