[Hidden-tech] Charter... it is as bad as you all said

[Davyn McGuire]

Hi Jason - I sent this question along to Mayor Mike - Here was his response:

Hi Davyn,

Thanks for the information. I'm the contact for the television license and
for any company that would like to provide cable television service in
Easthampton. Here's a concise reply if you wish to post it back to the
group;

Federal law provides for open competition among cable television service
providers. That means that if any cable television service provider wishes
to provide television service in any community, anywhere in the nation, they
are free to do so by simply applying for a license. The provision of
broadband service is not regulated and any internet service provider may do
business in any community (including Easthampton) without applying for a
license from that community. Comcast (or any other provider) would be
welcome in Easthampton if they wanted to do business here. The real problem
is, in my opinion, that Comcast and other providers don't want to compete
for the limited business they may get because it's not profitable enough for
them to do so. There is a significant amount of dark fiber running through
Easthampton (Route 10 & 141) right now and access is available to any ISP
who wants to do business. In addition, the Massachusetts Broadband
Initiative will provide even more dark fiber capacity in the 413 area over
the next 18 to 24 months. There are no governmental barriers for real
competition, only private businesses that don't want to, or can not
effectively, compete in the marketplace.

Mike
miket at mayormike.net


On 11/3/10 9:46 AM, "Jason Miranda" <jason at sampw.com> wrote:

>    ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>    ** If you did, we all thank you.
> 
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> Wanted to check in with anyone here in the Easthampton area who has Charter
> Business Internet. We've been experiencing sporadic outages over the last 48
> hours. Can't get any answers from Charter other than they are aware of a
> problem with a node in our area, are working on it, but cannot give an ETA.
> 
> I've had Charter Business for about 3 mos. I thought paying for the
> business-quality rather than residential would get me better service, but the
> quality of the service and the customer service has been very low. To the
> point that my opinion is that Charter's regard for its business customers is
> as low as the quality of its service.
> 
> We connect to another business network via VPN here and we've experienced
> brief outages or hiccups during a typical business day that the VPN connection
> breaks about 5­10 times.
> 
> I'm wondering if Easthampton would consider allowing Comcast to offer service
> in the area. Is there a committee through City Hall that deals with these
> negotiates these relationships? I read Easthampton's masterplan for the city
> when we were going through the home buying process. I was impressed with the
> vision, but It seems like if they want to fulfill the goals outlined there
> they need to be an attractive place to live and work for telecommuters and
> people working from home offices. Based on the terrible service I've
> experienced with Charter, it doesn't seem to methat they are is the partner to
> help Easthampton achieve its long-term goals.
> 
> Thanks,
> Jason
> 
> 
> Jason Miranda
> Spoke & Wheel | www.sampw.com
> publishing and media services
> (ph) 413.203.1123
> (fax) 617.206.9516
> 
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