AT&T unveiled it’s U-verse system Monday in the Triad region of North Carolina, hoping to poach customers from Time Warner Cable’s “triple play” package of phone, broadband, and cable service.

AT&T U-verse services, which are delivered over AT&T’s Internet Protocol (IP) hybrid fiber-copper network, offer an alternative to cable with a DVR that can record more programming than the competition, features and apps not available from the local cable company, and additional channels new to the region. AT&T U-verse can combine every AT&T service a customer subscribes to onto a single monthly bill.

The most popular Internet-only tier of service has somewhat anemic download speeds up to 6 Mbps for $43 a month — other packages range from $38 for 3 Mbps to $65 for 24 Mbps.

U-verse TV packages include “local-channel only” service for $19 a month (with a stinging $199 installation fee), to more than 390 channels for $112 a month, with a $29 activation fee.  Other packages include U-100 with 130 channels for $54 a month and U-200 with 230 channels for $67.  High definition channels, now numbering more than 130, cost $10 extra per month.  Want premium channels in HD?  That’s another $5 a month.

Like other providers, AT&T has tinkered with pricing to deliver the most savings to customers who bring all of their business to AT&T with a triple-play bundle subscription.

“Today’s expansion of AT&T U-verse reflects our commitment to make the investments necessary to bring consumers across the Piedmont Triad a new era of true video competition,” Cynthia Marshall, AT&T North Carolina president said in a statement. “Local residents have asked for more choices in television service and today we’re delivering.”

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/ATT U-verse introduction.flv[/flv]

Watch this comprehensive video from AT&T explaining the many types of services U-verse offers and helpful tips to prepare for service installation.  Then view an actual installation in a customer’s home who shows off the equipment.  Stop the Cap! recommends you let AT&T do all of the required wiring for you.  That’s why you are paying that installation fee!  (22 minutes)

But despite the company’s claims that competition will deliver lower prices for consumers, the evidence suggests otherwise.

AT&T credits a statewide video franchising bill passed in the North Carolina legislature for making U-verse possible in the state.  Company officials showed their thanks by inviting the two state legislators instrumental in shepherding AT&T’s agenda through the General Assembly to be on hand to take credit for introducing cable competition in the state.  They also publicly thanked them in their press release.

Seventeen term House Rep. Harold Brubaker (R-Randolph) congratulated AT&T for its accomplishments.  Brubaker received $4,000 in campaign contributions from AT&T in the first quarter of 2010.

The representative from Asheboro co-sponsored the 2006 Video Service Competition Act which stripped local oversight of cable operators and made AT&T’s entry into North Carolina effortless.  For other would-be competitors, especially municipalities seeking to build their own fiber networks, Brubaker has been far less helpful.  Most recently, he voted against an effort to bring broadband service to Caswell County in areas incumbent provider CenturyLink has ignored for years.

“Prior to the legislation, you had geographic areas where you operated in, so it kind of like took the walls down. The legislation took the walls down to allow for more direct competition for the consumer. Competition is great.  The consumer’s the one that benefits,” said Brubaker.  “AT&T’s presence in the market will very definitely save customers money.”

Rep. Alma Adams (D-Guilford), another co-sponsor, said AT&T’s arrival was exactly what she hoped for when she supported the legislation.

“As policymakers, our goal was to increase investment in North Carolina and give consumers more choices and innovative new services,” said Adams. “Today’s announcement makes that goal a reality for Triad residents.”

Adams added that AT&T U-verse also provided a safety valve for consumers who want an alternative to incumbent provider Time Warner Cable.

“Even if they like a particular company, they always like to know that there’s some other opportunities out there that they can look at as well, so they can do some comparing,” she said.

