Comcast

Although the phrase, “the customer is always right” has been around forever, and good customer service has always been valued, 2008 was the year that companies really took that message to heart and not only built up their listening capabilities, but became proactive about responding and changing.

With broadband Internet access encompassing much of the country, Comcast announced Monday that it is joining a trend to wideband. The company said it will launch its next-generation DOCSIS 3.0 network in Oregon and southwest Washington with download speeds up to 50 megabits per second.

A lawmaker is bringing the issue of net neutrality back into the spotlight. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) plans to introduce a bill in January that would stop Internet service providers from blocking and managing certain Internet content.

AT&T has become the latest Internet service provider to test limits on bandwidth usage, with a trial this month of caps for subscribers in Reno, Nevada.

The company -- the largest Internet service provider in the United States -- said about five percent of subscribers use about 50 percent of capacity.

$1 Per Gigabyte

Mona Shaw drew instant fame last year after literally lowering the boom on her local Comcast office in Manassas, Va.

The 75-year-old Shaw reportedly was upset that Comcast had arrived two days late to install service, didn't complete the job, cut off her service and then left her lingering in a customer-service waiting area for hours before telling her that the manager had left for the day.

She came back later with a hammer, bashing a customer-service representative's phone and computer keyboard.

Using Twitter for Crisis Communications is as much about preventing an isolated issue from becoming a full-blown crisis as it is about communicating to the public once a crisis has hit. As in all corporate communications, Twitter needs to be part of a broader strategy, and one of a variety of (social) media channels you use to listen and share with your customers, clients, and industry – both when it comes to prevention, and when it is time to react.

Using Twitter for Crisis Communications is as much about preventing an isolated issue from becoming a full-blown crisis as it is about communicating to the public once a crisis has hit. As in all corporate communications, Twitter needs to be part of a broader strategy, and one of a variety of (social) media channels you use to listen and share with your customers, clients, and industry – both when it comes to prevention, and when it is time to react.

Over the past few months, there have been a multitude of posts around Twitter, specific case studies and best practices for using Twitter in a business sense.

Internet users in the Northeast who have a need for speed will soon be able to get their fix from Comcast. The cable and Internet service provider said it will soon roll out its Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification, or DOCSIS 3.0, making customers' Internet speeds faster.

Comcast's service will be up and running in the next few weeks, according to the company, and will be available to millions of residential homes and businesses in parts of New England, including Boston and southern New Hampshire, plus Philadelphia and New Jersey.

'Just the Beginning'

I’ve been preaching the virtues of Twitter for several months now, and publishing posts that are aimed at educating businesses about the potential benefits of using the platform, in any number of ways. The topic has become super hot recently, and we’ve got some exciting stuff related to Twitter strategies that we’re cooking up over here and will be posting on the blog soon.