Time Warner Cable is back again with another offer to existing Frontier Communications customers trapped in multi-year service agreements.  If you dump your Frontier landline overboard for Time Warner Cable’s Digital Phone service, the cable company will send you a gift card worth $200 good towards defraying your early termination fee, if any.  If you don’t have such a fee, you pocket the $200.  A year ago on this date the company ran a similar promotion heavily promoted in local cable television ad spots.

Time Warner will provide free installation of the phone line including unlimited nationwide long distance for $24.95 a month for 12 months.  With the $200 gift card, that’s above and beyond their usual promotion.  The company is also extending a bundled discount if a customer also takes Road Runner broadband service with their “digital phone” service.

For Frontier customers looking for an early exit, this offers one opportunity.

Existing cable subscribers can take advantage of the offer.  There are terms and conditions to consider, starting with where the offer is available.  The following Time Warner Cable service areas qualify:

• TWC Western New York
• TWC Central New York
• TWC Albany, NY
• TWC New England
• TWC Dothan, AL
• TWC Enterprise, AL
• TWC Yuma, AZ
• TWC El Centro, CA
• TWC Gunnison, CO
• TWC Telluride, CO
• TWC Coeur d’Alene, ID
• TWC Moscow, ID
• TWC Madison, IN
• TWC Newburgh, IN
• TWC Terre Haute, IN
• TWC Ashland, KY
• TWC Owensboro, KY
• TWC Richmond, KY
• TWC Kansas City, MO
• TWC Lincoln, NE
• TWC Ironton, OH
• TWC Richlands, VA
• TWC Pullman, WA
• TWC Clarksburg, WV

Next, the offer is only good for residential customers switching from Frontier’s landline service.  Limit one gift card per customer.  Your final Frontier phone bill showing a disconnect request must be furnished to Time Warner Cable within 30 days to qualify.  Your name and address must match on both bills.  Offer is not available to customers with past due balances with Time Warner Cable, defined as any money owed in the past 30-60 days or customers who have been disconnected for non-payment in the twelve (12) month period preceding this offer.  Service must be ordered by Dec. 31, 2010, and installation must occur within thirty (30) days of order date.

If you’ve contemplated a change in providers but didn’t want to be subjected to a steep early cancellation fee, this isn’t a bad offer.  Although I don’t use Time Warner Cable Digital Phone myself, others in my family do and they are satisfied with the service, although there have been at least two serious outages so far this year that ran several hours.  Since most people also carry a cell phone, any cable outage or power interruption that also takes out your phone line isn’t as serious as it might have been in earlier years.

And, ahem, unlike Time Warner Cable’s attitude towards broadband, they really do provide unlimited calling with their “digital phone” service.

Time Warner Cable is mailing this letter to Frontier Communications customers in the Rochester, N.Y. market. (Click to enlarge)

Tired of paying that high Verizon Wireless bill?  Verizon’s handsome profits can translate into some great benefits, if you’re an employee.

For western New Yorkers, here’s your chance.

Verizon Wireless is hiring 200 call center employees in Rochester this year to bolster its existing 1,200 employee customer service department.

“As our customer base grows and the devices and services they use become more sophisticated, providing an outstanding customer experience becomes even more important,” said Russ Preite, president of Verizon Wireless’ Upstate New York Region. “We’ve been fortunate to continue to find top-quality, highly skilled talent in the Rochester area. Today’s announcement further endorses our commitment to Rochester and to maintaining superior customer service for our customers.”

Verizon can afford to pay employees some nice benefits:

• competitive salaries
• health, dental and vision coverage that begin on the first day of employment
• a 401(k) program with a 6 percent company match of the employee’s contribution
• annual bonus program
• profit sharing
• merit increases
• tuition assistance
• adoption assistance
• an on-site health and wellness facility, and more.

You can apply online.  If you land a job there, why not take a portion of your paycheck and send Stop the Cap! a contribution.  We’ll put their money to good use.

Ontario County, N.Y.

Ontario County, just south and east of Rochester, N.Y., is unleashing the power of fiber optics after private providers turned their noses up at the rapidly-growing Finger Lakes region.

“We just said we need this so badly, we just did it ourselves,” says Ed Hemminger, president and CEO of Axcess Ontario, a non-profit corporation created by the county government to run the $7.5 million dollar project.  Hemminger appeared on this afternoon’s edition of CNBC’s Power Lunch.

The 180-mile fiber optic network now two-thirds complete is expected to be finished by year’s end.  Hospitals and schools are already leasing capacity on the fiber ring.

Axcess Ontario doesn’t actually provide broadband service to businesses and consumers itself.  Instead it leases capacity to all-comers, inviting them to use the fiber ring to enhance their broadband infrastructure.  The company doesn’t provide residential service, for example, but it could enhance another provider’s ability to deliver service.  Right now, the county is contemplating a wireless Internet service for consumers, if they can find a provider.  Frontier Communications could be a likely contender, considering it already provides a Wi-Fi service in downtown Rochester and in portions of suburban towns like Brighton, Pittsford, and Greece.

