Comcast is asking New Jersey regulators for permission to raise rates for its Limited Basic service, offering primarily local television channels, by 40% in 2013.

Comcast of Central New Jersey has filed a request with the Board of Public Utilities to adjust the rate for limited basic service from around $15 a month to more than $21.

The company blamed inflation, programming and “external” costs for the rate increase, which is just shy of the maximum amount permitted by law.

Federal law permits regulators to oversee cable rates for the broadcast basic tier, which provides customers primarily with local television service. All other tiers of service are unregulated.

New Jersey officials are asking state residents to comment on the proposed rate increase until Jan. 17. Comments may be sent in writing to:

Acting Director, Office of Cable Television
New Jersey Board of Public Utilities
44 South Clinton Avenue 9th Floor
P. O. Box 350
Trenton, NJ 08625-0350

Comcast has no intention of waiting for approval, however. It will begin charging the new, higher rate on Jan. 1. Should the board reject the rate increase, customers will be given a refund.

Time Warner Cable is introducing customers to shorter wait times in several midwestern cities, in some cases offering appointment windows of just one hour.

“Our customers have better things to do than sit around and wait for cable service and installation,” said Shannon Mullen, TWC’s regional vice president of operations.

Customers in some cities can now request 15-minute appointment windows that coincide with various times technicians begin their shifts. Offering the first service call of a technician’s workday makes it easy to assure a cable truck will be in a customer’s driveway on time. Offering one-hour time windows the rest of the day is possible with better coordination with technicians and years of experience tracking the average times service calls usually last. The company is now prepared to share that knowledge with customers — providing an estimate of how long in-home installation or repair work is likely to take.

Appointments will begin at 8am and scheduled as late as 7pm. Service calls are also available on Sunday and holidays in some areas.

The company began testing the shortened windows in the beginning of 2012 and has gradually expanded them to different regions. Maintaining good service has proved important, especially in areas where the operator faces competition from community-owned providers, Google Fiber, AT&T U-verse, or Verizon FiOS.

Time Warner Cable customers having a hard time sorting out hard news for infotainment will no longer have to skim channels with Victoria’s Secret news anchors, blowhard political talk masquerading as news, or exploitative voyeurism from Nancy Grace or Greta Van Susteren.

By the end of December, BBC World News will be a part of the digital basic package on most Time Warner Cable systems.

“I’m delighted to see BBC World News coming to Time Warner Cable – this is another important foothold for our global news channel in the highly competitive US market,” said Jim Egan, who represents the news network. “We are really pleased by the growing demand in the US for a global news network which is both non-partisan and non-sensational in approach.  BBC World News is about serious news; with on the ground reporting and analysis from different parts of the world and a mandate to inform and provide a balanced view. We know that audiences around the world value the channel’s distinctive world view and we are pleased that more US viewers now have access to it.”

Time Warner Cable already carries several other international news channels, but none with the prestige of the BBC:

• RT: Russia Today, which has close ties to the Kremlin and Vladimir Putin. It is effectively the television extension of the Voice of Russia World Service (formerly Radio Moscow);
• CNN International: The overseas service of CNN, watched mostly abroad;
• CCTV: Chinese Central Television, a network owned and operated by the Chinese government.

Other news channels not on the lineup:

• France 24: The English language international news channel offering a French perspective on global news with a European focus;
• Deutsche Welle: The Voice of Germany’s international television news and documentary channel;
• NHK World: Japan’s external television news and information channel presented by the country’s largest public broadcaster;
• Al-Jazeera English: The English language service of Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, focusing heavily on news from the developing world and the Middle East.

BBC World News will have grown its reach by over 10 million new homes in 2012 and in total, will reach 25 million full time homes in the U.S. following the Time Warner Cable launches.

Comcast’s error correctly noting the return of a customer’s cable modem has cost a Washington, D.C. man his credit rating and $26,000 in additional mortgage fees. Now the man is suing Comcast to get his credit restored and his money back.

In June 2010, Marc Himmelstein bid Comcast adieu. The cable giant informed Himmelstein he was due a refund of $123.19 after the company’s equipment was removed from his home. But the company’s cable modem was left behind by mistake, costing Himmelstein $220 in unreturned equipment charges.

Himmelstein claims nobody from Comcast notified him about the missing modem, nor did he receive a bill for the difference between the equipment fee and his credit balance. He learned about his debt to Comcast when he called the company in August wondering where his refund was.

Once he discovered Comcast’s problem, Himmelstein says he returned the modem. Comcast promised to remove the unreturned equipment charge and assured him the matter was now resolved.

But Himmelstein ultimately never received his $123.19 refund. Instead, Comcast transferred his “past due” account to Credit Protection Association, which reported Himmelstein delinquent to the country’s three largest credit-reporting agencies.

That was bad timing. Himmelstein discovered Comcast’s hit on his credit in the spring of 2011, just as he was refinancing his mortgage. The mortgage lender insisted he pay an additional point in interest — $26,000 — because of the delinquent item.

