When AT&T ownd cable here they ran it into the ground.
New service had a 2-6 month wait period.
Loss of service took up to 6 weeks for repairs.
Cable modems were down 30-50% of the time.
Phone calls took up to an hour wait time for the next available rep. and then they did nothing.
It was so bad in Jacksonville for those 19 months that the City Council initiated proceedings to throw them out of the city and was planning to take over the Cable distribution system themselves. Then overnight, Comcast came in and bought out AT&T. So, the city case never went to court.
Personally, I generated a $186 credit with AT&T for poor service and down time. They issued the credits on paper but would never apply those credits to my bills. Instead they set up a separate account and then tried to claim they couldn't apply the credits to another account. This is just plain criminal but how do you fight these guys? Anyway, When Comcast took over, I eventually got that credit applied and a check was sent to me. Comcast doesn't come with their own set of bad baggage but at least none of the AT&T criminal consumer embezzlement and contract breaching has happened with Comcast.