@theodore -- Re: At the end of the day...
TCI, Tele-Communications, Inc. is the seed company from which Comcast emerged. It was the sole cable provider in the NE Illinois area in the 80's and 90's, before several mergers and such created Comcast. It was widely known and reviled for the absolute worst service and customer relations in the civilized world; it became the poster child for what is wrong with monopolies.
Wikipedia has a decent history of this WSH (Warm Steaming Heap) here