The Delmarva Peninsula

Four towns are better than one when trying to negotiate improved service and better terms for Delmarva Mediacom cable customers.

Bethany Beach, Millville, Ocean View and South Bethany are considering joining forces to renegotiate their agreements with Mediacom, all coming up for renewal within a year of each other.

Councilman Jay Headman from South Bethany is among those advocating the joint effort to get a better deal from Mediacom, which provides cable service across many parts of the peninsula encompassing Delaware and parts of Maryland and Virginia.

Mediacom serves many parts of the Delmarva Peninsula with cable service

“If we could come together and negotiate as one, we could save money and have more clout,” Headman told The Daily Times. “We know for a fact that it’s smart to negotiate together. When we have a larger clientele, (Mediacom) has to deal with us, and we can split the cost for the lawyer.”

While the four communities would find a competing provider launching service on the peninsula a useful tool to increase competition, they don’t necessarily believe its likely.  Many residents of the towns are part-timers, staying for extended summer vacations.  In fact, getting a better deal for part-time residents who wish to subscribe for part of the year is one of the concessions they hope to obtain from Mediacom.  The towns are also seeking a shorter agreement — the current franchise is for a 15-year term — and better service in general.

Vice Mayor Carol Olmstead, of Bethany Beach, told the newspaper the town is allocating $5,000 in next year’s budget to cover legal fees related to the negotiation.

“I think everyone who has cable TV would like better service,” she said. “Why not join together? I think the feeling is there’s strength in numbers.”

Following Comcast’s lead, Time Warner Cable will begin shrinking western New York analog customers’ channel lineups to accommodate additional HD channels.  While in most cases customers with set top boxes or digital-ready televisions will be able to continue watching (the latter by rescanning the channels on their televisions), those with older televisions without a box are out of luck.

Customers will not receive a corresponding rate decrease based on the lost channels from their lineups.  Here is a rundown of those networks and customers affected:

Buffalo, New York Channel Lineup Changes (effective April 15)

Western New York Suburban-areas

• Style from Broadcast Basic Ch 98 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 35 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 68 to Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 65
• Versus Ch 71 to Ch 35
• Hallmark Ch 69 to Ch 63

City of Buffalo

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 65 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 48 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen will remain on Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 65
• Versus from Ch 71 to Ch 48

Dunkirk

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 96 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 31 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 62 to Ch 71 (digital box required)
• Versus Ch 71 to Ch 62
• Shop NBC from Ch 27 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• SyFy Ch 69 to Ch 31

Westfield

• Style from Broadcast Basic Cable Ch 98 to  Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 35 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 66 to Ch 71 (digital box required)
• Shop NBC Ch 70 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• MSG Ch 67 to Ch 35

Olean/Olean North/Wellsville

• Style from Standard Cable Ch 71 to Digital Basic Ch 176 (digital equipment and a subscription to Digital Basic Cable will be required to view Style)
• TruTV Ch 64 to Ch 70 (digital box required)
• Oxygen Ch 57 to Ch 66 (digital box required)
• YES Ch 70 to Ch 64
• Versus Ch 66 to Ch 57
• Shop NBC Ch 31 to Ch 73 (digital box required)
• Fox News Channel Ch 68 to Ch 31

Rochester, New York Channel Lineup Changes (unless otherwise noted, effective April 15)

Metropolitan Rochester Area

• National Geographic Wild will replace FOX Reality on Ch 453 and National Geographic Wild HD launches on Ch 1051 (Effective March 29)
• Speed Channel, Ch 210 will be moved from Digital Basic to CPST (standard cable). Speed will remain available in digital format only (Effective April 1)
• Speed Channel HD, Ch 1065, be moved from Digital Basic to CPST (standard cable). Speed will remain available in digital format only (Effective April 1)
• Oxygen will move from Ch 70 to Ch 75 (digital format only)
• Photoshow TV located on Chs 821 and 822 will no longer be available.
• Vutopia will be added to Ch 968
• Vutopia HD will be added to Ch 1149

Livingston/Southern Monroe County

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51
• Shop NBC will be removed from Channel 7 and will remain on Channel 66

Genesee/Wyoming and Orleans/Niagara Counties

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51

Erie County

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 51
• Shop NBC will be removed from Channel 20 and will remain on Channel 66

Wayne, Ontario, Seneca and Cayuga Counties

• All of the above changes, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 55

Yates/ Ontario and Steuben/Schuyler Counties

• All of the above changes, excluding Vutopia, plus:
• Versus will move from Channel 75 to Channel 55

When the 60 Minutes franchise shows up to run a 15 minute story on your corporate crisis, you know you’re finished.

