On Thu, Dec 11, 2014 at 3:50 PM, Doug Barton <dougb@dougbarton.us> wrote:
My concerns are that apparently customers are not informed about the thing before it gets enabled, and the issue of wifi density that was raised by several people here. If you have an apartment building for example, where a significant majority of the tenants are Comcast customers (cuz in 'murica we loves us some monopolies) I see a lot of strong xfinity signals stomping on an already crowded 2.4 G spectrum.
So just to be clear, I'm not being critical at this point, I'm simply interested in separating the facts from the hype.
Here is an additional data point that can hopefully satisfy your curiosity. TL;DR: In my experience, Comcast appeared to hide the fact that they are running this new wifi service by using my device, and they pushed the idea of upgrading my router by saying it would improve uplink speeds (which may be true). IF you find out that the XFINITY wifi service will be running on your device, then it is not hard to disable it. I received an email from Comcast that they were offering a free upgraded wifi router for my home. Here is a snippet from the email: """ At Comcast, we're constantly improving our Internet network. For you, that means access to faster in-home WiFi speeds, more bandwidth, and more coverage for your whole home. With all of these technology advancements, devices need to be upgraded in order to fully maximize our service offerings. Recently, we increased the speeds of some of our popular Internet tiers at no additional cost to you. Our records indicate that your cable modem needs to be upgraded in order to ensure you're getting the most out of your XFINITY® Internet service. To ensure you're receiving the full benefits included with your service, we want to replace your existing modem with a Wireless Gateway free of charge. """ The rest of the email is instructions and contact information for customer service. I didn't really pay attention to much else (e.g. separate emails or marketing campaigns), but why not mention that by installing this new device, I would be enabling the XFINITY wifi service in this email? At the time, I kept wondering what the real incentive was for Comcast to send me anything for free. The first step of the provided instructions in the email was a link, which I assumed would walk me through some steps to sign up. I think that brought be to a login screen, so I logged in. As soon as I did that, I was notified that my new device was on its way. All I really wanted was more information, so this annoyed me quite a bit. After I received the device, I decided to give it a try. Before I did, I researched a bit online and figured out that they were planning on offering the XFINITY wifi service from my device. The management interface for the device is a bit limited. It was annoying enough that I *wanted* to go back to my old setup, but it was not annoying enough for me to actually jump through the hoops I'd have to go through to actually carry that out. I agree that the XFINITY wifi service in it of itself is not a bad thing, but I personally didn't want to run it on my device. I agree with folks saying it is easy to opt out. Instructions for disabling the public connection were easy to find and simple to perform. I am comfortable with my current situation, but the whole process left me with a distrust of clicking any link that Comcast provides me in the future when the email says "ACTION REQUIRED" in the subject. As a consumer, I personally felt that I had been misled, but I was glad that the opt-out process was simple. -- Tim Upthegrove