Hemminger

Ontario County is one of the bright spots in western and central New York’s difficult economy.  Both residential and business growth continues, despite the recession, particularly in communities like Canandaigua, Victor and Geneva.  Having a state-of-the-art fiber ring enhances the area’s ability to attract new businesses and jobs to the Finger Lakes region, often better known for tourism.  At least that is the plan.

“Honestly every company is an Internet company because they all have to use the Internet,” Hemminger claims.

Having the county build the network was the only prospect for getting it done.

“We can have a Return on Investment of 25 years, while the private sector has to recoup its costs in three to four years,” Hemminger says.

Thanks to Stop the Cap! reader Jeff for sending word.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/CNBC Making Broadband Accessible 6-10.10.flv[/flv]

Ed Hemminger discusses the Axcess Ontario fiber ring project in Ontario County, N.Y., on today’s edition of Power Lunch on CNBC.  (2 minutes)

AT&T is having trouble meeting the wireless needs of its customers in major cities like New York and San Francisco, so it is experimenting with free Wi-Fi connections in particularly crowded parts of its service area.

AT&T’s Wi-Fi “hotzone” launched Tuesday in Times Square.  The service has been installed near 7th Avenue between 45th and 47th street, and is designed for outdoor users.  Any AT&T customer can connect to the service with any Wi-Fi capable device.

AT&T has been promoting free use of its indoor Wi-Fi connections for customers for well over a year because it helps reduce demand on its 3G mobile broadband network.  Developing outdoor hotzones in densely populated cities like New York could offload considerably more traffic from congested 3G cell sites.

The company hopes that free Wi-Fi will prove more attractive to customers than 3G because it can deliver faster speed connections and won’t suffer from slowdowns that have become all too common on the company’s 3G network.

If the experiment proves successful, AT&T will consider expanding it to other cities where the company faces congestion issues.

AT&T's Hotzone in Times Square covers a narrow outdoor area bordering W. 45th Street and W. 47th Street near 7th Avenue.

Verizon, like AT&T, is seeking to eventually make the printed White Pages telephone directory a thing of the past.

Last Friday, the company appealed to the New York State Public Service Commission to cease automatic delivery of the directory to residents in New York State.  It is the first among 40 phone companies serving New York to do so.

Verizon cites a Gallup study that suggests only 11 percent of households still use the printed White Pages, with the rest going online or using directory assistance to obtain listings.

New York State telecommunications law requires that all phone companies provide a free set of telephone directories to every subscriber in the state.  While phone companies earn millions from Yellow Pages advertising (which is why Verizon is not seeking to stop automatic delivery of those books), they technically lose money on residential listings found in the White Pages.

Verizon claims New York White Pages consume more than 5,000 tons of paper per year and that they are unwanted by many customers.

What the company does not say is that consumers can already request that automatic delivery of telephone directories be stopped.  Few consumers select to opt-out of directory delivery, however.

Verizon, like AT&T, proposes an opt-in system where a copy of the White Pages will only be dropped on New York doorsteps if a subscriber specifically requests one.  It will also be available on a CD-ROM or online.

Verizon is so confident of its forthcoming success with the Commission, it even included pre-written press releases in its filing announcing the imminent demise of the printed listings.

The prospect of the end of the New York White Pages made news in some pages of a different kind — in the New York Times:

In its petition to regulators, Verizon is emphasizing the environmental benefits of the move. Most of the cost savings would be realized by SuperMedia, the publisher of the directories, which once was a division of Verizon but is now a separate company.

Scott W. Klein, the chief executive of SuperMedia, which is based in Dallas, declined to say how many directories his company estimated it would still deliver in New York if distribution was no longer mandatory — or how much it would save. But, he added, “We’re not talking about millions and millions of dollars.”

SuperMedia would continue to print and distribute the real money-maker, the Yellow Pages, which charges businesses that want prominent display, and the business White Pages, which also generate revenue from display advertising, he said. Those directories would include listings for government offices.

Verizon’s proposal reflects technological progress and a new way of thinking in the telecommunications industry, Mr. Klein said.

Not long ago, he said, the industry’s attitude was, “By gosh, we’re going to deliver this book to you whether you want it or not.” Even if the Public Service Commission rejects Verizon’s proposal, New Yorkers who do not want the White Pages can notify the company that they want delivery halted.

“We made a conscious decision to make it easy for people to not get the book,” Mr. Klein said. “We only want to create and provide products that people want to use.”

Of course, the one group that never realizes any savings from an end to telephone book distribution are individual ratepayers.

Verizon has a similar request before telecom regulators in New Jersey.

[flv]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WICZ Binghamton No More White Pages in New York 5-10-10.flv[/flv]

WICZ-TV News in Binghamton was among several TV newscasts telling viewers across the state that the White Pages may be an endangered species.  (1 minute)