Given the recent VZ thread, I thought I'd show why my new house has crap Internet. The story: A piece of underground cable went bad. The techs didn't pull new underground cable. They decided it was better to do it "arial" (if you can call 2 feet "arial"). They took apart the two pedestals on either side of the break and ran a new strand of RG6 (yes, the same stuff you use inside your home, not the outside-plant rated stuff) tied to trees with rope. <http://ianai.smugmug.com/BostonPix/2012/Comcast-Atherton-Street> These pedestals have looked like this for months apparently. I called the 800 # and complained, they rolled a truck. The guy didn't even come in my house, just gave me his supervisor's number and said that he's a home tech, the outside plant guys are the problem and he can't fix it. A second guy rolled up while we were chatting and told me he had a call around the block for the same thing. They've been taking complaints about this for months and are as tired of it as we are. I assured them I was more tired of it, given he was getting paid while I was paying, but I understood their situation. Of course, since the other "broadband" option at my house is 1 Mbps Verizon DSL, I don't have much leverage. :( -- TTFN, patrick P.S. Worst part is AT&T sux there too, so I have a picocell - which runs over the Comcast cable mode....