Irony: Chesonis' 2007 book has this description on Amazon.com -- "When you put people first, you win. When you operate by the highest principles, you'll see the results in the bottom line. When you put a caring heart into how you operate, in your organization and your community, you build the only true foundation of long-term success."

Eight acres of rubble and a big hole in the ground.

That’s what residents of Rochester, N.Y., are calling the former site of Midtown Plaza, America’s first indoor shopping mall, torn down to make room for the new headquarters of PAETEC Corporation — headquarters that may never be built.

Now the city of Rochester has declared war on the proposed acquisition of PAETEC by Little Rock, Ark.,-based Windstream, suggesting the combined company may renege on its commitment to construct new headquarters in downtown Rochester after New York State and Rochester city taxpayers spent $60 million on an economic development package for the company.

In a letter to the Federal Communications Commission, the mayor’s office declared its official opposition to the merger proposal, citing the economic impact of wasted tax dollars and the deal’s impact on local jobs:

The Commission will note from the body of this correspondence that the City may be negatively affected if the transfer of PAETEC to Windstream takes place. The federal, state and local governments have worked to develop the site for the purpose of establishing a PAETEC headquarters in Downtown Rochester; tailoring a development package and investing millions to make this location shovel ready for development. New York State provided the Project’s most significant monetary investment, proceeding with the understanding that the Project would retain and grow employment in the Rochester region. It is in the public interest to examine, not just the financial and planning impact that this will have on the City, but to also study the effect this will have on employment, the communities surrounding the City and the lives of the individuals who may be affected.

[...] In anticipation of the PAETEC Project, New York State and the City invested $60 million to demolish the former improvements on the Midtown Site and create a shovel ready building site. To insure the success of the PAETEC Project, the City produced a development package (“Development Package”) which expedited and customized the demolition of the existing buildings at the Midtown Site to accommodate PAETEC’s construction schedule and provide a foundation for PAETEC’s corporate headquarters.

[...] The Development Package was intended to benefit a New York State employer and help that employer retain its current employees and hire additional employees to grow its business. Despite all the efforts of the City to facilitate and provide the positive economic environment for the PAETEC Project, Windstream has indicated that it intends to reduce PAETEC’s current 850-employee Monroe County workforce.

The two companies filed a joint response with the Commission essentially telling the city to stay out of the merger deal, and their concerns about PAETEC’s headquarters and how many jobs will ultimately be lost are not within the Commission’s power to review anyway.

PAETEC CEO Arunas Chesonis, who earlier put the highest praise for his company’s success on the employees who helped build it into what it is today, told a group of fellow business leaders a different story than he told readers of his 2007 book.

“For people who feel let down, we in Rochester should want to be let down like this 50 times a year,” Chesonis said. “Rochester will be a major operating center for the company. So along those lines, we have to figure out how many jobs will be in Rochester. We should be talking about the people that are going to lose their jobs. What are those people going to do next?”

Presumably collect unemployment, critics charge.  Among them is former Mayor William Johnson, who has criticized the city for bending over backwards for the ever-evolving plans for new PAETEC headquarters, which have been downsized repeatedly since they were originally announced.  Johnson thinks Windstream may have effectively put a knife in the back of taxpayers and the mayor’s office, and could ultimately exit the city of Rochester leaving countless local employees out of work.

Windstream seems resolute in its plans to cut what it calls “duplicative staffing positions.”  It reminded the FCC the agency “has routinely approved transactions in which—as will be the case in this transaction—increased efficiencies and economies of scale and scope are expected.”

That is code language for PAETEC employees: Update your resume.  You may need it.

Finger-pointing over a messy, uncompleted downtown construction project. PAETEC may be planning to renege on a $60 million taxpayer-financed economic development package after it announced plans to merge with Windstream.  Reports from WHEC and WHAM-TV.  (6 minutes)

AT&T believes it can make a killing getting consumers to hook up as many wireless devices as possible, preferably to AT&T’s network.

That’s the view of Glenn Lurie, who serves as AT&T’s hunter for new revenue opportunities.  Lurie believes that every device that can developed to work on a wireless network can obtain that connectivity through his company, for a price.

Lurie and other wireless industry executives have gathered to discuss where the wireless industry is headed, and the answer seems to be data, data, and even more data.

Everyday consumer products, from washers/dryers to pill bottles to pet collars are all possible candidates to get the wireless treatment.  Want to know when your dryer is done?  Why not have it send a text message.  Is it time to take your medication?  Let the bill bottle page you.  Your dog roaming the neighborhood?  Have a built-in GPS unit alert you to exactly where Fido is headed.

