Comcast should play more of a role in growing Philly tech scene, critics say [Comcast Roundup]

Comcast has to innovate carefully [Philadelphia Business Journal] “But although Comcast now emphasizes its technological prowess to the point that it calls itself “a global media and technology company,” it still has limits in the types of technology it can introduce. That’s because, with nearly 22 million video customers, nearly 20 million Internet customers and a little more than 10 million phone customers, it can’t afford to roll out leading-bleeding-edge stuff that may spectacularly not work.”

Comcast: The big engine that could [Philadelphia Business Journal] (behind paywall) “Although the company is undeniably one of the largest economic engines for southeastern Pennsylvania, many entrepreneurs and their backers think the media giant should be more of a catalyst for growth in the area’s technology sector.”

Cancel the Cable, Honey: Curious Rise in Stocks [Forbes] “Big providers Comcast (CMCSA), Time Warner Cable, Charter Communications (CHTR) and Cablevision Systems together lost twice as many video subscribers in the first quarter as they did in the first quarter of 2012, according to a report at Variety.com.”

Verizon Offering Faster FiOS for $309 to Outpace Comcast [Bloomberg] “Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), the second-largest U.S. telephone company, is boosting its FiOS Internet speeds to 500 megabits a second, faster than Comcast Corp. (CMCSA)’s speediest service and half that of Google Inc.’s.”

Strange bedfellows: Aereo gets help from Time Warner Cable and Comcast [The Verge] “Aereo’s quest to use the internet to deliver live TV to customers without requiring them to pay hefty cable fees is riding a wave of good news. The web TV service has received some assistance from Time Warner Cable (TWC) and indirectly from Comcast, two important partners of the broadcasters that have tried to sue Aereo out of existence.”

Comcast’s X1 availability widens, mass-deployment still planned by year’s end [Engadget] “While currently you can only get the X1 set-top box in 18 of its service areas, that’s growing, as it’s come to several new markets recently. A company spokesperson recently told us that the cable giant is still on track to have the new unit as an option for all of its customers by year’s end. “