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Important Information about ATT U-Verse system.flv[/flv]

AT&T delivered more time and attention to North Carolina legislators at their launch event than they ever will on U-verse.  AT&T segregates Public Access, Educational, and Government channels on a single U-verse TV channel that makes for tedious viewing.  Watch this demonstration from the California Public Utilities Commission.  (4 minutes)

AT&T announced the service would initially be available in limited areas of Forsyth, Davidson, Guilford, Rockingham and Alamance counties, and we do mean “limited.”  Many Triad residents who checked to see if the service was available in their area found it was not.  In fact, AT&T refuses to disclose exactly how many customers in the region can actually sign up for the service.  We couldn’t find anyone who could order the service when it officially launched.

“There will be small pockets around most of the entire area,” Chuck Greene, AT&T’s regional director for the Piedmont Triad told the News-Record. “Once we complete the build-out, it will include parts of Davidson, Caswell and Randolph.”

AT&T lobbied hard to sweep away earlier provisions in local video franchises that committed providers to rapidly expand service to every possible customer in their respective service areas.  Under the Video Services Competition Act, AT&T can take its sweet time, perhaps for years before service becomes widely available across the region.  Some areas will never receive the service.

Time Warner Cable welcomed competition from AT&T U-verse.

“For a long time, Time Warner Cable has faced competition from satellite and dish providers,” Scott Pryzwansky, the company’s local public affairs manager, wrote to the News-Record. “We continue to invest in our network and remain committed to bring the best products and services to the Triad. We are confident we will maintain positive relationships with our customers.”

Time Warner Cable has little to fear from AT&T’s arrival.  Pryzwansky said Time Warner Cable has not lowered its pricing in any of the markets where it faces AT&T U-verse competition.  Both AT&T and Time Warner Cable have raised prices at least annually for their respective subscribers.  The only exception in North Carolina has been in Wilson, where municipal provider Greenlight has kept Time Warner Cable from increasing prices.

Stop the Cap! reader Sam in Greensboro thinks AT&T’s arrival is much ado about nothing.

“AT&T prices their U-verse service nearly the same or more as Time Warner Cable, especially after the introductory rate expires,” he says.  “Few people are going to be bothered switching back to Time Warner after the year is up, so they’ll be paying the same high prices for cable service to AT&T instead of the cable company — a distinction with no difference.”

Sam won’t bother with U-verse because he is disgusted with AT&T’s lobbying efforts to stop consumer broadband reform and Net Neutrality.

“It’s like dealing with the devil,” Sam writes.  “Why would I want to pay AT&T my money so they can turn around and spend it working against my interests as a consumer?”

The only good thing about U-verse’s arrival is that it may stall Time Warner Cable from trying another Internet Overcharging scheme in the area.

“Time Warner has to think twice about another usage cap and overlimit fee ‘experiment’ in the Triad if customers can simply flee to U-verse, although knowing AT&T they’d love to have the same rationing of the Internet they force on their wireless customers,” Sam said.

[flv width=”636″ height=”373″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/TWC Fights Back U-verse.flv[/flv]

Time Warner Cable maintains a sometimes-bizarre web campaign to convince customers not to switch to U-verse or satellite.  We’ve put together the various videos so you can watch them all at once.  (4 minutes)

Like Time Warner Cable, AT&T does not offer a-la-carte cable programming, either.  Customers can only choose from large packages of programming, not individual channels.

Triad area cable customers told local media they were tentatively glad U-verse is competing, but many are taking a wait and see approach as to whether they’ll actually see any savings.

WFMY News 2 spoke with cable customers today. One man said he feels like a “hostage” to his cable company because they have a monopoly on TV, Internet and phone bundles. A woman said cable and satellite companies drive her “crazy,” so she gave up and now simply rents movies.

“I am happy, but it’s hard times. I have three children. We live on one income,” Jamie Rettie, a Time Warner Cable customer told News 2. Whether she switches to AT&T or not, she’s said she’s hoping for a change in her bill.

“Hopefully they’ll keep competing against each another and have better and better prices for their services,” she said. “(I’ll) wait out my contract and we’ll see what happens.”