Lurie

“Everything that has a current running through it will be connected,” Lurie tells CNET. “They need to be smarter.”

Not every idea is all that futuristic.  Some high end refrigerators support Internet connections and even include a built in small screen television.  So-called smart-home products that work with home security systems, smart electrical meters and even smartphone apps already exist.  Dishwashers can be programmed to run at off-peak energy rates.  Lights can be turned on or off remotely, and so on.

But AT&T sees even more possibilities.  In-car wireless could deliver Wi-Fi and streamed media directly to car radios and televisions over AT&T’s wireless network.  Even parcel delivery could be smarter with tracked shipping and anticipated delivery times.

Lurie believes that AT&T can earn the most keeping things simple, which means getting devices connected easily without a lot of hassle or multiple bills.

AT&T always believed business applications would be the core driver in wireless data growth, but that assumption has now proven incorrect.  Consumers are driving wireless data growth with apps, multimedia, and a need to feel constantly connected.

Hawaiian customers of Oceanic Time Warner Cable can now obtain the cable company’s free viewing app for iPad — TWCable TV.

Although the cable operator has offered the free online viewing app for months, it has not worked in Hawaii until this week.

“We are tremendously excited about this app, which is the first of many that will allow our customers to harness the power of their tablet-type devices,” said Bob Barlow, president of Oceanic Time Warner Cable.

Time Warner customers can use the app only within range of their home wireless router connected to Time Warner’s Road Runner Internet service.  Restrictions imposed by the cable company and programmers mean customers cannot access the service from other broadband providers or outside of their own home.

Time Warner also requires TWCable TV app users to maintain a cable television subscription and register for access on the company’s website.

Time Warner Cable customers still waiting for access to HBO Go, the premium movie channel’s online streaming service, won’t have to wait for the cable company any longer if they happen to own a Roku set top box.  Roku owners who maintain subscriptions to the premium movie channel will be able to access HBO Go via Roku for no additional charge by the end of October.

Roku’s announcement follows Microsoft, who announced Oct. 5 HBO Go would be available to Xbox Live ($60/yr) game service customers.

HBO has been suffering declines in subscriber numbers from customers dropping premium movie channel subscriptions to save money.  HBO Go offers on-demand viewing of many HBO movie titles, and comes at no additional charge to subscribers.  But before HBO Go can be made available, agreements between your video provider and HBO must be signed to handle the authentication process, which verifies a valid subscription to HBO before allowing the service to work.

Time Warner Cable has been dragging its feet on signing an agreement, and that leaves a lot of potential customers without the service.  Time Warner Cable is the nation’s second largest cable operator, behind Comcast.

Roku believes its agreement allows HBO Go to reach more viewers, which in turn may discourage them from dropping the channel.  It also helps drive sales of Roku boxes, which are becoming increasingly affordable.  Roku announced this week it was cutting the price of its least expensive box to $50, a $10 savings.

Roku owners can stream their own video library with third party applications like PlayOn, or choose from a menu of more than 300 channels.  But most Roku owners buy the device to stream Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu content to their television sets over the home Internet connection.

A Verizon Wireless 4G/LTE customer that managed to consume nearly 56GB of data over a two-week period has found he has temporarily lost his 4G privileges during peak usage times on Verizon’s network.

Droid Life reports Verizon’s speed throttle apparently also works on the company’s much-faster 4G network, because the customer found his 4G speeds reduced to dial-up during peak usage periods.  The throttle reduces speeds so much, even browsing web pages becomes a painful experience.  Remarkably, the customer tells Droid Life he still has regular speed access to Verizon’s more congested 3G network, which he now uses when his 4G speeds are reduced.

Verizon Wireless specifically exempts 4G customers from wholesale enforcement of their speed throttle, but the company’s standard Acceptable Use Policy still gives Verizon broad latitude to deal with customers who create an “adverse impact” on their network:

Network disruptions and unfriendly activity: Using the Services for any activity that adversely affects the ability of other people or systems to use either Verizon Wireless Services or other parties’ Internet-based resources. This specifically but without limitation includes excessive consumption of network or system resources whether intentional or unintentional. This also includes “denial of service” (DoS) attacks against another network host or individual user. Interference with or disruption of other network users, network services or network equipment is prohibited.

