Aug 19, 2011 4 min read

This just won’t do.

There are few things in this world that I enjoy more than hating Comcast. The cable giant, like all cable giants across the country, are among the most reviled institutions outside of Satanism and gas station bathrooms. In fact, the cable companies are regularly ranked below fan favorites like Congress and the airlines in terms of public satisfaction.

(When people like Congress more than they like you, you’re doing something wrong. Seriously, seriously wrong.)

The cable companies come about this poor reputation honestly: from customer service so poor it borders on malicious to overpriced cable and Internet packages that quadruple after “introductory periods” expire to forcing “bundles” on unwilling customers. (Attn: Comcast. It’s 2011; seriously, no one wants home phone service.)

My own (most recent) complaint with Comcast comes after my wife signed us up for economy Internet service (begrudgingly, I might add, but they’re literally the only game in town). When we got our first bill, she quickly noticed that it was for about $20 more than the representative on the phone had told her it would be.

After calling, waiting on hold, waiting some more and finally getting someone on the line, she was told that, while they were very sorry, they couldn’t give my wife the rate she had been quoted when she signed up. Even after going up several levels, the answer remained the same. Basically, that rate wasn’t one they offered, meaning the original representative had lied to my wife about the price in order to get her to sign up. When she complained that she wanted the rate she was quoted and that she had the name of the representative and time and date of the recorded call, the company basically told her tough; she could take the inflated rate or leave it. (You stay classy, Comcast.)

And that’s not even approaching more wonky complaints like their efforts to quash net neutrality, data caps and the obscene markups on the mandatory leases of DVRs and set-top boxes. (If you think I’m alone in this, try Googling “Comcast” and “hate,” and get ready to do a lot of reading.)

Yet this week I found myself actually cheering Comcast. (I felt very dirty doing it, like I imagine people must feel after watching “Two and a Half Men.”) The cable giant announced Tuesday that it would expand its program to offer drastically discounted Internet service to low-income families in the Pittsburgh area, in an effort to bridge what is known as the “digital divide.” The term refers to the drastic difference in Internet connectedness: only 20 percent of low-income families have Internet access compared to 80 percent of high-income homes. Nationally, about 25 percent of all homes are without access to the Internet.

Simply put, those young people growing up in homes without access to the Internet will be at a disadvantage in our connected future. (For those who want the poor to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, you should be in support of this type of program too, since these days those bootstraps require Internet access.)

That is why it is great that the Comcast program will offer Internet access for $9.95 a month (compared to a regular $48 a month) and vouchers toward a purchase of a refurbished laptop for $149.99 to families with children who qualify for free lunches under the National School Lunch Program.

With today’s culture and economy increasingly web-based, there are significant disadvantages in not having Internet access. Even if the company isn’t offering the service completely out of altruism — the program was a condition of the FCC’s approval of the cable company’s purchase of NBC in January — it is still a positive step. Those of us who have become inured to easy access to the Internet have lost sight of how vital it is to educational, health and employment opportunities. (And Facebook, of course.)

So while I don’t have any plans to bury my hatred hatchet with Comcast, I’m willing to (begrudgingly) admit that in this case (and only this case), I’m a fan.

Just don’t tell anybody; I’ve got a reputation to protect.

If you’d like to share a cable company horror story, Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.