Time Warner Cable has begun notifying western New York cable subscribers their rates are going up, effective in about three weeks.

The cable company includes the notification in customer bills arriving throughout December and early January in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.

The new prices are the result of higher programming costs, the development of new innovative features, and continued investment in our infrastructure and investment.

Rates for Road Runner, Time Warner’s broadband service, are increasing as much as five dollars per month.  This represents the third increase in broadband rates for Time Warner customers in the last 13 months, and should finally bury any notion the cable operator needs to implement Internet Overcharging schemes to recoup usage costs.  Time Warner Cable’s Road Runner Turbo package was priced at just under $50 a month two years ago.  Today, the same service costs $64.90 per month for standalone customers — a $14.90 increase.

2011 Pricing: Turbo - up to $64.90, Standard - up to $54.95, Basic - up to $37.95, Lite - $25.99

Customers on bundled service packages will see rate increases of around $5 for a digital cable-only package, $7 for a cable-broadband package, $6 for a cable-phone package, and $9 for “All the Best” which delivers cable, phone, and Internet service.  Those with multiple televisions will see a doubling of rates for each additional TV hooked up to digital cable (was $0.50, now $1.00), a $0.16 decrease in the monthly rental cost of a traditional cable box, and a $0.04 increase in the cost for the remote control.

A rate increase for the Rochester, N.Y. area

Existing and new customers might find a year of savings with the company’s current Triple Play $99 promotional offer, which some report to be good for existing subscribers adding additional services.  For one year, subscribers will pay $33.33 each for broadband, video, and phone service (you must take all three).  For a subscriber with cable and broadband, adding the phone service actually will cost you nearly $20 less per month, even if you never bothered to use it:

Choose the speed that's right for you at the price that's not.

2011 Rates

• Watch N Surf: $118.99 per month
• Triple Play Promotion: $99 per month

Customers are reminded Time Warner’s retention agents are authorized to provide discounts and better offers to those threatening to take their business elsewhere.  If your rates are increasing, it might be a good time to threaten to walk and see what kind of offers the cable company provides to get you to stay.

Share your views and retention offers in our Comment section.

Hawaiian residential and business customers relying on Hawaiian Telcom for phone and broadband service are not impressed with the phone company’s performance after rain disrupted scores of phone lines around the islands.  Some customers are reporting service outages extending for days as the company tries to cope with wet phone lines.

Hawaiian Telcom, which emerged from bankruptcy in October, has been trying to keep the Verizon landline network it bought in 2005 in working order, but heavy rains can create major problems for the phone company.

The outages started on Oahu two weeks ago, but yesterday’s heavy rains exponentially increased the number of customers with no service.

Businesses reported heavy static on their landlines, if they had service at all.  Many found processing credit card transactions an ordeal, often switching to manual methods to gain credit card approvals or requiring cash for purchases.

Hawaiian Telcom told Hawaii’s KITV-TV the prolonged wet weather caused water to seep into its cables and in some cases is short-circuiting them. The solution is either to replace the lines or to allow enough time for the cables to dry out.

So far, the phone company is taking a wait-and-let-dry approach.  Unfortunately, additional heavy rains are expected to impact the islands this week.

Hawaiian Telcom is providing service credits for the outages and is assisting area businesses by offering to automatically forward incoming calls to working numbers, including cell phones.

When the rains stop, some businesses may consider whether traditional landline service is the best choice for reliability.

“It’s a safe bet we’ll have a cellular account with wireless broadband to run credit cards in the future to cover these kinds of events,” reports Stop the Cap! reader Sam, who runs a convenience store on Oahu.  “I understand relentless rain can cause problems, but we are on day six with no service in our strip mall.”

Sam is currently relying on his personal cell phone to take business calls, but hasn’t been able to accept credit cards since the outage began.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KITV Honolulu Wet Weather Blamed For Phone Outages 12-22-10.flv[/flv]

KITV-TV in Honolulu covered the ongoing phone outages afflicting Hawaiian Telcom customers, especially on Oahu.  (2 minutes)

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, the cable industry’s top lobbying group, upped its lobbying activity during the third quarter, spending $4 million to press government officials to adopt a pro-cable legislative agenda.

That amount was up from $3.93 million spent in the second quarter, and $3.78 million spent during last year’s third quarter.

Among the issues on the cable industry’s agenda: stopping Net Neutrality, lobbying against consumer regulatory reforms, tax policies that favor cable companies, cybersecurity, and patent reform.

Among the companies chipping in: Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cablevision.

In addition to members of Congress, NCTA lobbyists appealed to the Federal Communications Commission, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission.

Last minute online shoppers in parts of western New York experienced frustration from a Time Warner Cable broadband outage that interrupted service for part of the morning and early afternoon of Dec. 23.  Customers in the Rochester area experienced slow or no service for several hours on Thursday.

Customers are entitled to service credits for outages, but the cable company only provides them to customers who ask.  You can receive yours in minutes using our credit request menu:

Stop the Cap! Presents Your Easy Service Credit Request Menu

Customers can request one day of credit for Internet service.

Sample Request You Can Cut and Paste:

I am writing to request a service credit for the Internet outage that occurred in Rochester during the late morning/early afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 23rd.  Please credit my account.

Methods to Obtain Credit (we recommend #3):

1. Use Time Warner Cable’s Online Chat system, select Billing Inquiry, and type to a customer service representative.
2. Call (585) 756-5000 or toll free 1-800-756-7956 and speak with a customer service representative.
3. Use the Online E-Mail form, select Billing Inquiry, and send a message requesting credit.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Oppenheimer Declares Net Neutrality A Victory for Consumers 12-21-10.flv[/flv]

Wall Street continues to consider Monday’s lukewarm Net Neutrality regulations to be a victory for AT&T and other providers.  Bloomberg News asked Tim Horan, an analyst at Oppenheimer & Co., whether the impact of Net Neutrality would be higher prices for consumers.  “Uhhh,” began the stumbling reply.  Watch as Oppenheimer tries to get back on board with provider-generated talking points, eventually declaring the almost non-existent protections “a victory for consumers.”  Do you think he really believes that?  (3 minutes)