Some residents, like Thomas, are left picking the lesser of two evils:

“I don’t know who’s worse at their game, as Time Warner Cable and AT&T are both evil corporate entities that care only about their bottom line,” he writes. “Search the Internet and understand this service limits the amount of TV’s that can be used at one time.”

[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Greensboro Media Cover U-Verse Launch 9-13-10.flv[/flv]

Watch several news reports from Triad area TV stations about the introduction of AT&T U-verse.  In order, we include reports from WXII, WGHP, and WFMY-TV.  (7 minutes)

Although the price tag may be too rich for your blood, a municipally-owned utility today announced it was bringing America’s fastest broadband to residents and businesses in greater Chattanooga, Tenn., delivering 1 gigabit per second access for $350 a month.

That’s 200 times faster than what the average American broadband consumer receives, and just a fraction of what many Chattanooga area businesses pay other providers for that level of service

“One gigabit broadband service could be compared to the introduction of electric power in the 1930’s. At that time, most people saw electricity as an alternative to the oil lamp for producing light but the larger implications were soon realized,” said Harold DePriest, president and CEO of EPB. “We believe true high-speed Internet access, to both our urban and rural areas, will make Chattanooga the frontier of a new generation of opportunity and provide our community with a platform for engineering the 21st century.”

The mega-fast fiber-to-the-home broadband comes not from a multi-billion dollar private company like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, or Time Warner Cable, but rather a small city-owned utility that has served Chattanooga’s electricity needs since 1939.

Just over one year old, EPB Fiber Optics is the latest service from the city’s municipal utility. EPB’s fiber broadband network was built after overcoming legal actions filed to stop it by Comcast and the state’s cable lobbyist group.

Since launching service in 2009, EPB’s fiber division has won over 169,000 residents in its 600 square mile service area in Tennessee and northwest Georgia.  This despite the presence of Comcast and AT&T’s U-verse operations, both competing with EPB for customers.  Neither the cable or phone company comes close to matching the speeds and demand EPB has managed to achieve.  In fact, AT&T’s U-verse launch week event in July was marred when an AT&T technician pepper-sprayed a local woman’s pets, and she wasn’t even a customer.

Google acknowledged the arrival of another provider extending 1Gbps broadband to Americans, noting it is still in the process of selecting locations for its own “Think Big With a Gig” 1Gbps fiber service.

“We’re excited to see enthusiasm for ultra high-speed broadband,” spokesman Dan Martin said in an e-mail statement. “It’s clear that people across the country are hungry for better and faster Internet access.”  Chattanooga now joins Hong Kong and just a handful of other cities delivering gigabit broadband.

A broadband industry trade group funded by large telecommunications companies was left making excuses for EPB’s thunder-stealing announcement.

“I can’t imagine a for-profit company doing what they are doing in Chattanooga, because it’s so far ahead of where the market is,” Robert D. Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation told the New York Times.

Atkinson is closely involved with several industry backed front groups, including the Alliance for Public Technology (AT&T & Verizon) and the Internet Education Foundation (Comcast & Verizon).

The irony of a telecom industry group that supposedly celebrates broadband innovation downplaying today’s achievement by EPB was not lost on DePriest.

When the Times asked DePriest why EPB would offer such a high speed service, DePriest said, “The simple answer is because we can.”

EPB’s latest announcement throws down the gauntlet against the idea that broadband innovation comes only from large commercial telecom companies.  Phone and cable operators claim their record of innovation will be harmed if municipal providers like EPB are able to offer service, claiming “private investment will dry up.”

It’s the same argument they use for deregulation and minimal oversight.  Yet it was a municipally-owned provider that established a network far superior to what Comcast and AT&T have in Chattanooga, launched America’s first residential 150Mbps service, and today launched America’s first residential 1Gbps broadband service.  EPB charges lower everyday prices for its bundle of TV, phone, and broadband services, too.

The cost to taxpayers?  Nothing.

Local residents can’t wait to get the service.

