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Net neutrality and Comcast’s role in that debate’s recent-most incarnation dominated mentions of the telecommunications giant this week.

The Federal Communications Commission will keep Comcast and others from limiting user Web traffic, according to sources of the Washington Post, which owned the coverage and suspected that decision as early as last week.

But the FCC’s call that they have the authority to rule that ISPs like Comcast cannot create user limitations is muddy, considering other recent actions from the bipartisan governing body, as Wired magazine reported. The pushback came from Comcast, by way of an open-letter written by company executive vice president David L. Cohen, as reported by the Inquirer.

CNet reported on growing House support for a net neutrality bill. MacWorld talked on just how quickly you could breeze through Comcast’s monthly 250-gb limit (H/T Philly Tech News).

We’ve said before that you know the Comcast story is big when Joey Sweeney gets in on it.

After the jump, Comcast raises prices “because it can,” Hulu trades business ideas and seven other Comcast news items for your perusing.

MIGHT BE WORTH YOUR TIME

• Adage reports that Comcast is rolling out Fancast commercials that seem to headed straight for Hulu’s market: online-streaming TV. And in a complete reversal, Hulu seems to trying Comcast’s angle, by beta-testing a subscription model, according to Business Insider.
• Multichannel News goes deeper into Comcast’s proposed subscription-based TV Everywhere schema, noting that while it intends to be the first big jump into bringing online viewers into paying for a core business, it hasn’t solved the question of which element of the cable industry really owns access to those viewers.
• The Inquirer’s Joey DiStefano reports that Comcast and Sunoco are among the 25 largest companies that could be acquired because of high cash yield and low debt holdings, according to one of these reports that are released to much fanfare and no actual action.
• Joey D also reports on an analyst’s report that Comcast keeps raising prices “because it can or because it thinks it can.”

GIVE A GLANCE

• DSL Reports gives some resident reporting on the status of the DOCSIS 30 rollout in Denver.
• Gizmodo reports that T-Mobile is rolling out a 21 mbs, 3g service in Philadelphia. As we linked last week, baseless speculation has pitted Comcast against T-Mobile in a thus-far fictitious angle on buying up Sprint.
• The Examiner wonders where is the Big Ten Network in HD, weeks into the college football season. After my alma mater Temple got handed another loss to Penn State, I’m not sure I care.
• The Washington Post on Comcast’s digital transition and handling it without a box.

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.

You already know the prepaid market is thick and crowded.

That’s particularly the case for Philadelphia, the largest market in the country that has opened the floodgates to no-contract, unlimited plans, as you can well guess by the advertisements from Metro PCS, Cricket Wireless and Boost Mobile that line SEPTA trains.

As Verizon and AT&T take hold of valued contracted customers, T-Mobile and Sprint Nextel, the parent of Boost, are fighting over lower-margin prepaid plans, so the fight is only spreading.

The competition has at times raged hotly, as even Shawn Glisson, a Boost PR spokesman can admit. But then, Glisson, who had a run with former legendary West Chester electronics and 1980s home computer innovator Commodore International, knows a thing or two about Philadelphia.

He’s now based in the Irvine, Calif. headquarters of Boost, now an arm of Sprint-Nextel, but after the jump, he handicaps the prepaid battle in Philly, tells us what’s next for the market and says something nice about Cricket.

Interview edited for length and clarity. [Full Disclosure: The author is a Boost Mobile customer]

Why has Philadelphia become the battlegrounds for the prepaid battle?

Well, it is, Philadelphia is only one of two major markets that have all three of the big no-contract unlimited competitors, the other being Las Vegas.

…There are a couple things. The demographics lend themselves quite well. The non-contract business used to be focused on individuals who were quite young with no credit and immigrants perhaps, even though now [the market has] matured to cover a large swath of people. The city has some of the best universities and a large educated class, but also a large working class of varying demographics, and that’s part of the attraction.

Has the city government been particularly compliant in letting prepaid carriers come into Philly?

…Well, we’ve been in the Philly market since 2005, so I can’t answer that. For Cricket and Metro, well, the new spectrum auction for  new bandwidth probably helped them enter into the market.

So, it’s a competitive market. Give us your sales pitch on why Boost can be different.

There’s value and quality and the combination about service. J.D. Power recently selected Boost Mobile one of the top [prepaid carriers] when it comes to customer service. That’s a quality network with superior customer service.

