I disagree with the article that it is "besides the point" if Conal did try and use his employers name unethically. Sure, Comcast sucks, should have done their job properly, and he wasn't trying to get any unethical special result - but you could say the same about a scenario where someone goes into a Comcast store and beats up a rep while trying to get their hundreds of service failures dealt with. Either he didn't do anything wrong and Comcast lied to his employer to make it appear he had, or he did do something that is a firing offense and it probably doesn't matter to his employer if he was provoked into breaking their ethics policy or not. (Or, I suppose, his company wanted to fire him anyway and is colluding with Comcast on the story...)
His company has consulted for Comcast previously. So I'd imagine out of anger he said something to the effect "I've done work for you!". After all, he says he didn't even mention his employer by name, which means an angry Comcast rep took the time to look up his name and locate where he worked.
In the end, it is absolutely besides the point. His home connection has nothing to do with his job. Comcast went out of their way to call his workplace (a senior partner even!), and purposefully set out to ruin his career.