Keith in Soddy Daisy, Tenn., commented about EPB service: “I’m still waiting on it to become available where I live. It’s getting close because I see them stringing fiber all over the place. The crazy thing is that there are people in their service footprint that only have dial-up. Can you imagine going from having dial-up to having 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber as an option?”

[flv width=”480″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/WTVC Chattanooga EPB 1GBPS 09-13-10.flv[/flv]

WTVC-TV in Chattanooga investigates EPB’s newest 1Gbps broadband service.  (1 minute)

A British financial analyst has issued a new report telling phone companies they should forget about fiber optic upgrades — copper-based DSL service is adequate for consumers and doesn’t bring shareholders fits over capital expenditures.

Analysys Mason’s Rupert Wood believes companies are at risk of overspending on fiber networks that deliver speeds he claims few consumers want.

“The vague promise of future services may appeal to some early FTTH adopters, but will become increasingly ineffective as a selling point unless the rate of innovation in devices and services that are uniquely suitable for FTTH gets some new impetus from vendors and service providers,” writes Wood. “The future cannot be simply plotted against increasing fixed-line bandwidth.”

Wood believes wireless 3G and 4G broadband is where innovation and demand is greatest.  It also just happens to be where the biggest money can be made.  Providers can charge premium prices for wireless services while limiting access.

For at-home Internet, Wood believes copper-based DSL is fine for most consumers.  Wood points to American providers offering super-high-speed broadband tiers that attracts few buyers as proof there is little interest in ultra-fast connections.  DSL is cheap to provide, he argues.  Fiber is just ‘too risky’ and Wood suggests it’s not as “future-proof” as wireless.

So what should providers do with their fiber networks?  Short of abandoning them altogether, Wood recommends operators pull back on fiber roll-outs and deploy them only for experimental purposes.

“Conditions vary between markets, but in general the business case to move much beyond trials just isn’t there and we are already beginning to see some scale-back,” explains Wood.

“Bandwidth demand for fixed broadband is converging with the bandwidth required to stream TV, and its rate of growth will slow down,” he adds. “DSL [technology] might not be able to meet these demands at some point in the future, but we believe that this point is still a long way off.”

If you want to read more, it will cost you €5500 to purchase a copy of “FTTx roll-out and capex in developed economies: forecasts 2010–2015.”

Our analysis comes for free.

Wood ignores the most important reason why Americans are not signing up for ultra-fast premium speed tiers in droves — the current “early adopter” price tag.  Few consumers are going to justify spending $99 a month or more for the highest speed connections.  When price cuts deliver faster service at incrementally higher pricing, perhaps $10-20 for each step up, there will be greater demand.  If America was not interested in higher speed networks, Google’s proposal to build a 1Gbps fiber to the home system would have passed by without notice.  Instead, more than 1,100 communities applied to be chosen for the project, including just about every American city.

Wood’s report primarily speaks to a European market, where the majority of broadband connections come through telephone company DSL or wireless.  In the United States, the cable industry heavily competes with phone companies for broadband customers.  That is much rarer in Europe.  Wood’s claim that consumers care little about speed is belied by marketing campaigns that put cable broadband’s speed advantage front and center, and they have the market share to justify it.

In North America, although Wood’s report may be music to phone companies’ ears, refusing to upgrade copper phone networks comes at their peril.  Americans and Canadians are disconnecting their landlines at an increasing rate, abandoning those that abandoned innovation long ago. Cable operators report many of their new broadband customers come from those disconnecting slower speed DSL service from copper-loving phone companies.

The future is clear — sticking with standard DSL over copper phone lines in competitive markets is a losing proposition unless phone companies begin slashing prices to become a value leader for those who want more savings than speed.

Verizon determined the best way to “future proof” its network was to deploy fiber straight to the home in many areas.  Verizon’s vision carries a price tag analysts like Wood and those on Wall Street don’t like because it challenges short term profits.  But with Americans increasingly saying goodbye to their landline providers, not upgrading networks to give customers a reason to stay is penny wise and pound foolish.

