[ale] Fwd: Comcast Converting 50, 000 Houston Home Routers Into Public WiFi Hotspots

[Jeff Hubbs]

It occurs to me that land used to erect and operate an antenna (to 
include huge cell phone antennas) is not had for free; the antenna 
operator either leases or buys that land.  In my view, this should be no 
different:  opt-in in exchange for a discount...and the broadband 
operator shouldn't have the only say as to how much of a discount; that 
should perhaps fall into a PSC's wheelhouse.

On 6/10/14, 4:02 PM, Paul Cartwright wrote:
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> Comcast Converting 50,000 Houston Home Routers Into Public WiFi 
> Hotspots New submitter green453 writes: 'As a Houston resident with 
> limited home broadband options, I found the following interesting: 
> Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle reports (warning: paywalled) 
> that Comcast plans to turn 50,000 home routers into public Wi-Fi 
> hotspots without their users providing consent. Comcast plans to 
> eventually convert 150,000 home routers into a city-wide WiFi network. 
> A similar post (with no paywall) by the same author on the SeattlePI 
> Tech Blog explains the change. From the post on SeattlePI: "What's 
> interesting about this move is that, by default, the feature is being 
> turned on without its subscribers' prior consent. It's an opt-out 
> system -- you have to take action to not participate. Comcast 
> spokesman Michael Bybee said on Monday that notices about the hotspot 
> feature were mailed to customers a few weeks ago, and email 
> notifications will go out after it's turned on. But it's a good bet 
> that this will take many Comcast customers by surprise."' This follows 
> similar efforts in Chicago and the Twin Cities.
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> at Slashdot.
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> <http://da.feedsportal.com/r/199119547744/u/49/f/647410/c/35028/s/3b5cd082/sc/4/rc/1/rc.htm>
> <http://da.feedsportal.com/r/199119547744/u/49/f/647410/c/35028/s/3b5cd082/sc/4/rc/2/rc.htm>
> <http://da.feedsportal.com/r/199119547744/u/49/f/647410/c/35028/s/3b5cd082/sc/4/rc/3/rc.htm>
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> <http://da.feedsportal.com/r/199119547744/u/49/f/647410/c/35028/s/3b5cd082/sc/4/a2.htm> 
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> -- 
> Paul Cartwright
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> -- 
> Paul Cartwright
> Registered Linux User #367800 and new counter #561587
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