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"Seeing that Comcast added about 400,000 passings over the past year, and more than that the prior year, the requirement is irrelevant," <a href="http://www.multichannel.com/article/462763-Analysis_FCC_Sets_Low_Broadband_Bar_For_Comcast.php">says</a> Leichtman Research Group president Bruce Leichtman, talking about an FCC NBC/Merger condition requiring Comcast deploy service to an additional 400,000 homes. Meaningless conditions for show have become a trademark of modern regulators trying to pretend they're pro-consumer, and even trade magazines and cable sector analysts are noting that a huge portion of the Comcast conditions don't actually do anything at all. Looking at just normal Comcast network expansion, it has far exceeded this new requirement and will <a href="http://www.multichannel.com/article/462763-Analysis_FCC_Sets_Low_Broadband_Bar_For_Comcast.php">likely continue to do so</a>:

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From September 2007 to September 2010, Comcast increased the number of homes passed from 48.3 million to more than 51 million, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That's an increase of at least 2.7 million homes, or 5.6% over that three-year span -- far more than the 400,000 additional homes over 2011-14 that Comcast committed to under the FCC conditions, which would amount to less than a 1% increase over that time period. For the sake of comparison, the cable industry's increase in high-speed data homes passed from 2006-09 was 5.8%, according to SNL Kagan data.

The 400,000 home expansion isn't the only condition of that type (read: totally and obnoxiously empty). A condition added by the Department of Justice requires that Comcast provide "at least 11 Mbps service" in all markets -- something they already do with the exception of a few tiny, old acquired systems. Many other conditions, like "protecting diversity," are also ambiguous enough to be considered filler. One impressive condition continues to be Comcast's promise to deliver $10 broadband to 2.5 million low income households, though we'll be interested to track the success and enforcement on that front.

Source: DSLReports.com