Comcast Converting 50,000 Houston Home Routers Into Public WiFi Hotspots 474
New submitter green453 writes: 'As a Houston resident with limited home broadband options, I found the following interesting: Dwight Silverman of the Houston Chronicle reports (warning: paywalled) that Comcast plans to turn 50,000 home routers into public Wi-Fi hotspots without their users providing consent. Comcast plans to eventually convert 150,000 home routers into a city-wide WiFi network. A similar post (with no paywall) by the same author on the SeattlePI Tech Blog explains the change. From the post on SeattlePI: "What's interesting about this move is that, by default, the feature is being turned on without its subscribers' prior consent. It's an opt-out system – you have to take action to not participate. Comcast spokesman Michael Bybee said on Monday that notices about the hotspot feature were mailed to customers a few weeks ago, and email notifications will go out after it's turned on. But it's a good bet that this will take many Comcast customers by surprise."'
This follows similar efforts in Chicago and the Twin Cities.
Liability (Score:5, Insightful)
So does this mean that charges for copyright infringement (or other such activities) will no longer be brought against people based on IP Address evidence alone? Because this certainly gives a lot of people a lot of plausible deniability.
Secondly, how are the clients being compensated for the hotspot service they are now providing?
Liability (Score:5, Insightful)
My guess is that you'll be compensated by having access to a city-wide wifi hotspot.
Re:Who owns them? (Score:5, Insightful)
It is my understanding that this will be done only on Comcast-owned equipment, and using a separate logical connection (like a VLAN) from the local subscriber data. This won't affect any subscriber data cap one way or the other. If a subscriber cancels, they probably unplug the Comcast equipment (so the wifi goes down) because they are supposed to return it to Comcast (or get billed).
Re:Public WiFi? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Monthly quota? (Score:5, Insightful)
The usage is tied to the visitor's account, not necessarily the home owner. Does lead to interesting questions though. Is a subscriber usage limited (capped) when using other peoples wifi, if not, what happens when the home owner logs into their own router as a visitor?
Re:Liability (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, this is a shitty thing to do, but, Comcast is a shitty company, so no surprise there. But there is a simple answer. Turn it off. If you don't know how, do a little research and figure out how. If you can't be bothered to expend a little mental energy, then it must not be much of a problem.
No no, the answer is to sue Comcast.
What they're doing is 100% illegal irrespective of the shit they put in their TOS/Eula.
You gotta love their style... (Score:5, Insightful)
I bet they'll count this as "upgrading their infrastructure," just another fine example of the innovation they claim will come to an end if ISPs are better regulated.
Re:Liability (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Converting Turning? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Liability (Score:2, Insightful)
It's a broadcast device. EVERYONE around you is effected. This will just add to the electronic clutter of your neighborhood. If it doesn't annoy you directly, it might annoy the guy next door and interfere with his network.
Re:Liability (Score:2, Insightful)
Step 1: Connect to "external SSID"
Step 2: Download illegal music/movies/pr0n/etc
Step 3: Deny responsibility, as the "culprit" was connected to the external SSID and clearly not YOU, connected to the internal SSID.
Add a step for MAC spoofing, if you really want to go that extra mile.
Re:Liability (Score:4, Insightful)