Frontier Communications CEO Maggie Wilderotter has bought a first class ticket to Fiber Fantasy Island, where phone companies dream of delivering fiber-optic broadband service without actually deploying fiber.  They just tell you they did.

In an interview published today in The Oregonian, Wilderotter tries to convince residents Frontier’s arrival is good news, making promises about broadband and service improvements based on a company track record an independent observer would conclude she simply made up.

If Wilderotter’s command of the facts about her own company are reflective of “a distinct, improved image in its new territories,” Oregon is in big trouble.

Let’s review:

CLAIM: “We deploy fiber to the home all across the country. We don’t call it FiOS. We call it high-speed Internet. For our customers, the technology doesn’t matter. What matters is access, speed and capacity.”

REALITY CHECK: Frontier, as far as we have been able to determine, has not deployed fiber to the home anywhere in the country, with the exception of the FiOS network it acquired from Verizon.  Frontier Communications’ deployment of fiber optics to the home is comparable to the amount of fiber found in a box of Cookie Crisp cereal.  In their largest market, Rochester, N.Y., Frontier relies on the same legacy copper wire phone network it utilizes everywhere else.  It is highly misleading for Wilderotter to represent otherwise.  Fiber to the home means exactly that — fiber optic cable brought right to the home.  This is not a case of “you call it corn, we call it maize.”

Fiber optic cable is not also known as “high-speed Internet,” just as the cute kitten on the left is not called an iguana.  For the significant number of customers who ask Frontier to disconnect their service year-after-year, technology matters very much, and this particular phone company lacks it.  Frontier relies on the same DSL technology other phone companies and customers increasingly consider yesterday’s news.

In many Frontier service areas, there is no access to broadband because line quality will not support the service.  In Brighton, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester less than a minute from the Rochester city line, Frontier could only manage to deliver 3.1Mbps DSL speeds, and until recently Frontier was crying it needed a 5GB usage allowance because of the threat higher amounts of consumption might have on its network capacity.  Access, speed, and capacity does matter, which is why Time Warner Cable is picking up the bulk of its new broadband subscribers at Frontier’s expense.

CLAIM: “For high-speed, it means having speed and capacity in addition to reach. We’ll do add-on services. We have a terrific Yahoo-Frontier portal that will be a gateway on our high-speed Internet service. We are in the throes of putting together Wi-Fi hotspots that will be distributed throughout this market for customers.  If you’re a high-speed Internet customer of ours it’s free. We’re looking to put one at Hillsboro Stadium. Typically, we put them in hotels, convention centers, truck stops, trailer parks, outside parks, campuses for colleges, shopping centers, business campuses.”

REALITY CHECK:  Those “add-on services,” such as Frontier’s Peace of Mind, come with a price tag and are often required components of a bundled service discount offer.  As first impressions go, a company still relying on Yahoo! for a front end is not exactly on the cutting edge, nor are “portals.”  It’s like trying to impress new customers with free web space through GeoCities.  Actually, that is something Frontier could offer because GeoCities is now owned by Yahoo!

Frontier’s Peace of Mind Services

• Hard Drive Backup: $4.99 per month
• Hard Drive Backup + Unlimited Technical Support: $9.99 per month
• Hard Drive Backup + Unlimited Technical Support + Inside Wire Maintenance: $12.99 per month
• $50 early cancellation penalty if you get these services with a term commitment

Rochester’s experience with Frontier Wi-Fi has not been very impressive.  Most residents don’t even know the service exists.  The city and several suburbs offer limited Frontier pay-walled Wi-Fi service and a handful of free access hotspots in cooperation with Monroe County.  Unfortunately, many of the fee-based and free hotspots have fallen into disrepair and no longer function.  Signal strength is not impressive either, and many were not usable indoors.  We tested several of the free hotspots and discovered one only delivered a signal into a suburban parking lot, another only into an empty soccer field, and the third was not functioning at all.  Frontier’s record in Wi-Fi delivered more promises than actual service.

