Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, addressed the University of Penn grads this week. One of the words of wisdom he passed along to the grads was to turn off their computers and hang out more. “Our goal is to have you be as attached as possible. But know where the off button is. It’s possible to spend your life inside the computer.” I often wonder when the 2nd Amendment will be changed from the Right to Bear Arms to the Right to Bear a Blackberry. I’m sure at this point, the not yet founded NBBA could rival the NRA. Anyway, a nice summary of the commencement is found here.
The article goes on to say how Eric speaks with Brian Roberts (Comcast CEO) on a weekly basis regarding political and policy issues. Apparently they also discuss business strategies- now that’s the part that got me thinking. The head of Google, as in “Don’t Be Evil” corporate motto Google, discussing business strategies with We Are Evil and We Don’t Care- Comcast; that seems a bit odd at first.
Google’s open source, anti-monopoly, unbiased search philosophy seems to clash with Comcast’s packet shaping, bandwidth capping, use our products or your service will degrade business approach. But then you start to think about Google’s venture into the Google Apps/online storage business and you can begin to see the parallels to Comcast’s business model.
Comcast controls the pipeline for 2/3 of all broadband users and controls the speed at which many services they and their competitors offer is delivered to their subscribers. Google is a marketing company that wants to store your personal and business data.
Those conversations make a bit more sense now.
I love DSLX, but 5mbps is just not scratching my back like it used to. I decided to sign up for Comcast’s base tier once my area went D3, which it did a few weeks ago. I ordered online and was able to get a rate of 19.99 per month for six months for 12/2 service, plus a $50 install fee. I thought the install fee was pretty irritating because I took the time to run the cable, but it turned out to be worth the price. – Catalina
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