AT&T Mobility wanted Verizon Wireless to stop showing ads that call out the differences between the two wireless competitors’ national 3G networks.  When Verizon didn’t, AT&T sued.  This week Verizon Wireless doubles down with three new holiday season ads that are guaranteed to enrage AT&T even further.

Anyone who has seen a Rankin/Bass holiday special will instantly recognize at least one of the ads is a play on the Island of Misfit Toys, seen in the 1964 holiday classic Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

[flv width=”620″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Verizon Wireless Verizon Misfit Toys Ad.flv[/flv]

Verizon Wireless – “The Island of Misfit Toys” (30 seconds)

AT&T accuses Verizon Wireless of misrepresenting its national data coverage by showing non-3G areas in white, a color AT&T says traditionally represents no service at all.  AT&T says its wireless data network, in its entirety, is more expansive than Verizon’s.  Verizon counters its ads only compare 3G coverage, and clearly label the maps as such, including a fine print disclaimer indicating “voice and data services available outside 3G coverage area.”

AT&T further argues watching frustrated consumers shaking their phones or sitting alone because they were unable to meet up with their friends would suggest to a casual viewer they weren’t able to access any service.

[flv width=”620″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Verizon Wireless Blue Christmas Ad.flv[/flv]

Verizon Wireless – “Blue Christmas” is sure to draw the ire of AT&T as a frustrated father visibly shakes his iPhone and never seems to be able to use it. (30 seconds)

Verizon Wireless’ attorneys officially responded to the AT&T request for a temporary restraining order to pull the ads off the air with a direct opening: “AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon’s ‘There’s A Map For That’ advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon’s ads are true and the truth hurts.”

The attorneys argue, “Remarkably, AT&T admits that the 3G coverage maps — the one thing that is common to all five ads — are accurate and that the ads’ express statement that Verizon has ‘5X More 3G Coverage’ than AT&T is true.”

AT&T has been one of the loudest voices in this advertising battle, spending many millions of dollars to market its 3G network as the “Nation’s Fastest 3G Network” and, with its exclusive partner Apple, naming the latest iPhone (only available on AT&T’s network) the “iPhone 3GS.”

The stark truth, as revealed by the concededly accurate coverage maps in Verizon’s advertising, is that the geographic reach of AT&T’s 3G network is far less extensive than AT&T would have the public believe — and far less extensive than Verizon’s 3G network. Consumers who are interested in smartphones have a strong interest in knowing the comparative 3G coverage offered by Verizon and AT&T.  Cutting off the free flow of information about Verizon’s more extensive 3G coverage would harm consumers in a way that could not be redressed.  And because injury to First Amendment rights is by definition irreparable, suppressing Verizon’s speech on an “emergency” basis before a definitive and fair adjudication would irreparably injure Verizon and its goodwill in addition to costing Verizon customers. Any harm to AT&T, in contrast, is merely speculative.

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon’s side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T’s confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly. AT&T may not like the message that the ads send, but this Court should reject its efforts to silence the messenger.

[flv width=”620″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Verizon Wireless Elves Ad.flv[/flv]

Verizon Wireless – “Elves” includes the line “good luck browsing the web with that one.” (30 seconds)

AT&T has gone all out to find confused consumers to back up their request for a temporary restraining order, running a survey asking ordinary cell phone users what they thought Verizon Wireless’ ads meant.  But Verizon Wireless answers the survey wasn’t limited to smartphone customers, who are already well aware of the differences between 3G and older, slower speed data networks, and for that reason the results are invalid.

Verizon Wireless says it will continue the aggressive campaign beyond the all-important holiday season, when cell phone handset sales are at some of their highest traditional levels.

Are you a cable or telephone company scared of the costs associated with tearing out existing underground or overhead copper-based wiring to upgrade to fiber optics?

Why bother going through all of that effort when you can just yank the old copper wire out and push state-of-the-art fiber cable in.

Buckeye CableSystem, a Toledo, Ohio cable operator intends to do just that, using a process invented by an Austrian company, Kabel-X.