Those Wi-Fi services, by the way, are not free for all Frontier broadband customers.  Evidently Ms. Wilderotter is not acquainted with her own company’s products and services, nor Frontier’s own website:

CLAIM: “We deliver the highest value for the price you pay. We also have excellent customer service. We also don’t raise our rates every 12 months, no matter what.”

REALITY CHECK:  In Rochester, the out-the-door price Frontier charges its broadband customers is actually higher than that charged by Time Warner Cable, which delivers far faster connections.  In West Virginia, the state’s Consumer Advocate put together a chart depicting Frontier’s broadband prices.  Determine for yourself if it delivers the “highest value for the price you pay.”

CLAIM: “If I look across the board at our basic service pricing, I don’t think we’ve raised prices anywhere in the last four or five years.”

REALITY CHECK: We looked and found Frontier demanding the right to increase basic service rates in New York by $2 a month each year for up to two years.  In fact, last November, the New York State Public Service Commission, at the request of Frontier, sent the company a letter authorizing a rate hike of $2 a month for customers in the state.  Even more enlightening was Frontier’s filing in August 2005 with the PSC demanding near-complete deregulation and rate relief allowing Frontier to raise rates up to $1 per month annually indefinitely for basic service.  Frontier also wanted consumer protection rules “relaxed” and ban the PSC from investigating consumer complaints.  One of the reasons they cited is that basic phone service is not the same critical service it used to be because people can communicate through blogs instead.

In fact, consumers should be asking why Frontier’s rates haven’t decreased.  From that same filing: “Frontier believes that with the decreasing costs and increasing bandwidths of new technologies and the acceleration of intermodal market entry, the market will cause rates for non-basic services in all parts of the State to decline.”

CLAIM: Local regulators tell me they did see a spike in billing complaints after Verizon took over. Any thoughts on why? — “Whenever there’s a change — you change the name on the bill, you change the format — customers tend to look at it more closely. We always expect a spike in billing calls whenever we’ve done acquisitions. It has already (settled out).”

REALITY CHECK: As Stop the Cap! has reported, Frontier’s takeover in West Virginia has hardly “settled out.”  Service interruptions, forgotten service calls, and other problems have plagued the state to the point the PSC needed new hearings to review the situation.  Many of Frontier’s billing complaints come from customers choosing to cancel Frontier service, only to find unjustified early termination fees added to their final bills, even when customers never agreed to a term contract.  That problem was so serious in New York, the state Attorney General fined the company and ordered customer refunds.  Changing a customer’s bill by adding $100 or more to the total amount due will always get a customer to look at the bill more closely.

CLAIM: “One of the big opportunities that we’re working on is the ability to display Internet content and video on the television set.”

REALITY CHECK: That “big opportunity” has been available to broadband users for several years now.

CLAIM: We also have a new site that’s called myfitv.com. We carry over 100,000 titles of free television content on this site. It’s a little bit like Hulu on steroids. It’s provided free of charge to all our customers.

REALITY CHECK: MyFitv is not “a little bit like Hulu on steroids.”  In fact, it is Hulu.  Frontier simply used Hulu’s “embed” feature to take content, slap the Frontier logo on it, and add Google ads in an attempt to rake in a few extra dollars.  You can do exactly the same thing yourself.  Meanwhile, the service is added to customer bills showing an amount of $0.00, a very inexpensive way to try and impress customers with content Frontier never developed, deployed, or created — just like their phantom fiber to the home network.

CLAIM: “We think over time the Internet will also provide different packaging, different prices, different ways to buy content than the traditional viewing platform. We also think that mobility is important. We want to make sure that whatever you do you’ll be able to take it with you.  The Sling technology is interesting, too. It’s something we’re talking about DISH Network with.”

