Comcast Roundup: Net Neutrality, raising prices “because it can” and More

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup. Get an e-mail subscription to our Comcast news updates.
Net neutrality and Comcast’s role in that debate’s recent-most incarnation dominated mentions of the telecommunications giant this week.
The Federal Communications Commission will keep Comcast and others from limiting user Web traffic, according to sources of the Washington Post, which owned the coverage and suspected that decision as early as last week.
But the FCC’s call that they have the authority to rule that ISPs like Comcast cannot create user limitations is muddy, considering other recent actions from the bipartisan governing body, as Wired magazine reported. The pushback came from Comcast, by way of an open-letter written by company executive vice president David L. Cohen, as reported by the Inquirer.
CNet reported on growing House support for a net neutrality bill. MacWorld talked on just how quickly you could breeze through Comcast’s monthly 250-gb limit (H/T Philly Tech News).
We’ve said before that you know the Comcast story is big when Joey Sweeney gets in on it.
After the jump, Comcast raises prices “because it can,” Hulu trades business ideas and seven other Comcast news items for your perusing.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• Adage reports that Comcast is rolling out Fancast commercials that seem to headed straight for Hulu’s market: online-streaming TV. And in a complete reversal, Hulu seems to trying Comcast’s angle, by beta-testing a subscription model, according to Business Insider.
• Multichannel News goes deeper into Comcast’s proposed subscription-based TV Everywhere schema, noting that while it intends to be the first big jump into bringing online viewers into paying for a core business, it hasn’t solved the question of which element of the cable industry really owns access to those viewers.
• The Inquirer’s Joey DiStefano reports that Comcast and Sunoco are among the 25 largest companies that could be acquired because of high cash yield and low debt holdings, according to one of these reports that are released to much fanfare and no actual action.
• Joey D also reports on an analyst’s report that Comcast keeps raising prices “because it can or because it thinks it can.”

GIVE A GLANCE

• DSL Reports gives some resident reporting on the status of the DOCSIS 30 rollout in Denver.
• Gizmodo reports that T-Mobile is rolling out a 21 mbs, 3g service in Philadelphia. As we linked last week, baseless speculation has pitted Comcast against T-Mobile in a thus-far fictitious angle on buying up Sprint.
• The Examiner wonders where is the Big Ten Network in HD, weeks into the college football season. After my alma mater Temple got handed another loss to Penn State, I’m not sure I care.
• The Washington Post on Comcast’s digital transition and handling it without a box.

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