OT: While looking at this month's home Comcast bill, I did the math: It's gone up about 24% since the end of last year. As best as I recall, this has been in three stages, each a month or two apart. I've made absolutely no change in my service. (Internet, and basic cable -- the latter because basic cable introduces a discount to the Internet pricing that makes the final bill about the same.)<p>At this point, were there any effective regulation, I would expect local and state level officials, if not national, to be beating down their door. Instead, they get NBC as some sort of prize.<p>At the time I signed up, Comcast was my only option. (AT&T couldn't be bothered to upgrade their system to reach the extra mile to my community of several thousand. [1]) I hate AT&T with a passion -- a hatred born of long-standing, historical as well as current experience. But I may switch, simply to try to apply an iota of pressure by qualifying for introductory pricing.<p>(By the way, the quality and maintenance of Comcast's local cable signal has gone to hell since the digital conversion. They appear to put zero time/effort into it, and they constrain the upstream bandwidth to the point where channels become unwatchable due to low frame rates and pixelation. Additionally, channels will "freeze" and take the better part of a day before somebody bothers to "unstick" them.)<p>--<p>[1] And as a result, the best offer I could get from another DSL provider, e.g. SpeakEasy (IIRC) or some well-regarded local/regional outfits -- of the few who were willing to try -- was a $200 installation fee and no guarantee that it would work. And the joy of their trying to coordinate this with AT&T.