Nearly four months after Hurricane Sandy struck Manhattan, many customers are still waiting to get their phone and Internet service restored.

Verizon’s black hole extends across parts of Lower Manhattan, such as along Avenue C, roughly from Third Street to Tenth Street. There, business transactions are often “cash-only,” because stores and bars have no ability to process credit card transactions. But getting cash can also be difficult as ATMs, which also rely on Verizon’s network, display the same “Offline” message they have shown for more than three months.

Some of Verizon’s customers are fed up, especially after the company started asking customers to pay for phone and broadband service they don’t have. Several customers report the company expects its monthly bills to be paid, with complicated service credits forthcoming after payments are applied. Customers who don’t pay have been assessed late fees or face collection activity for service that has not worked since Halloween.

WNYC Radio reports it has been nearly four months since Hurricane Sandy hit the northeastern U.S. and large sections of Lower Manhattan still don’t have phone or broadband service from Verizon. (February 13, 2012) (4 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

Verizon does not seem to be in much of a hurry, a point of contention with the New York State Public Service Commission, which may be preparing to fine Verizon yet again for failing to meet service standards. The company has been on probation with the PSC for some time. Last summer, the regulator fined Verizon $100,000 for missing required service standards during the month of July, 2012. More than 1,100 of 5,400 reported outages were not repaired within the required 24 hours.

That was an improvement over how the company performed in October and December, 2011, where prolonged service outages provoked the PSC to eventually fine Verizon $400,000.

This time Verizon wants a free pass from more fines, claiming enormous restoration efforts necessitated by Sandy are responsible for any delayed response.

Assistant Attorney General Keith Gordon is not buying it. He called Verizon’s reports on outages “disingenuous at best,” and accused Verizon of manipulating data and delivering incomplete outage statistics.

Nobody outside of Verizon knows how many New Yorkers still lack phone or Internet service — the PSC is obligated to keep specific numbers private at the behest of the telecommunications companies themselves.

“Given the fact that the telecommunication industry is highly competitive, such information is considered confidential,” James Denn, a PSC spokesperson told WNYC Radio.

[flv width=”534″ height=”320″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/NY1 Lower Manhattan Resident Has Lost Phone Service For Months Following Sandy 1-15-13.mp4[/flv]

NY1 reports on Greenwich Village residents who are still without Verizon service months after Sandy. They claim Verizon broke multiple promises to get service restored.  (1 minute)

The Bloomberg Administration strongly disagrees with the PSC’s handling of outage information.

“This information should also be made publicly available to consumers so they may track the status repairs, obtain reasonable estimates as to when service might be restored, and compare performance across competing carriers,” said Rahul Merchant, chief information and innovation officer for New York City.

For customers who can’t manage their businesses without phone or Internet service, relief is coming from an increasingly aggressive Time Warner Cable.

Verizon’s largest rival has dispatched armies of salespeople onto the streets in Verizon-deprived areas. The cable company has begun to steal away a number of out-of-service Verizon customers.

That occasionally comes as a surprise to Verizon workers that show up to make repairs, only to be told “I quit you two weeks ago,” by annoyed business owners.

Verizon never got the message.

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WNBC reports this New York City high school has been left without Verizon service for three months, forcing teachers and staff to use cell phones to communicate.  (2 minutes)

Doubling speeds of many broadband tiers.

Broadband Reports has a reliable source inside Comcast that says faster speeds are on the way for customers across the country, beginning in March.

Last summer, an anonymous tipster shared a preview of Comcast’s “All New Xfinity” broadband offerings. BR is reporting the speeds seem to be mostly spot-on, but will come at a price of around $2 higher than shown in the graphic.

• Comcast’s Blast tier is increasing from 25/4Mbps to 50/10Mbps starting in March;
• Extreme will be going from 50/10Mbps to 105/20Mbps starting in March;
• Performance will essentially double in speed from 12/2Mbps to 25/4Mbps beginning in May.

(Image courtesy: Broadband Reports)

Comcast is likely to gradually roll out speed increases across its service area, but some older systems serving smaller communities may have to wait longer.

BR also notes Comcast seems to be gradually decommissioning its PowerBoost feature, which delivered a temporary speed increase at the start of file downloads and streaming video. When the new, faster speeds arrived in the northeast, PowerBoost was discontinued.

A handful of broadcasters in California, Michigan, Montana and New Mexico interrupted their regularly scheduled programs earlier this week to warn audiences that zombie attacks were underway and residents should avoid the undead at all costs.

This ‘War of the Worlds‘ scenario did not frighten radio and television audiences, but caught stations off-guard, because the Emergency Alert System messages received over the Internet were programmed to broadcast live over the air with no intervention on the part of the living.

“Local authorities in your area have reported the bodies of the dead are rising from their graves and attacking the living,” said one message, which went out as both a scrolling text message and a voice alert. “Do not attempt to approach or apprehend these bodies as they are considered extremely dangerous.”

The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday warned the nation’s broadcasters to lock down the equipment that monitors for EAS warnings and rebroadcasts them to the public.

The zombie reports managed to find their way to the airwaves in Los Angeles and Michigan Monday. On Tuesday, the messages were delivered across New Mexico on several of the state’s PBS stations.

How are the hackers getting in?

