A new survey commissioned by Comcast has ranked apartment-dweller’s need for good internet, relative to other niceties like basic hygiene. The conclusion seems to be that good Wi-Fi and high-speed internet are viewed as being the most critical.
Comcast probably commissioned this survey to show how relevant its brand is to millennials or something, but the only actual truth to be found is this: Comcast knows that you will put up with basically anything to get good internet, so it’s going to squeeze you for every last penny.
The survey polled 2015 building managers and developers in the US about what features are the most important for prospective renters. A majority (59%) had either Wi-Fi access or fast internet as the most important feature, comfortably beating out a washer-dryer in unit as the must-have.
This isn’t so much a statement on the value of technology as it is a stunning indictment of broadband technology in the US. In a supposedly technology-literate, competitive, first-world country, access to the internet should be a given. But thanks to the oligopoly of cable companies that control access to the internet with very little regional competition, you’re often left with little or no choice of cable providers. That means that if Verizon or Comcast only choose to supply your building with a 10Mbps, you’re out of luck.
So really, this survey just confirms to Comcast an important fact about its customers: it doesn’t matter how bad the customer service is or if it flat-out calls its customers idiots: you don’t have any choice and you need internet, so pucker up, lucky consumers.