Boasberg

Himmelstein filed a breach of contract claim and negligence against Comcast in D.C. federal court. Also named is Credit Protection Association, charged with negligence and violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Himmelstein wants both companies to cover the $26,000 paid to the mortgage company, all attorney fees, and the $123.19 remaining credit balance Comcast still has not refunded.

In October, Comcast moved to dismiss all charges, and District Judge James Boasberg last week agreed to throw out claims of constructive fraud and “bad faith” breach of contract, but left the central claim of negligence stand. The case will either now proceed in court or Comcast and the collection agency will offer to settle.

Consumers canceling service should always insist on a printed receipt whenever company equipment in returned, and that receipt should be kept safe for at least six months in case of discrepancies. If an expected refund does not materialize or if a dispute arises, always write down the name of the representative spoken to on the phone or in person. Most cable companies do not refer past due accounts for outside collection activity until they are 90-120 days past due. If a collection company contacts you, demand written verification of the debt, which will force them to produce proof of the amount owed.

Lingering billing disputes should be referred to executive level customer service. Most cable operators have these specialized customer service representatives available to address red tape and special circumstances. Calling the company’s corporate office and asking to speak to the CEO will almost always get transferred to executive level customer service. Filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau will also be answered by an executive level representative. In the case of Comcast, e-mailing [email protected] may also prove worthwhile.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has called Verizon’s notification that phone service in lower Manhattan will not be back to normal until late next spring “unacceptable.”

Hurricane Sandy’s storm surge ruined at least 95 percent of Verizon Communications’ landline network in the lower half of Manhattan leaving numerous businesses without phone service with little hope service will be restored this year.

“Their schedule right now says that lower Manhattan is not going to be back up until May,” Bloomberg said in a recent speech.

The mayor is upset with Verizon’s timetable because a number of major buildings in the area cannot be reoccupied by business tenants until telephone service is restored, and Verizon is facing questions about why it will take a half-year to get phone service back up and running to everyone that wants it.

When local cable news channel NY1 asked Verizon how many customers were still without service, a spokesman told the reporter it did not know, adding some customers have priorities more pressing than phone service.

Verizon has chosen not to replace much of the damaged copper infrastructure and plans to invest in more reliable fiber optics in its ongoing effort to meet its FiOS rollout obligations in New York City, but that does not satisfy many business owners who cannot process credit card transactions or, in some cases, run their businesses as long as phone lines remain out of service.

This week a coalition of interest groups petitioned New York’s Public Service Commission asking them to impose new requirements on the state’s utility companies to develop comprehensive emergency response plans that acknowledge climate change and the extreme weather events that accompany it.

The petition was filed by the Columbia Law School Center for Climate Change Law, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York League of Conservation Voters, Pace Energy and Climate Law Center of Pace Law School, Municipal Art Society of New York, Earthjustice, Environmental Advocates of New York, and Riverkeeper.

The petition notes in the past two years alone, New York City has been hit by two of the largest hurricanes in history (Irene and Sandy).

The group’s observations are shared by some of the state’s highest elected officials.

“In just 14 months, two hurricanes have forced [New York City] to evacuate neighborhoods — something our city government had never done before,” New York City Mayor Bloomberg wrote in an editorial for Bloomberg View. “If this is a trend, it is simply not sustainable.”

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo echoed Bloomberg’s concerns:

Extreme weather is a reality. It is a reality that we are vulnerable. And if we’re going to do our job as elected officials, we’re going to need to think about how to redesign, or as we go forward, make the modifications necessary so we don’t incur this type of damage…. For us to sit here today and say this is a once-in-a-generation and it’s not going to happen again, I think would be short-sighted…. I think we need to anticipate more of these extreme weather type situations in the future and we have to take that into consideration in reforming, modifying, our infrastructure.

The coalition claims current utility policies are designed for short-term disaster response procedures, which they call inadequate.

Most utility companies develop plans based on historic weather patterns the environmental groups argue cannot take into account the more extreme weather patterns afflicting the state. The PSC can mandate utilities do more.

New York’s utility infrastructure is also deemed outdated, with much of it exposed above-ground, vulnerable to storm damage. The state also lacks more advanced technology including smart electricity grids, telecommunications fiber rings that can reroute around cable cuts, and reinforcement of vulnerably placed generator plants, telephone switches, and utility substations.

Despite the criticism, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam remained upbeat about Verizon’s performance, particularly noting strong growth in wireless.

In the third quarter when Sandy struck, Verizon picked up 1.54 million more contract customers, exceeding the 901,000 estimate predicted by analysts polled by Bloomberg News. The wireless profit margin at Verizon also reached a new milestone – 50 percent, up from 49 percent in the second quarter.

[flv width=”534″ height=”320″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/NY1 Bloomberg Criticizes Verizon For Slow Recovery Of Service 12-6-12.mp4[/flv]

NY1 reports business customers in lower Manhattan are not too pleased waiting for Verizon to repair their landlines.  (2 minutes)

[flv width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Verizon Restoration of Verizon’s Lower Manhattan Cable Vault 11-12.flv[/flv]

Verizon produced this video showing off its own restoration efforts in a downtown Manhattan cable vault.  (3 minutes)