Not even a week after Zephyr Teachout and Tim Wu's narrower-than-expected defeat, they're back on the streets, urging Albany to block Comcast's $45 billion merger with Time Warner Cable. Wu said the merger will mean higher cable prices for New Yorkers and, as a result, limited access to information.

Their call is timely: Monday is the last day the Federal Communications Commission will accept comments on net neutrality, a term coined by Wu himself, explaining the idea that everyone should have equal access to every corner of the Internet. The FCC has received over three million comments so far.

Wu insists blocking the Comcast takeover and keeping the net neutral are part of the same fight: "Net neutrality is a limit on the power of the cable companies. But their consolidation [also] gives them more power. It's all about how much power is concentrated in the hands of just a few companies with control over speech."

Comcast and Time Warner announced the merger back in February, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo commissioned an investigation of the proposal in June.

Though the FCC will have ultimate say over the deal's approval, Wu and Craig Aaron, president of Free Press, say Gov. Cuomo has definite sway in the decision, thanks to New York's large customer base and a New York State law on cable mergers.

"All New Yorkers, whether they know it or not, have something to lose in this decision," Aaron said.

Susan Lerner, Executive Director of Common Cause, who joined Wu and Teachout at their rally Monday, agreed. "The city administration is working very hard to gain prominence in the tech field, to turn New York into a tech incubator," she said. "If we have an Internet system that caps data...that's going to have an impact on tech start-ups across the five boroughs."

The New York State Public Service Commission will vote on the merger Oct. 2. Aaron said he expects a federal decision about the merger early next year.