I received this in the mail from Comcast the other day. I should note that I am already a paying Comcast customer, receiving their internet service (and using it to make this site), so I see no reason why they should need to try to sell it to me. Nonetheless, try they did, except that I noticed something peculiar. Someone in their marketing department--or likely several people, as this had to get approved before being mailed out, one would think--doesn't know the difference between a megabit (Mb) and a megabyte (MB). Comcast and other bandwidth services are measured in the former, and file sizes, the latter. So when they simply divide by 6 to get a download type estimate, they're missing a step and misleading customers. You also have to convert bytes to bits! And that means multiplying by eight.

My changes to the ad, to improve its accuracy, are in blue and cyan. I wouldn't be so pissed off at them except for the fact that A) it was impossible to get my service set up because "I already had service," B) the service has not been reliable, and C) even when the service is reliable, it takes 89ms to ping www.yahoo.com, and I live within walking distance of the border with Sunnyvale, where Yahoo is located. In contrast, it takes 14ms to ping www.yahoo.com using Adelphia cable, which is arguably even worse, from my home in Cleveland, Ohio.

In fairness, the numbers are also wrong for AT&T and dial-up, but what's going on? It's Comcastic! That's what.