REALITY CHECK: Every time Maggie has talked about “different packaging and prices,” it has been in the context of an Internet Overcharging scheme — limited usage allowances, extremely high rate increases for those deemed to have consumed too much, etc.  And yes, Sling technology is interesting.  A company conceived of the idea, built it, developed a marketing plan, and sold it.  That’s a concept Frontier needs to understand.  You cannot transform a legacy network with words alone.  Here’s an idea.  How about conceiving of a real fiber-to-the-home network, build one, develop a marketing plan, and then sell it.  For those in markets like Rochester, it’s the only way Frontier Communications will avoid becoming the horse and buggy carriage maker of the 21st century.

CLAIM: You’re around Seattle, around Portland, but not in them yet. Is there any possibility that Frontier would build into another company’s market? — “There’s always a possibility. It’s not a priority for us. And the reason why it’s not a priority is we’ve got a lot to do, just in the service areas that we own today. When I’m humming on all cylinders there, and I’ve been able to do everything I possibly can in those areas, then I might look to extend service areas out.”

REALITY CHECK: Translation — “when pigs fly.”  Frontier would be laughed out of the Seattle and Portland markets.

Ms. Wilderotter needs to be a lot more open and forthcoming with the press.  Frontier’s business plan makes it clear the company’s future is serving uncompetitive rural markets that will be forced to tolerate the products and pricing Frontier delivers.  Where competition exists, let’s face facts.  Frontier is not gaining market share — it is losing it, eroded away year after year by uncompetitive, substandard products at high prices.

That’s a reality you are bound to miss if you spend too much time with Mr. Rourke and Tattoo.

Advertisements for Road Runner Extreme, Time Warner Cable’s DOCSIS 3 “wideband” service, began running in Rochester, N.Y., this week despite the fact Time Warner Cable has no intention of providing the service in the area anytime soon.

The ad offers Road Runner subscribers the chance to obtain 30/5 Mbps service “for just $20 more per month” and invites viewers to “call now to order.”

So that’s what we did.

Time Warner Cable representatives in Buffalo confirmed the service is not available in Rochester, but figured if they were advertising it here it must be coming soon.  Even they were surprised with the answer they got ‘from upstairs’ when inquiring further.

“No, it’s not coming to Rochester anytime soon,” we were told.

We asked if there was any timetable to bring DOCSIS 3 upgrades to the area.  The response was both illuminating and candid:

“I wouldn’t hold your breath.  We’ve had some issues in the Rochester area and, for now, we feel comfortable offering the service only in the Buffalo area in western New York.”

When we asked why the company was now heavily advertising a product on Rochester TV screens that isn’t available here, we were told Time Warner Cable was increasingly consolidating its operations in western New York through its Buffalo office, which is where “most customer service” and “local advertising you see on cable channels” is now originating.  Since Road Runner Extreme is available in Buffalo, Rochester viewers are accidental witnesses to a service intended for residents of The City of Good Neighbors.

So what are “the issues” in the Rochester area?

Time Warner Cable bypassed Rochester for promised upgrades after the defeat of their proposed Internet Overcharging plan, which would have tripled broadband prices for an equivalent level of service.  Consumer outrage and political headaches combined to kill the experiment.

Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable isn’t compelled to hurry DOCSIS 3 into an area underserved by Frontier Communication’s slow speed DSL service.  Neighboring communities in Buffalo and Syracuse have access to Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home service FiOS, which has driven Time Warner to enhance services in both communities to avoid losing customers.

Despite the slow pace of upgrades, Time Warner Cable previously stated it intended to upgrade a significant number of its cable systems to DOCSIS 3 technology by the end of the year.  So it will eventually reach the area.  As Time Warner Cable recommends… just don’t hold your breath.

[flv width=”490″ height=”380″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Time Warner Cable at the NYS Fair.flv[/flv]

The closest residents of the Flower City will get to Road Runner Extreme is at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, at the Time Warner Cable booth.  (Their advertised ‘celebrity’ is Mike O’Malley.  Who???)  (1 minute)