Buckeye will inject a Kabel-X supplied fluid between the outer jacket and the inner core of the cable.  This allows the cable company to pull the copper center conductor and the insulating material right out of the center of the cable, leaving plenty of space to insert new fiber optic cables, without having to tear up streets, get permission from local zoning authorities to string new cable, or go through the expense of completely replacing it.

Better known in Europe, where the process has been used throughout the continent, Kabel-X is now making inroads in North America with small scale projects with companies like Buckeye.  Kabel-X has been particularly attractive in eastern Europe, where the process is more affordable than complete cable replacement.  With more limited budgets, re-using existing cable already in place provides an attractive alternative.

Buckeye CableSystem in Toledo

The company claims it can replace up to 1000 feet of existing coaxial cable with fiber in as little as three hours.

Buckeye intends to experiment with the technology in a Toledo subdivision to see how well it works.

The one major downside to using Kabel-X is that service is typically interrupted while the cable work is being done.  Should something go wrong, customers could be left entirely without service, a prospect that mandates small scale experiments to train cable engineering crews to work speedily and efficiently, and prove the technology can work well in a variety of conditions.

“We see the Kabel-X technology as an innovative tool that will allow us to cost effectively deploy a fiber-to-the-home architecture in areas currently served by a traditional hybrid fiber coax network,” Buckeye Cablevision chief technology officer Joe Jensen said.

Buckeye’s efforts to upgrade to true fiber-to-the-home service may come as a response to AT&T’s U-verse service, which began competing for Toledo customers about a year ago.  Buckeye has 150,000 subscribers in the Toledo area, and remains the largest pay television operator, but U-verse is positioned to steal away some of those customers over time.

Buckeye’s cable broadband service, bex-Buckeye Express, offers customers up to 20Mbps service, if you opt to subscribe to other Buckeye services.

The company’s Acceptable Use Policy indicates they do not impose limits on usage at this time, but curiously do admit to throttling the speed of peer-to-peer traffic and dynamically reducing speeds for customers who are considered “high bandwidth users” during peak demand periods.  Both of these seemed to get Comcast into hot water with the Federal Communications Commission.

BUCKEYE EXPRESS™ HIGH SPEED INTERNET SERVICE ACCEPTABLE USE POLICY

Buckeye uses reasonable network management techniques to improve overall network performance and reserves the right to employ additional techniques as necessary or desirable. Some applications, including certain peer-to-peer applications, can consume inordinately high amounts of bandwidth on the network and degrade network performance. Buckeye’s current network management techniques include:

Speed Caps – limiting the speeds that a modem can transmit or receive data. Buckeye may lower the transmission rate or reception rate of high bandwidth users during times of high network demand. This may slow the transmission or reception rate for affected modems.

Connection Limits – limiting the number of simultaneous connections for any modem during an online session. With a typical user having a dozen or so simultaneous connections for routine use, this limit provides a means of identifying and hopefully thwarting malicious attempts to harm the network or other users. This limit is currently set well above the number of connections used by typical user in a session.

Application-based Rate Limiting– limiting transmission speed of certain high bandwidth applications. Some applications, typically peer-to-peer applications, can consume large amounts of bandwidth, often without the knowledge of the user/customer. By limiting the portion of the network capacity available for these applications during periods of high traffic, Buckeye is able to improve the overall performance of the network for all users. Transmission of traffic subject to this technique may be slower during periods of high network usage.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Kabel-X Demo.flv[/flv]

Watch the Kabel-X process at work in this company-produced demonstration video. (7 minutes)

Like many cable companies, the results for cable television subscriptions continue to be challenged by the downturn in the economy.  So cable operators are increasingly looking to their broadband and “digital phone” divisions to make up the difference in revenue.

Comcast also believes that “pure content” is the place to be, to avoid becoming the owner of “dumb pipes” that simply pass through someone else’s content.  Comcast, the nation’s largest cable operator, is seeking to leverage that content through a reported offer to acquire NBC-Universal.

