Rutledge

Charter Communications is on an executive raiding mission, poaching at least four senior executives from Bethpage, N.Y., based Cablevision Industries this year alone.

So far, ex-Cablevision executives switching allegiance to Charter:

• Chief Executive Officer Tom Rutledge
• Chief Operating Officer John Bickham
• Chief Marketing Officer Jon Hargis
• Executive Vice-president of Network Operations Scott Weber

But senior management has not been packing bags for St. Louis, corporate home of Charter. Instead, the company has opened a new executive office in New York City. In fact, several existing Charter executives already in St. Louis are being moved to New York to continue their employment there. Weber will be based in Denver, where Charter maintains an engineering office.

St. Louis officials are worried the increasing emphasis on New York may eventually cost their city the corporate headquarters of Charter, which has at least 600 employees. It would not be the first time St. Louis has faced such a loss. Southwestern Bell, which later became AT&T, left St. Louis at the behest of then-CEO Ed Whitacre, who wanted the company run from Dallas. He got his wish.

Verizon customers can expect to pay more for the company’s fiber to the home service, FiOS, even as promised higher speeds arrive.

Most customers off contract can expect to pay $10-15 more a month under the new pricing regime, or cut back on selected television channels to keep their price the same. Verizon customers currently on a promotional offer will not see any price changes until their promotion expires.

Wall Street analysts call Verizon’s rate hikes a return to “pricing rationality.” The phone company has engaged in years of aggressive pricing, promotions, and rebate offers, especially in the northeast. At one point, Verizon was offering New York-area customers up to $500 in rebates when signing up for a triple play Verizon FiOS package. As Verizon pulls back from aggressive promotions, some analysts predict cable competitors Time Warner Cable and Cablevision will be able to resume more typical rate increases common before Verizon FiOS launched. Cablevision previously announced it would not increase rates during 2012, mostly in response to Verizon’s aggressive pricing.

Verizon has significantly boosted speeds on most of its broadband offerings, with the exception of its standard entry-level 15/5Mbps package, which remains unchanged. Verizon is hoping customers will find that entry level package less and less attractive and be amenable to upgrading to faster speed service at a higher price.

“We’re expecting that 80 percent of customers will want more than 15 megabits per second,” Arturo Picicci, Verizon’s director of product management told Reuters.

Under Verizon’s new pricing, triple play customers with unlimited calling, 15/5Mbps broadband, and 290 television channels pay $109.99. The next step up, for $15 more a month, would upgrade broadband to 50/25Mbps service.

Verizon is also shaming New York area cable operators with speed increases that Time Warner and Cablevision currently cannot match.

The company’s 150/65Mbps service is now priced at $99.99 a month, down from $209.99. Customers in some areas can also sign up for 300/65Mbps service for as low as $204.99 with a two-year contract.

In contrast, Comcast charges $200 a month for 105Mbps, Cablevision prices its 101Mbps service at $104.95 a month.

By 2050 Australian consumers will need a monthly data allowance of more than 100,000 gigabytes to sustain what will, by then, be considered average use of the Internet.

That finding comes in a report, “A Snapshot of Australia’s Digital Future to 2050,” which is measuring the impact of the country’s transformation to a ubiquitous fiber to the home broadband experience for the majority of Australian consumers and businesses.

Australia and New Zealand are both embarked on a transformative effort to rid themselves of slow speed, copper-based broadband networks. Both are rolling out a combination of fiber to the home service in urban and suburban areas, and fixed wireless networks in rural areas.

The South Pacific region could soon become a global broadband leader for innovation in high speed applications development because neither country will be constrained by broadband networks that deliver the least amount of broadband service for the highest cost.

The report predicts super-fast broadband will literally transform society in Australia, with traditional media as relevant tomorrow as a buggy whip is today.

Market researcher IBISWorld says newspapers, television, radio and the record and film industries are destined for the scrap heap in a new digital world.