Such policies are commonplace at every Internet Service Provider, but they are typically enforced only in instances where a neighborhood or region is experiencing especially heavy traffic loads.  That seems to be the case with Droid Life‘s reader, because other customers report they have managed to rack up nearly 120GB in 4G usage over 10 days with no speed reductions.  Verizon reportedly told the throttled customer his speeds were reduced because his ‘excessive downloading’ was an “abuse of the network.”

To run up tens of gigabytes of usage over two weeks usually means the customer is using a tethering application or mobile hotspot app, services for which Verizon charges extra.  We don’t know if this customer is paying for those services or using one of the third-party apps Verizon frowns on.

The selective enforcement of speed throttles may be the result of an overeager Verizon employee subjectively cracking down.  It might also result from the subscriber using services on an especially congested cell site.  We cannot be certain, and Verizon isn’t commenting on the record.  The company officially claims it is standing by the terms of its original plans to throttle the top 5% of 3G users.

With the ongoing crackdowns on what providers deem to be “excessive usage,” it is safe to assume those attempting to use any wireless broadband plan as a home or office broadband replacement is risking the wrath of their providers who consider anything beyond 2-4GB of usage per month on an “unlimited data plan” to be “too much.”

Before the billing problems, apartment and building numbers appeared on customer bills.

Cox Communications’ third-party billing vendor decided a billing system upgrade was required to comply with post office regulations governing the bulk mail discounts the company receives when sending millions of subscriber bills.  But that upgrade caused some renters serious headaches this summer when apartment and building numbers were omitted from the envelopes, resulting in bills being returned to Cox undelivered.

Despite the billing snafus which began in June, customers were still expected to pay their bills on time to avoid late fees.  In Lincoln, R.I., one apartment complex is up in arms as residents in their 80s have been forced to drive to Cox offices just to find out how much they owe and pay their bills in person.

“At first they blamed the post office when I called,” said Cox subscriber Anita Messier.  “I’m 81 years old and I can’t see myself driving [to the cable company] this winter to pay my Cox bill.”

The problem: Cox deleted the apartment and building numbers from the billing addresses of many of their customers.  Now, only a generic street address is listed, and that is a problem for the affected Lincoln residents, many of whom live in apartment complexes with well over 100 individual families.  Mail carriers have not been equipped to guess what bill belongs in which mailbox, so Cox’s monthly statements stopped arriving.

Now they don't, and the post office won't deliver them.

The Messier family’s bill ceased arriving in June, and despite repeated calls and promises the issue would be corrected, they still haven’t received a Cox bill, and it is now October.

In frustration, Messier threw her hands up and called Providence TV station WPRI for help.

“I don’t usually ask for help,” Messier confesses.  “I usually come out of this by myself, but right now I’m frustrated with Cox.”

When the station called Cox, it appears to have lit a fire under the cable company to help finally resolve the issue.  Cox officials profusely apologized for the billing blunder, claim they will refund any late charges that result, and now Lincoln residents are wondering whether they will finally see their Cox bills return to their mailboxes before Halloween.

WPRI in Providence intervenes on behalf of elderly Lincoln residents who have been forced to drive to local Cox offices to pay the cable bills they haven’t seen since June.  (3 minutes)

Comcast has been showing off changes to the company’s set top boxes, which have been effectively “dumbed-down” by removing internal processing power for box-based program guides and other content functions and moving it to the cloud.  Comcast’s newest generation of boxes offer a slimmed-down “browser” experience which relies on stored content at the cable company office, delivered over the cable to the set top box. 

In Denver, Xfinity representatives demonstrated the new products to groups of media and local radio personalities.  Among the most visible improvements is the program guide, which is starting to come closer to Netflix and farther away from the TV Guide Channel of years-past.  Among the features includes box art from movie titles, online reviews, social networking tie-ins, and instant recommendations for other similar programming to watch, either concurrently or in the future.  Subscribers can program shows for recording, alert friends to upcoming shows, and even submit their own review for other subscribers to see.

It’s a significant improvement over older technology, like that still used by Time Warner Cable and other cable operators, which requires extensive delays before incremental improvements are made, and operates on expensive set top terminals.  Video courtesy of: The Daily Local.  (2 minutes)

One of the country’s smallest cable operations grew a little bigger this month with the acquisition of 113 US Cable-owned systems in rural Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Approximately 33,000 customers in communities like Brewster, Heron Lake, Okabena, and Round Lake will be transitioned from New Jersey-based US Cable to Midcontinent this fall.

They will join over 275,000 Midcontinent customers in North and South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  US Cable sold the cable systems as the company continues to unwind its partnership with Comcast.