CNBC explores the likelihood of the deal going through with Tuna Amobi, senior media & entertainment equity analyst with Standard & Poor’s.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CNBC – Comcast NBC Merger Outlook 11-4-2009.flv[/flv]

CNBC’s Martin Soong reviews Comcast’s third quarter earnings results and discusses the chances Comcast will pull off its interest in acquiring NBC-Universal.  (11/4/09 – 4 minutes)

Frontier customers are advised to recycle their directories after November, but the new books won't arrive until March.

The dead tree format telephone directory lives on, dropped on the front doors of millions of Americans each year, often whether they want them or not.  The ubiquitous “phone book” has been with us for 100 years, and continues to be the source of controversy, anger, and irritation for those who advertise in it, want either to be listed or unlisted from it, or simply want to stop killing trees to print it.

Now two phone companies have riled up their customers over the books — Frontier Communications for changing the printing schedule of the Yellow Pages, forcing businesses trying to economize to continue to pay for advertising they no longer want, and FairPoint Communications for omitting a large number of customers from their 2010 White Pages.

Coincidentally, the controversies impact two communities sharing the same name – Rochester, New York and Rochester, New Hampshire.

Even though this coupon expires in December 2009, Agatina's Restaurant will still be paying for their advertising until March, 2010.

In Frontier’s largest service area in western New York, businesses are confronting the fact they’ll be forced to pay up to four additional months for Yellow Pages advertising, including for coupons that expire in December.  That’s because Frontier has decided to change the publishing schedule for telephone directories from the traditional month of November, in place in Rochester for decades, to next March.  Residential customers may also accidentally discard their phone books, which indicate they should be recycled in November, assuming new directories are on the way.

The change impacts existing businesses who want to reduce or stop their Yellow Pages ads, as well as new area businesses that will have to wait until spring before their listings appear in the printed directories.

Although many customers now look up telephone numbers online and don’t use the White Pages print edition, many consumers still rely on the Yellow Pages to size up businesses, look for coupons, or learn more about businesses from their advertising.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WHEC Rochester Frontier Delays Phone Books 8-18-09.flv[/flv]

WHEC-TV Rochester’s I-Team 10 reporter visits with the owner of Agatina’s Restaurant, who is upset to discover he’s going to be paying for his Yellow Pages ad longer than he thought. (2 minutes)

In southern New Hampshire, scores of customers receiving new directories from FairPoint are discovering they are not in the book, or have outdated addresses listed, some nearly 19 years old.

The New Hampshire Union-Leader covered the story Wednesday:

“Basically, they left a lot of our numbers out of the phone book,” said Rochester City Manager John Scruton.

“My main concern is we want to provide good service to the city of Rochester, and it is difficult for people if they cannot find key phone numbers using the phone book,” he said.

“Hopefully, they’ll correct it in the next generation of books, but that’s not going to help people who have trouble finding them right now,” he said.

Plaistow Town Clerk Maryellen Pelletier said, “We didn’t even get the right directory.” After years of getting the Haverhill, Mass., directory, the town suddenly was delivered the Manchester-Derry book.

In that same book, Union Leader-New Hampshire Sunday News, a reference to the company that publishes the statewide newspaper and this web site, is listed twice in succession, once with its current address, once with an address it left 19 years ago.

Ironically, FairPoint’s phone books are printed by another Verizon castoff that declared bankruptcy earlier this year: Idearc.

Customers are outraged by the latest FairPoint foul-up.

Jim in Hillsboro: “Other than hoodwinking the Public Utilities Commission, name me one thing FairPoint has done right. Anybody?”

Mo in Plymouth: “Is this strike three and out of business? I hope so. Maybe we can get some company who will at least tell us the truth.”

Doris in Manchester: “Good ole FairPoint. What else would you expect from this fine outstanding company? I have never seen such a screw-up company as FairPoint.”

