{"id":7070,"date":"2014-12-11T10:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=7070"},"modified":"2014-12-11T10:00:55","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T15:00:55","slug":"comcast-slapped-with-class-action-lawsuit-for-turning-customers-routers-into-public-hotspots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/12\/11\/comcast-slapped-with-class-action-lawsuit-for-turning-customers-routers-into-public-hotspots\/","title":{"rendered":"Comcast slapped with class-action lawsuit for turning customers’ routers into public hotspots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Comcast\u2019s controversial decision to transform its customers\u2019 wireless routers into public Wi-Fi hotspots has, predictably, landed the company in even more hot water.<\/p>\n

A pair of disgruntled customers recently filed a class-action lawsuit against the cable, television and Internet provider in San Francisco. Toyer Grear and Joycelyn Harris claim Comcast is exploiting them (and other Comcast subscribers) for profit by forcing customers\u2019 residential routers to serve double-duty as public hotspots without their consent and at their expense.<\/p>\n

On newer routers leased to customers by Comcast, the company has been adding a secondary Internet broadcast channel for hotspot use. This additional channel is said to be separate from customers\u2019 primary connection. Those that provide their own hardware aren\u2019t affected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to the suit, a test performed by networking technology company Speedify found that routers activated as public hotspots consume 30 to 40 percent more electricity under heavy load.<\/p>\n

Over time, Speedify believes this practice will eventually push tens of millions of dollars per month of the electricity bill needed to run the Comcast\u2019s public Wi-Fi network onto consumers.<\/p>\n

The two also believe that subjecting customers\u2019 Internet connections to public use is a detriment to security. What\u2019s more, they claim to be suffering from decreased, inadequate speeds on their home Wi-Fi networks ever since the second channel was activated.<\/p>\n

The suit seeks an injunction to stop Comcast from using the routers in this way in addition to unspecified damages.<\/p>\n

via Comcast slapped with class-action lawsuit for turning customers’ routers into public hotspots – TechSpot<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comcast\u2019s controversial decision to transform its customers\u2019 wireless routers into public Wi-Fi hotspots has, predictably, landed the company in even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,10],"tags":[210,604,1204],"class_list":["post-7070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-networking","category-technology","tag-comcast","tag-lawsuit","tag-wi-fi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-1Q2","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6401,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/09\/10\/comcast-wi-fi-serving-self-promotional-ads-via-javascript-injection\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":0},"title":"Comcast Wi-Fi serving self-promotional ads via JavaScript injection","author":"NCCT","date":"September 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Comcast has begun serving Comcast ads to devices connected to one of its 3.5 million publicly accessible Wi-Fi hotspots across the US. Comcast's decision to inject data into websites raises security concerns and arguably cuts to the core of the ongoing net neutrality debate. A Comcast spokesman told Ars the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Security"","block_context":{"text":"Security","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/security\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/javascreener-640x74.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/javascreener-640x74.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/javascreener-640x74.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5769,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/16\/this-week-in-tech-462-crazy-train\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":1},"title":"This Week in Tech 462: Crazy Train","author":"NCCT","date":"June 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 Hosts: Leo Laporte, John C. Dvorak, Jolie O'Dell, and Dwight Silverman Comcast turns Houston home routers into public hotspots, Tesla is allowing other people to use its patents in hopes to establish the company's technology as the industry standard, Netflix and Verizon feud over internet congestion, AT&T says they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/LBCFbXz3o38\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7615,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/02\/12\/dailytech-comcast-employees-cant-stop-cussing-out-customers-woman-billed-as-b-word\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":2},"title":"Comcast Employees Can’t Stop Cussing out Customers, Woman Billed as ‘B’ Word","author":"NCCT","date":"February 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Lucky that Comcast has those local monopolies on high speed internet and cable television service, or it might actually suffer When you're a business who's caught harassing customers, swearing at customers, and engaging in acts that might be considered tantamout to fraud, you're likely sweating bullets as you may soon\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8046,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/04\/16\/att-but-not-verizon-and-comcast-sue-fcc-over-net-neutrality\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":3},"title":"AT&T, but not Verizon and Comcast, sue FCC over net neutrality","author":"NCCT","date":"April 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Out of the many lawsuits filed this week against the Federal Communications Commission, just one came from a major Internet service provider: AT&T. AT&T made no secret of its opposition to the FCC's net neutrality order, but it was reported last month that trade groups rather than individual ISPs would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/att-logo-300x150.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8378,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/06\/05\/comcast-customer-satisfaction-rating-plummets-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":4},"title":"Comcast customer satisfaction rating plummets again","author":"NCCT","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Aurich Lawson \/ Thinkstock Comcast's customer satisfaction scores have dropped again in all three triple-play categories, with the nation's largest cable and broadband company faring particularly poorly in pay-TV service. The American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) latest annual report on telecommunications and information, released today, places Comcast at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5828,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2014\/06\/20\/fcc-looking-into-complaints-that-broadband-isps-are-dragging-their-heels\/","url_meta":{"origin":7070,"position":5},"title":"FCC looking into complaints that broadband ISPs are dragging their heels","author":"NCCT","date":"June 20, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is looking into complaints from Netflix and some Internet backbone providers that several large broadband providers have been refusing for years to upgrade their backbone connections as a way to slow video traffic that competes with their own services. 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