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Comcast's rein over content reaches into the Internet, unlike telephone companies, which are required by law to grant equal access to competing ISPs – the Comcast blocks customers from accessing competing service providers.
The Wal-Mart of telecom? Labor says Comcast is abusive in its employment practices and they have begun referring to the company as the Wal-Mart of the telecommunications industry. A recent study by American Rights at Work, titled "No Bargain: Comcast and the Future of Workers' Rights in Telecommunications", uncovered disturbing practices by the company. Depressed wages, emplyment of a variety of union-busting tactics, and salaries that "are approximately one-third lower than the unionized telephone companies,".
Sticking it to citizens -- workers aren't the only ones who've found Comcast difficult to deal with. Increasingly, the company has been playing hardball with state and local governments on franchise matters. Comcast sued San Jose in 2003, arguing that the franchise negotiations process violates the company's 1st Amendment rights. The courts found against Comcast, but the company then appealed that decision. Over 20 state legislatures have launched state franchising schemes hoping to create incentives for competitive investors. Comcasts response in California was to spend over $3 million directly on an opposition media campaign and millions more on direct lobby efforts at events such as the LA Lakers games and lunches.
In Philadelphia, Comcast's corporate headquarters, it enjoys multimillion-dollar tax breaks, yet the company doesn't provide for a single public access channel (PEG) – a standard in any franchise agreement.[18]
During a Comcast local franchise matter before the city of San Fransisco in 2002 CALPIRG presented support for their claims that Comcast holds a persistent, anti-competitive monopoly. Citing a 1998 Department of Justice suit and comments by then Assistant Attorney General Joel Klein -- "In almost two decades since the Federal government pre-empted most rate regulation and other local oversight over the cable TV companies, the industry has proven to be one of the most persistent monopolies in the American economy. By any rigorous economic definition, it remains a monopoly and continues to engage in anticompetitive and anti-consumer monopoly abuses." "Whenever rates are unregulated, the industry pushes them up at several times the rate of inflation creating large monopoly profits. The passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, with its effort to inject competition into the industry, has done little to restrain the abuse of market power. Unchecked by the alleged competition from satellite television, cable rates have increased by over 40 percent since the passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and basic service revenues increased over 50 percent. While imposing this massive increase in prices, the cable industry has maintained one of the lowest customer satisfaction and service quality ratings of any major consumer service industry. Only monopolists can get away with that hat trick."