“Before a year or two ago, the EAS systems were hooked up through phone lines, now they’re hooked up to the Internet,” said Karole White, president-CEO of the Michigan Broadcaster’s Association. “We feel fortunate they were not able to get into the entire Emergency Alert System – that’s the good news. The bad news is they got in at all.”

An equipment vendor suspects affected stations never changed the default password supplied with the equipment that inserts warning messages into broadcasts. The FCC agreed, warning broadcasters:

EAS Participants must change all passwords on their CAP EAS equipment from default factory settings, including administrator and user accounts.
EAS Participants are also urged to ensure that their firewalls and other solutions are properly configured and up-to-date.

The hacker or hackers have not yet been found by federal authorities. If convicted, the person(s) responsible face hefty federal fines.

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KRQE Albuquerque Zombie attack announced on local TV 2-13-13.mp4[/flv]

KRQE in Albuquerque reports a hacker attack on the state’s largest public broadcaster delivered fake zombie warnings over the Emergency Alert System earlier this week. (3 minutes)

Time Warner Cable customers in the Carolinas will soon pay $90.49 a month for digital cable television, including one set-top cable box. Customers who buy broadband, television, and phone service will see their monthly bill rise to $167.89.

The rate increases will not initially apply to customers on term contracts or promotional pricing until those terms expire. Others will begin to pay higher rates in March.

Almost 70 percent of Time Warner Cable’s eastern North Carolina subscribers have digital cable TV. The rate increase for television-only service amounts to an extra $5 a month or $60 a year. Triple play customers will also pay an extra $5 a month.

Time Warner’s last rate hike, not including the introduction of a $3.95/month cable modem rental fee last fall, was in late 2011.

Although Time Warner claimed increased programming costs were responsible for the bulk of the rate increases, the cable company keeps adding more channels. In 2012, Time Warner added NFL Network and NFL RedZone, both costly sports networks. In the last few months, Time Warner added an additional 30 channels to the cable lineup in the Carolinas, including a number of new HD channels and barely watched networks including Retirement Living Television and Magic Johnson’s Aspire TV.

A rate change notice mailed to customers in the Carolinas will include exact pricing changes applicable in different communities, but customers in Fayetteville and surrounding parts of the eastern Carolinas will see these changes starting in March:

• Broadcast cable: From $16.19 to $17.99
• Cable programming tier: From $53.30 to $54.50
• Basic cable: From $69.49 to $72.49
• Digital tier: From $10.68 to $9.01
• Basic cable, when bundled with standard Internet and/or home phone unlimited nationwide: From $68.99 to $71.99
• Digital cable includes basic cable, digital tier, digital equipment and Navigator interactive guide: From $85.49 to $90.49
• Digital cable when bundled with standard Internet and/or home phone unlimited nationwide: $82.49 to $85.49
• Basic cable, standard Internet and home phone unlimited nationwide: From $162.89 to $167.89
• Cable card: From $2 to $2.50
• Digital equipment primary outlet: From $6.82 to $8.99
• Navigator interactive guide: Not applicable to $2.17

Customers affected should consider reviewing our tips on how to fight for a better deal from Time Warner.

A handful of Georgia state legislators have introduced a bill to ban community-owned broadband anywhere Internet service is available at speeds of at least 1.5Mbps — so slow it does not even meet the FCC’s new definition of “broadband.”

The so-called “Municipal Broadband Investment Act,” introduced Feb. 8 is just the latest in a series of anti-competition, corporate welfare bills designed to protect existing telecom monopolies and duopolies from facing any additional competition.

Introduced and co-sponsored by Reps. Mark Hamilton (R-Cumming), Don Parsons (R-Marietta), Ron Stephens (R-Savannah), Jay Roberts (R-Ocilla), Ben Harbin (R-Evans), and Jon Burns (R-Newington), H.B. 282 would only allow community providers to offer service where broadband is not available within a census block, a requirement that makes virtually all public broadband efforts untenable because of the patchwork of DSL service throughout the state.

Hamilton

Remarkably, the legislation also includes a penalty clause that will leave community providers liable for damages payable to corporate-owned Internet Service Providers if they dare compete with the state’s largest phone and cable companies. Local communities could even be on the hook for attorney fees paid by companies like Comcast, Windstream, and AT&T to make sure publicly owned ISPs never get off the ground.

Phone companies like Windstream are seeking federal funding from the FCC Connect America Fund that will defray up to $775 per home for new broadband hookups delivering at least 4/1Mbps service. But Georgia’s legislation will set a new standard for minimum broadband at a much slower 1.5Mbps, benefiting telephone companies like AT&T, CenturyLink and Windstream. All can claim their existing 1.5Mbps DSL lines are good enough for Georgia to consider an area “served” by broadband. That certification would make it impossible for a publicly owned provider to establish far faster service.

Stop the Cap! strongly urges Georgia residents to contact their state representative and ask that he or she vote no on H.B. 282, which is nothing more than another corporate-written and backed protectionism bill that will guarantee rural Georgia remains mired in a slow speed broadband swamp. The best way corporate ISPs can guarantee no community will rise up to compete is by providing 21st century broadband speeds and service to local residents.

The proposed bill is scheduled for its first hearing tomorrow afternoon at 4pm.