Frank in Bedford: “Waste of paper = phone book. When everyone has a computer there should be no more phone books allowed. Speaking of being allowed, FairPoint is another thing that shouldn’t be allowed to screw up anymore in New Hampshire. Give them the boot.”

DL in Nottingham: “In Nottingham, we keep getting new phone books every week for all different sections of the state. They just keep showing up.”

Chris in Bow: “Let’s all hope FairPoint managed to print the correct home telephone numbers for members of the Public Utilities Commission.”

Bren in Manchester: “Three months running now my home phone has been disconnected for “non-payment.” Three times I’ve called, spent my lunch hour giving the date that my payment was processed, waited while they figured out where it was misapplied and then had to wait several hours for the service to be reinstated. Then the insult of a phone book that isn’t going to be used, delivered into a rain puddle – the result is a wasted tree.”

Charter Cable, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy since March 28, has been among the worst hit cable operators by an American economy in trouble, accusations of poor service, excessive executive compensation, and spiraling debt.  Before entering bankruptcy protection, the company had $21 billion in debt — a significant amount for a cable operator serving just 5.5 million customers in 27 states.

Company founder Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft who controlled 91 percent of Charter Cable before bankruptcy, will control just 35 percent of the company as it emerges from reorganization in the coming weeks.  Allen’s attention will then turn to the bankruptcy of another one of his concerns – Digeo Inc., which is best known for its Moxi HD DVR.

Despite the bankruptcy, Charter Cable aggressively continues to upgrade its broadband service to DOCSIS 3 in many of its service areas, introducing new faster broadband products to customers.  But broadband service from Charter is just one of three services they offer customers, and many are not satisfied with the service they are getting.

Beyond bankruptcy, Charter Cable continues to face bad press for providing poor service, hassling customers with aggressive telemarketing calls, dramatic rate increases, and in one shocking incident this week, a Charter Cable technician in Victorville, California was attacked and killed while on a service call.

Authorities are still searching for a motive for Monday’s unprovoked attack on 25-year-old Trevor Neiman, of Phelan, California.  After surviving three tours of duty in Iraq, Neiman was killed with a small hammer in a Victorville home.  Police say the attack came from a relative of the homeowner who was visiting at the time of the assault.  The suspect, Hesperia resident Johnny Acosta, 45, was arrested on suspicion of murder a short time after fleeing the scene.

“There was no exchange of words. There was nothing that occurred before the unprovoked attack,” said Jody Miller, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department told KTLA News.

[flv width=”600″ height=”336″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KABC Los Angeles Charter Cable Installer Killed With Hammer 11-10-09.flv[/flv]

KABC-TV Los Angeles shares the tragic story of Charter Cable technician Trevor Neiman, and the devastating impact Monday’s attack had on his wife and family. (2 minutes)

Beyond that horrific incident, Charter Cable has been irritating subscribers with a series of rate increases and annoying marketing campaigns across the country.

In West Covina, California Charter Cable is ridding itself of senior discounts and also dramatically increasing rates.  Broadcast basic cable customers face a whopping $10 monthly increase in their cable bill, and the more popular expanded basic service will increase by $5.25 a month.  The company claims the rate increases are part of “an investment in improving the overall customer service experience.”

Resident Hermine Deemer, 83, told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune her bill will increase to $67 a month from $53 – a 26 percent hike.

“That’s a big increase,” Deemer said. “Nobody gets that big of an increase. I know things go up but not that much.”

Charter Cable is calling customers trying to market bundled services including broadband and telephone, claiming the savings from bundling services together would be “higher than the senior discount ever gave.”

Deputy City Manager Chris Freeland said the city has received several calls on the increases but there is little they can do about it.

“We would much rather have the senior discount,” Freeland said. “It’s really beyond our control. The economy is tough and every little dollar for seniors is so precious.”

Customers commenting on the rate increase have encouraged seniors to cancel service and switch to DISH Network satellite service, and several seniors lament they are housebound and television is their primary window to the outside world.  With no increase in Social Security in 2010 and increasing medical costs, many seniors will face difficulty coping with the rate increases.