Midcontinent intends to beef up its customer service operations by opening a new call center in West Fargo, N.D.

Eventually, US Cable subscribers will find their Internet services transitioned to Midcontinent, which delivers service over a reasonably advanced hybrid fiber-coaxial network.

Frontier Communications has announced the availability of Metro Ethernet service to a total of 55 cities in 11 states, with one Frontier representative describing it as perfect for individuals “who are serious gamers, people who download videos and those who watch TV and movies on their computers.”  Apparently Diana Anderson, technical supervisor for Frontier in Kennewick, Wash., has not read Frontier’s Washington State service tariff (5.7.7b) to understand the cost implications of signing up for the service.

Metro Ethernet falls between DSL and fiber optic connectivity, and delivers service at speeds that can approach 100Mbps or more, depending on telephone company facilities and the distance of copper between your home or business and the central switching office.  There are Metro Ethernet services that work over fiber networks, fiber-copper hybrid networks, and even traditional copper landlines — the ones Frontier uses to deliver its MetroE service.

Frontier is pitching Metro Ethernet primarily to medium and large-sized businesses who need more speed than the phone company can offer over its traditional DSL products.  The reason it’s not marketed to consumers is the cost.  Frontier’s Metro Ethernet service is included in Frontier’s tariff for Washington with an installation fee of $320 and a Metro Ethernet-Special Transport fee of $75 a month per DS1 (1.544Mbps).  Customers can get additional speed above 1.544Mbps by paying for additional DS1′s.

We called Frontier’s customer service and asked about service pricing in the Rochester area.  A residential customer service representative had to transfer us to the business products office — they do not sell “residential” Metro Ethernet.  A representative there said the service was available in several parts of Rochester, but was “completely unfeasible” for residential customers because of its cost.  Frontier DSL is the recommended solution for all residential customers in western New York, despite the fact the service does not exceed 3Mbps in our neighborhood (although it is marketed at speeds up to 10Mbps locally).

The following communities now have access to Frontier MetroE service:

• Coeur d’Alene, Idaho
• Bloomington, Carbondale, DeKalb, Freeport, Jacksonville, Lincoln, Marion and Olney, Illinois
• Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Lafayette, Richmond, Terra Haute and Valparaiso, Indiana
• Adrian, Coldwater, Mount Pleasant, Muskegon and Sturgis, Michigan
• Bryson City, Burnsville, Cherokee, Creedmoor, Durham , Hayesville, Marion and Murphy, North Carolina
• Gardnerville, Nevada
• Athens, Bowling Green, Delaware, Jackson, Marion, Medina, Troy and Wilmington, Ohio
• Beaverton, Coos Bay, Gresham and Hillsboro, Oregon
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
• Everett and Kennewick, Washington
• Merrill, Sun Prairie and Wausau, Wisconsin

Let us know what kind of pricing and promotions you can get from Frontier for Metro Ethernet in your area in our comments section.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings posted his version of a mea culpa on the company’s blog early this morning pulling the plug on dividing up online video streaming and DVD-by-mail rentals:

It is clear that for many of our members two websites would make things more difficult, so we are going to keep Netflix as one place to go for streaming and DVDs.

This means no change: one website, one account, one password… in other words, no Qwikster.

While the July price change was necessary, we are now done with price changes.

We’re constantly improving our streaming selection. We’ve recently added hundreds of movies from Paramount, Sony, Universal, Fox, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, MGM and Miramax. Plus, in the last couple of weeks alone, we’ve added over 3,500 TV episodes from ABC, NBC, FOX, CBS, USA, E!, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, ABC Family, Discovery Channel, TLC, SyFy, A&E, History, and PBS.

We value our members, and we are committed to making Netflix the best place to get movies & TV shows.

Hastings doesn’t come out and directly say his decision to split streaming and DVD rentals was a mistake, but the intended audience for his short blog post is clear — the tens of thousands of customers upset about the company’s recent price and plan changes.  Many have complained Netflix lacks current movie titles available for streaming, and news reports indicate the company is on the verge of losing a key supplier of the current content Netflix does have — Starz.

But Hastings has not pulled back completely from the idea of dividing the streaming and movie rental services Netflix offers.  In a news release read by investors, Hastings said the problem wasn’t that Netflix sought to separate the services, it was that they tried too fast.

“Consumers value the simplicity Netflix has always offered and we respect that,” said Hastings. “There is a difference between moving quickly – which Netflix has done very well for years – and moving too fast, which is what we did in this case.”