The scene: Telecom New Zealand’s heavily-marketed XT mobile broadband 3G network has collapsed for the fourth time since December, leaving hundreds of thousands of customers without service, government ministers apoplectic about ongoing service problems, and now resignations among senior Telecom officials falling on their swords for endless technical faults that bring excuses and promises of better service that never quite come true.

One Telecom solution: Video their customer service center’s employees trying to cope with a telecommunications crisis in the country in hopes the carefully edited footage, made available to the media, would humanize the company’s own incompetence.  It didn’t work as Telecom New Zealand’s 3G customers rushed for the nearest exits, canceling service and demanding no fee be charged for doing so.

To add insult to injury, after four network crashes, Telecom’s administration of the country’s emergency help line 111 (equivalent to 911 in North America) revealed lapses there as well, when the line suddenly stopped working for several hours.  The problem was discovered not when a Telecom technician discovered it, but rather when a police officer found it strange there were no calls to respond to and called the number himself to test it, finding no response.

[flv width=”640″ height=”372″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TV New Zealand 60 Minutes – Telecom XT.flv[/flv]

60 Minutes aired Telecom’s dirty laundry and pressured Telecom’s CEO to respond to exasperated customers often left without service for days. He blamed Alcatel-Lucent for the problems.  Paul Hamburger, mentioned in this report, resigned earlier today. (15 minutes)

AT&T has announced it is bringing its U-verse broadband, telephone, and television system to Springfield, Missouri providing residents an alternative to cable service from Mediacom.

“We’re very excited to offer a competitive choice to Springfield consumers,” said Kris Ryan, general manager of AT&T Home Solutions for the greater Missouri region.

Unfortunately, most Springfield residents will have to wait before the service becomes available in their neighborhood.  AT&T has only limited service available in Springfield, Battlefield, Nixa, Republic and parts of Fremont Hills.  The company has a tradition of announcing U-verse, and then slowly deploying service on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis over the next several years.

Potential customers noticed, complaining that entire zip codes in and around the Springfield area currently do not have U-verse available.

When the service does arrive, residents can expect pricing ranging from $19 – $167 a month, depending on how many channels and what type of broadband speed is desired.

Mediacom can beat AT&T’s broadband speeds in Springfield, as it upgraded to DOCSIS 3 service, permitting customers to get up to 50Mbps service from the cable company. AT&T’s U-verse tops out at 18Mbps in the Springfield area.

Residents can check to see if U-verse is available at their address by visiting the AT&T U-verse qualification website.

[flv width=”360″ height=”260″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/KSFX Springfield ATT Launches U-verse in the Ozarks 3-22-10.flv[/flv]

KSFX-TV in Springfield reports on the unveiling of U-verse in the greater Springfield area.  (1 minute)

The United States has a goal of 100Mbps ubiquitous broadband service by 2020.  Hong Kong residents already have access to speeds up to 1Gbps, leaving many unimpressed with the American broadband goals established in the FCC’s National Broadband Plan.

City Telecom CEO William Yeung called out the current state of American broadband, noting many Americans are still stuck with megabit speeds in the single digits, while 100+ megabit access is widely available across most of Hong Kong from fiber optic networks.

Yeung thinks 100Mbps service will be considered slow by the time 2020 rolls around, noting an insatiable demand for enhanced broadband speeds.

Google’s Think Big With a Gig project underlines Yeung’s beliefs as hundreds of American communities clamor to be among those chosen for a demonstration project that will deliver up to 1Gbps speed to homes and businesses on an all-fiber network.

Yeung rejects the notion that wiring Hong Kong was a natural for super-fast fiber optic broadband just because of its dense population, reducing potential costs.

“I think it’s a matter of short term vs. long term thinking,” Yeung told Bloomberg News.

According to Yeung, American broadband providers are afraid constructing super-fast broadband lanes threaten to cannibalize their existing revenue streams, especially from cable television.  That’s because Americans could end up dropping their cable packages in favor of watching everything online.  Yeung also thinks Wall Street is preoccupied with short-term Return on Investment, making it difficult to upgrade to fiber service despite the enormous potential long term revenue, even in rural areas.

For Yeung, it’s all about marketing the benefits of fiber.  His company, City Telecom, is busily signing new subscribers despite the fact the island already enjoys near-universal broadband access.  Offering faster speeds and better service will drive customers to switch providers, Yeung believes.

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Bloomberg Yeung Says Hong Kong Broadband 10 Years Ahead of U.S 3-19-10.flv[/flv]

Bloomberg News talked with City Telecom CEO William Yeung about fiber-optic broadband and the fact Hong Kong is well ahead of the United States on broadband speed and service.  (4 minutes)

[flv width=”600″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/City Telecom Promo.flv[/flv]

City Telecom’s HKBN service has a history of running bizarre advertising.  One recent example is included here, along with a short promotional video touting the company’s accomplishments in constructing an all-fiber network.  (4 minutes)