One of the top providers of communication and entertainment services in the United States, Comcast has 23.6 million cable television subscribers, 15.9 million broadband internet subscribers, and 7.6 million digital telephony customers. In addition, through multiple channels owned partially or wholly, Comcast is deeply involved in entertainment content provision.http://www.comcast.com/corporate/about/pressroom/corporateoverview/corporateoverview.html From a humble start as a 1200-subscriber cable television venture in Mississippi in the 1960s, Comcast has absorbed through strategic acquisitions, mergers, and partnerships, such businesses as AT&T Broadband, MGM, and Adelphia Cable.

Comcast currently provides such services as video, high-definition video, on-demand video, high-speed internet, digital telephony (Comcast Digital Voice), 4G wireless data service (Comcast High-Speed 2Go), business communications, television programming. Comcast also has stakes in the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA team), the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL team) hockey team, Philadelphia's Wachovia Center, etc.http://www.comcast.com/corporate/about/pressroom/corporateoverview/corporateoverview.html

Comcast owns wholly or in part the following companies:http://www.comcast.com/corporate/about/pressroom/comcastcablenetworks/comcastcablenetworks.html

1. E! Entertainment Television
2. Style Network
3. G4
4. Golf Channel
5. TV One
6. PBS Kids Sprout
7. Versus
8. Exercise TV
9. FEARNet
10. Comcast Sports Group

In a 2007 MSN.com poll Comcast placed 3rd for worst customer service.http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/HowCompaniesWereRanked.aspx According to the MSN, they asked MSN Money readers to nominate companies for worst customer service. Then, MSN asked Zogby International to conduct their own online survey. In this survey of over 5000 respondents, Comcast came in as third worst, with only Bank of America and Sprint Nextel having worse records. To be fair, only 30% of relevant respondents felt Comcast service was "poor" while 33% felt it was "fair", 28% "good", and 10% "excellent". Thus, even at 3rd worst, more respondents felt Comcast service was good or excellent than poor. However, 30% having a poor opinion is far from optimal.http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/HowCompaniesWereRanked.aspx In response, Comcast noted many efforts it is undertaking to improve customer service:

"Comcast said in a statement that it has more than 260 million interactions with its customers every year, and that it proactively reaches out to 15,000 customers a month seeking feedback to improve its customer service. Comcast said it plans to hire more than 6,000 customer-service agents and technicians, build eight new call centers and add seating capacity to its 11 existing centers over the next year."http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Advice/ComcastCustomerService.aspx

In 2008, in an effort to solve problems with clogged bandwidth on their network, Comcast decided to try to limit excessive bandwidth usage among their customers by instituting a 250 GB cap for residential customers. Starting October 1, 2008, Comcast customers that exceed the 250 GB limit would be notified by the company. While Comcast contended that 99% of their customers will not be affected by the cap,Comcast Help & Support: Frequently Asked Questions about Excessive Use critics stated that customers may turn to other providers in order to avoid the cap.ars technica: Comcast starts 250GB bandwidth caps October 1 (August 28, 2008) Even prior to this, some Comcast users would receive warning notifications if their usage exceeded a certain threshold, which was not revealed in the letters.http://www.dslreports.com/r0/download/408131~574eb5cc0e6372b56cb455fc5c6ee4ee/aup.jpg

More recently, on February 24, 2010 Comcast has been lauded as having greatly improved their communication of changes, becoming more transparent and direct: "Comcast's clearly turned over a new leaf, not only announcing every change in great detail, but actively engaging our regular forum users whenever these changes are made."http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Comcast-Tests-DNS-Security-Upgrade-107059

• 1963: Company founded
• 1969: Company incorporated in Pennsylvania under name Comcast Corporation from American Cable Systems
• 1972: First IPO - starts trading on NASDAQ
• 1996: Launches its first broadband internet service - Comcast@Home first offered in Baltimore, Maryland and in Sarasota, Florida
• 1997: Microsoft invests $1 billion in Comcast
• 2001: Comcast acquires AT&T Broadband through merger
• 2005: Launches Comcast Digital Voice
• 2005: Comcast and Sony Pictures Entertainment acquire MGM and subsidiary United Artists
• 2005: Comcast and Time Warner Cable buy Adelphia Cable
• 2009: Comcast becomes third largest phone service provider in the US