Comcast Roundup: Olympic channel controversy, Justice Dept. on telecom abuse and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.
The United States Olympic Committee and Comcast announced yesterday they would partner to launch in 2010 The U.S. Olympic Network, broadcasting the trials and training and everything else that goes into the international event.
Comcast’s corporate blog takes on the rosy dream of giving you superhuman mega athletes and their schmaltzy stories 24/7/365. Of course, the N.Y. Times and the Debbie Downers that they are focus more on the fact that, well, the International Olympic Committee has made clear they have not given name or TV rights for the project.
The Times reports that this is just the latest development in the tense relationship between the U.S.O.C. and the I.O.C.
Richard Carrion, an I.O.C. executive board member, told the Times that they were concerned about the viability of the network and its affect on longtime U.S. broadcaster NBC.
“We’ve given the rights to NBC to be the Olympic network,” he said. “I don’t think something else called the Olympic network will fly.”
After the jump, Verizon crashes Steel Town, what Pirate Bay wants to sell Comcast and five other stories for the faithful.

In order of importance for your ease:

• Reuters reports that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether large telecommunications companies are abusing their market power. Anyone hear footsteps coming?
• The Silicon Alley Insider reports that torrent site Pirate Bay plans to raise capital by selling the spare bandwidth of their users to ISPs like our boys over at Comcast. The announcement first reported by Business Week comes in the wake of their $7.9 million purchase by Global Gaming Factory X.
• Pittsburgh’s ABC affiliate reports that that city just made a tentative 10-year agreement with Verizon to bring that cable provider in direct competition with Comcast. The crowd at Primanti Brothers was divided, I’m sure. [H/T Philly Tech News]
• Business Week reports that Comcast annnounced that more than $1.73 billion of its debt has been tendered so far in response to its two-week-old cash offer to purchase $1.3 billion in notes. Their debt has been in the news before.
• The Consumerist shares a post with this rather self-evident title: What, You Expect Comcast To Stop Billing You Just Because You Canceled Your Account? Apparently, some chap in Connecticut continued to get billed after returning all of Comcast’s equipment — until he contacted the state’s attorney general.
• 4G Wireless Evolution reports that Comcast’s WiMax bundle of fixed line internet, phone and television products puts pressure on AT&T and Verizon. The report notes that the point is to win customer share from the two competitors before they hit back with something better. Mobile Tech Today says the whole bundle isn’t competitive and won’t fly. This 4G network, which we noted earlier, might not even be an improvement over 3G MTT suggests.

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When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.