Players in the market, including Boost’s parent Sprint, though, have been losing money fast. What’s next?

In the wireless industry, the prepaid space is the hottest market. The industry trend is that prepaid will proportionally outgrow the contract customers. Prepaid already dominates Europe and has half the Asian market. North America is really the anomaly.

…It’s from the American love of credit and buying the future. That, and in past years, the handsets were so expensive, so you’d be buying handset with a contract added on, now even high-end handsets are reasonable so that trend will change…

For years it has been said it would dominate the industry, so you want to be competitive in that space. Look at our grandparents. They changed their behaviors [because of the Great Depression]. Now look at where we are today. Customers will make that turn, and prepaid will have that value.

So who’s your biggest competition?

Well, can I say something you may not have thought of? We have found… we’re competing against the land line companies, too. Instead of having a land line and a cell phone, now you can have an unlimited plan. So, being a replacement for the land line, Comcast and Boost are going head to head.

Where will prepaid go next?

Well, it has been about the densest urban areas for the market’s beginnings, in Los Angeles and Miami, Atlanta, New York and Philadelphia. More and more you’ll see the market reaching out to suburban areas. [Because of demographics and other limitations] that’s where we began, but prepaid is more mainstream now, so there’s this bigger and untapped market outside the urban setting. Historically, West Chester and King of Prussia wouldn’t be targeted for prepaid for core markets. You’ll see that more.

And, we’re watching Sprint buy Virgin Mobile [for the prepaid market] and you’ll see more acquisitions and mergers like that from corporate perspective. The other arena is that, at one time, the no contract service was focused on really basic service, but you’ll see the broad selection of handsets and more and more other offering for things like data services and software service come that historically wasn’t in the prepaid space.

Say something nice about Cricket Wireless.

Well, we’ve enjoyed subscriber growth and Metro and Cricket have too, so I think there is a benefit from the three of us all elevating the knowledge and awareness of prepaid. That might be benefiting the whole market, and, if I can say this, the consumer too.

Every Friday, Technically Philly brings an interview with a leader or innovator in Philadelphia’s technology community. See others here.

Every Thursday morning, find all the stories you need to know about your friendly telecommunications giant in the Comcast Roundup.

My rabbit ears don’t work anymore.

Yes, the federal government spent $2 billion and 13 years to finalize the nation’s transition from analog to crisper digital television transmission, and yes, much to the delight of Philebrity, the FCC said the Philadelphia region was responsible for the fourth most complaint calls to a hotline dedicted to the transition.

The Associated Press reports that Comcast’s new $1.5 billion debt issue received an investment grade rating on from Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services. The rating was “BBB+,” with a positive outlook for the possibility of further upgrade. It’ll be a two-part sale, according to Reuters. To the markets!

But, look, it ain’t Comcast’s fault. In some coverage areas, the cable giant launched a “rapid response team” to perform same-day installations for those who still needed a digital TV solution. ‘Course that didn’t help resolve the need for the FCC to send its own additional support here to help viewers who still hadn’t made the transition.

I mean, people lost 6ABC and WHYY, for goodness sake.

Maybe that’s why, when Comcast filed comments to the FCC for a proposed national broadband plan, part of their advice was to undergo a massive education program.

After the jump, porn and children’s shows get a buffer, a partnership with T-Mobile, video of Comcast playing nicely with children, among others.

In order of importance for your ease:

• The Consumerist reports that it will add “blocks of dummy channels” between family shows and adult pay-per-view programming to continue the illusion of innocent youth.
• Phandroid reports on rumors that T-Mobile may be working with Comcast to launch a 4G mobile network, beginning with not Philadelphia. The buzz is that it would launch in the D.C. and Baltimore metro area.
• Multichannel News reports that Comcast’s top content acquisition executive gave a message of “consistency” for on-demand video at the closing of the OnDemand Summit held in Center City Wednesday. That message was advice to help monetize the product.
• Corporate blog Comcast Voices shares news that employees participating in the city’s Big Brothers Big Sisters’ program made a year-end visit to North Philadelphia’s Fairhill Elementary School, Comcast’s partner in the John Alchin Beyond School Walls program, for a party with their “littles.”

When there is just too much Comcast news to follow, the Comcast Roundup will be there to fill your every Comcast desire or fantasy.