How about an internet provider injecting tracking scripts and advertisements into HTTP responses; an internet provider failing to respond correctly to DNS requests (so they can provide their own search engine on mistyped domains)? Both of these things have been done by ISPs - and recently.

I'd consider that comparable to a utility pumping sewage.

I'd consider that equivalent to a utility not chlorinating the supply, or having sediment issues; both are unexpected and undesired behaviors which can be corrected.

I do not understand the desire to compare problematic internet service to sewage-pumping through the potable water supply. Are you desperate for superlatives which will make the internet service providers look bad?

Do you understand what happens when DNS returns false negatives? It causes tons of shit to break. It's not a little bit of sediment. Maybe not sewage level catastrophe .. maybe "your water supply is contaminated for the foreseeable future. You can't drink it, not even boiling it will help, but you can continue to wash your clothes in it."

>Why would a lack of service by an internet provider be comparable to a utility pumping sewage?

I work partly from home and, while not quite "utility pumping sewage" level of crisis, a badly-timed internet blackout at my apartment can be a serious problem for the whole team.

I agree entirely, it is comparable to a power outage (, which happens quite often both at my residence and place of work).

Do you live in a jungle or something? Everywhere I've ever lived, including California during the Enron scandal, power outages were an order of magnitude less common than (non-power-outage-related) internet outages.

In Santa Clara County, at my home with Sonic.net Legacy DSL (AT&T DSLAM + ATM/Sonic.net IP), in the past 10 years, I can only recall two internet outages. In one, the telephone was out as well (a fiber cut between the remote terminal and the central office), the most recent one started around the same time as a 30 minute power outage.

In contrast, I've had several 30 minute to 2 hour power outages, and lots of power outages lasting less than a minute.

On the other hand, a short internet outage would not necessarily be noticed, because there's not a big change in ambient noise when the internet fails, nor do i have to reset the time on my appliances.

My power outages here in Austin seem to be around a couple per year. I think my Internet outages (outside of those resulting from me not having power) are less frequent, though I don't have logs checking.

Now, my Internet being slow...that's not uncommon at all. I've also had them randomly charge me an extra $50 "by mistake", as well directly and repeatedly lying to me about what services/packages are available.

I'm in central Austin, and so ready for Google Fiber. My parents live out in the middle of nowhere, and Internet outages are quite common for them, easily exceeding power outages.

I love how the upvote system encourages pedantry.

It's clear that Parent is saying "Comcast delivers shitty service" -> "water utility delivers shitty water".

It's a (possibly unintentional) pun, and I'm quite certain that Parent was able to get their point across regardless of technical inconsistencies.

But don't let that stop you in your quest to nitpick on the internet.

First off, that's not a pun; though it may qualify as some sort of base humor.

I'm not nitpicking, I just think the comparison doesn't make any sense unless one is trying to make Comcast out to be some sort of villain spewing sewage through everyone's taps. An internet outage is rightfully characterized as similar to a power outage or drought. The latter two are caused by poor planning and capital investments by power utilities, and the former is caused by similar behavior by the ISP. Both are fairly common.