The report also predicts the traditional understanding of employment may also radically change, with citizens acting as free agents, pursuing work on individual projects for a variety of employers, leveraging broadband to learn what tasks need to be performed each day. Work will be performed in home offices or on the go using the country’s broadband network.

Universal high speed broadband will transform the information and communications technology sector into a $1 trillion business by 2050 — in Australia alone, predicts the report.

Australia’s PM radio program explores how life in the country will change over the next 38 years with fiber optic broadband a part of virtually everyone’s life.  (June 14, 2012)  (4 minutes)
You must remain on this page to hear the clip, or you can download the clip and listen later.

An 85-year-old woman with dementia and her ailing 90-year-old husband in Rockaway were left without telephone service for three weeks because Verizon could not contact them on their out-of-service phone line.

The couple’s daughter, Rita Burgess, made at least 13 calls to Verizon Communications trying to get the couple’s phone line back up and running, but to no avail. A Verizon spokesperson later told the New York Daily News the company couldn’t get the line repaired because they couldn’t call the couple… on the phone line that was out of service.

“You people put me through hell,” Burgess thought after Verizon finally reached out to get the phone line repaired.

By then it was too late. Burgess took matters into her own hands and switched the family to Time Warner Cable’s phone service.

The incident has turned into a cause célèbre for consumer advocates, who claim Verizon continues to neglect its landline network in favor of its limited fiber optic FiOS service. New York consumer groups want the state to more aggressively regulate Verizon’s landline network to make certain extended outages like this cannot happen.

Burgess, who lives on Long Island, found herself cut off from her parents at a time when her father was hospitalized. Both father and daughter were unable to reach Mrs. Burgess, who requires regular attention because of dementia.

Bob Master, legislative and political director for the Communications Workers of America, told the Daily News the couple’s ordeal is not unique.

“They’re diverting resources from basic phone services,” Master said of Verizon. “That’s the business model, to divert resources to the most lucrative areas.”

Verizon counters the union is in dispute with the phone company over stalled contract negotiations and points to a 2012 first quarter report from the state Public Service Commission showing Verizon is meeting standards for reliability and repair times.

But Verizon has also lost half of its landline customers in New York State, which could also account for a declining number of complaints.

The Burgess family has decided to stick with Time Warner Cable for phone service.

Beahn’s booking photo

A competitor to dominant cable provider Mediacom has been accused of stealing the cable company’s broadband service and reselling it as its own in a bizarre Georgia case that also includes a feud between Albany’s Water, Gas & Light Commission and the defendant.

Back in December, a Georgia Power representative alerted Mediacom about unauthorized equipment placed on a utility pole. When Mike Donalson, Mediacom’s regional security manager arrived at the location off McCollum Drive in Albany, he was surprised to discover a residential Mediacom cable modem powered by a standard car battery sealed in a weatherproof enclosure. Tracking the wiring that exited the box, Donalson eventually found himself at the front door of Addtran Logistics, Inc.

Mediacom immediately launched an investigation and discovered that L2Networks had allegedly contracted with Addtran to provide Internet service. Mediacom alleges in its lawsuit L2 provided the service through a cable modem originally assigned to Beahn’s mother-in-law for residential broadband service at her home.

The company called the Dougherty County Police Department, who arrested Beahn on felony charges for theft of service.

Mediacom is seeking compensatory and punitive damages in its civil suit.

Beahn first came into national prominence in May when he filed the first formal Net Neutrality complaint with the Federal Communications Commission against the Albany Water, Gas & Light Commission claiming the local authority was refusing to allow L2 employees 24-hour access to utility-owned facilities where L2 has placed equipment.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WFXL Albany Mediacom Files Suit Against L2 6-8-12.flv[/flv]

WFXL in Albany, Ga. reports L2 Networks is headed to court to face charges it used to a Mediacom residential cable modem to deliver business class service under L2’s name.  (1 minute)