In Pendleton, Oregon, the city attorney blasted Charter Cable for a $5 increase in broadcast basic service (providing local broadcast channels and some public affairs cable networks) and a $3 increase in expanded basic, claiming it unfairly falls on those least able to afford it, all to subsidize discounts on their bundled service packages.  Peter H. Wells wrote an open letter to Charter Cable published in the East Oregonian:

Per-channel costs for Charter Cable in the Pacific Northwest

By imposing the same $5.00 increase for all service tiers and, in fact, a lower increase for those with expanded basic service, the basic tier customer is paying for a greater portion of the company’s total costs than before the fee increase.

Through February 2005, less than five years ago, basic tier service cost the customer $12.91 per month. The rate change effective in December to $24.99 per month is such that those customers will have had a 93 percent rate increase in the past five years. It also appears that Pendleton’s basic tier customers are paying the same for less service than basic tier customers in other nearby service areas.

Charter representatives claim that the service charge increases over the past few years were to compensate the company for upgrades to the physical plant in Pendleton. I believe that argument is not appropriate. The physical plant upgrades were to allow Charter to provide additional services of telephone, digital cable and Internet. The cost of those upgrades should be borne by the users of those services, not the basic tier customers on whom the increase is being disproportionately imposed.

Unfortunately, Charter Cable’s rates are not within the control of the city management, so Wells could only ask that concerned residents contact Charter Cable and complain.

At least one customer fed up with Charter’s marketing practices found g0ing to a local TV station’s consumer watchdog reporter was even more effective.

Carole McGuire of Madison, Wisconsin turned down Charter’s relentless marketing of their “digital phone” product, which she doesn’t currently purchase.  Despite her disinterest, the visiting salesman left an application, and called her the next day to see if she changed her mind.  After that, McGuire began receiving a barrage of automated phone calls from Charter claiming she ordered the service, and needed to obtain third party verification to meet Federal Communications Commission obligations and process her order.

Not having placed an order, she ignored the calls, but they kept coming… over and over.

Exasperated, she turned to WISC-TV’s On Your Side reporter Erick Franke to see if he could get Charter to stop calling her.

[flv width=”530″ height=”316″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WISC Madison Charter Cable Telemarketing 11-3-09.flv[/flv]

WISC-TV Madison’s On Your Side segment from November 3rd helps a Madison resident put a stop to annoying Charter Cable telemarketing efforts. (3 minutes)

Unfortunately, not even TV stations are immune from dealing with problems with Charter Cable.  About a month ago, residents in Clarksville, Tennessee discovered WKAG-TV in nearby Hopkinsville, Kentucky missing from their cable dial.

Charter Cable had removed the low-power 18,500 watt station claiming it couldn’t obtain a strong enough signal to carry it.  WKAG-TV happened to be the only station in the entire region that produced news programming for Clarksville residents, and had consistently served the community of 100,000 with local newscasts, sports coverage, weather, and public affairs programming.

WKAG management was surprised by the decision to drop the station, and mounted a public campaign to dispute Charter’s poor signal strength assertions.  Charter Cable ignored the station’s first press release and has now been confronted with embarrassing video evidence that the station can be received with a good over-the-air signal with just a two foot antenna from the top of a building at a location even more distant from Charter’s TV reception tower, and from a lower overall height.

[flv width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WKAG Hopkinsville Charter Cable Dispute 11-5-09.flv[/flv]

WKAG-TV Hopkinsville, Kentucky prepared a web video showing evidence Charter Cable could restore the station to the cable dial in nearby Clarksville, Tennessee. (11/5/09 – 5 minutes)

Charter Cable used to import WKAG from a direct fiber feed, but dropped it several years ago in an apparent cost-cutting move.

Despite complaints from Clarksville residents, Charter continues to ignore customer demands for WKAG’s restoration.

From one side of the country to the other, Charter Cable’s finances are not the only challenge the company faces.  Providing affordable, responsive, and quality service to customers apparently also remains a challenge Charter Cable has yet to surmount.