Most Egregious Comcast Practice Ever
I normally don’t write about negative experiences on my blog … but this is an exception.
Comcast, for anyone who may not know, is one of the small handful of big companies that dominate and monopolize the availability of Internet service in the United States. Comcast, more than others, has the worst reputation (earned by the company’s actions), and many Comcast customers have their own horror stories. Let me share what I consider to be the most egregious Comcast practice ever:
Who doesn’t check work email from home? Heck, we all do. Suppose that you’ve checked your work email from home - mornings before work, evenings, weekends - for years, and suddenly, you can no longer send email even though your work in a sensitive field.
My wife has been unable to send email from her work account when she has been at home over the past week. It happened all of a sudden - last week her email was working, this week it is not. The reason is because Comcast has a sort of “Big Brother” watchdog program that monitors email volume, on the look-out for spammers.
The fact that my wife - an international religious freedom and human rights advocate - receives hundreds of emails, many dealing with life and death situations around the world, has triggered Comcast to slap something called a “TP25 boot file” on her email, preventing her from sending email over Comcast from anywhere in the United States. She doesn’t sign-on often from home - perhaps only once or twice a week - but it was enough. Comcast’s “TP25 boot file,” I am told by a Comcast technician, blocked her work’s email out, not just from home but from using Comcast-provided Internet everywhere.
In other words, when my wife was checking email from home regarding international human rights issues when lives were hanging in the balance, Comcast’s server didn’t like the fact that she was receiving many emails when she would sign-on from home during a weekend or off-hours, and the company shut down her ability to send any emails, without warning and without regard for what damage or dangers such action might cause.
There is an enormous issue of confidentiality and principle at stake here. Everyone has the right to privacy of email, whether their personal email or work email. Such arbitrary action by a monopolistic broadband provider is outrageous in principle. It is the concept of Big Brother at the worst.
We would gladly switch to another broadband Internet service provider … if there were one. Comcast, it seems, has a monopolistic lock on this part of north Arlington, Virginia.
I welcome your comments and suggestions on this issue.
About the Author: David is a veteran communications strategist ... writer ... blogger ... online publisher ... and Emmy Award winning former CBS Network News correspondent. He lives in Washington, D. C., area and works worldwide.
ComcastCares | Jun 14, 2008 | Reply
I apologize for the trouble. The change you are referencing is an effort by ISP’s, including Comcast to reduce spam. There was unusual outgoing email volume that caused the change. Notification of this change should have been sent to the primary comcast.net email. There is no need for the email to go through Comcast’s mail servers, but rather change the outgoing port to 587 and require secured authenication. This can be done with your wife’s work email server too. I will be happy to share your feedback. If you have any trouble, please send me an email at the address below.
Frank Eliason
Comcast
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com
David Henderson | Jun 14, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for leaving a comment but you are not correct — because Comcast has placed a block on the outgoing server of her work email, she is unable to send any email not only from home but anywhere in America that is using Comcast. This is regardless of port number.
Ron Lyon | Jun 14, 2008 | Reply
Outrageous. Probably an invasion of privacy as well as your First Amendment rights.
This is the reason cable/internet monopolies are being broken up., I suggest you get in touch with Henry Waxman, or whomever it is who is investigating cable monopolies.
Also, how do they know what’s business, and what’s personal. Furthermore, I would liken it to using your home phone to check the answer machine at the office…or having calls forwarded.
Madness….
Barney | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
I think this is extraordinary. I work in a similar field to your wife’s and I work rather a lot from home, as does my wife, who runs a small publishing company. Between us we rack up a lot of emails every day. Our ISP (British Telecom) has never tried a trick like Comcast’s. If they were to do so, we’d be off to one of the many other ISPs who provide service throughout the UK.
However, BT has its own rather nasty little secret. It has tested a system of monitoring its customers’ traffic so as to sell the data to a company that shapes the advertising sent to the customers to the customers’ interests. BT claimed it wasn’t doing anything illegal, but the Information Commissioner thought this could well be a breach of our privacy.
David Henderson | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
Barney,
Thanks for your comment. The problem is that Comcast is the only broadband Internet provider we have available to us … they have a monopoly in our community.
David
bilo | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
There is no DSL available to you through phone lines?
David Henderson | Jun 15, 2008 | Reply
Bilo,
DSL is no longer available. Even though Verizon, the only DSL provider in Arlington, Virginia, has not make its fiber Internet service available, they have stopped offering DSL. Quite frankly, I love DSL and used it for years from Speakeasy.net. But even they are restricted by Verizon.
David