Comcast

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Moran: Arlington an Example for the Nation — Rep. Jim Moran (D) says that Arlington’s transit-oriented growth sets an example for other communities to follow.  For communities currently lacking such infrastructure, Moran says that tax policy can be used to help entice developers to build near transit hubs. [WAMU]

Death Penalty May Be Dividing Line in Race — The death penalty may be a key difference between the two Democrats who are running for Commonwealth’s Attorney in Arlington. “The death penalty doesn’t have a place in a civilized society,” said one candidate, defense attorney David Deane, in a recent appearance. His opponent, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos, has previously said she supports capital punishment in certain circumstances. [Sun Gazette]

Public Access Idea for Comcast — In response to the news that the county is holding focus groups regarding the upcoming renewal of Comcast’s cable franchise in Arlington, one blogger has floated an idea for a different type of ‘public access’ channel. The idea: allow members of the general public to upload videos to a ‘staging server’ where they would be reviewed, screened for inappropriate content and then broadcast in rotation with other community-generated videos. [Ode Street Tribune]

County Asks: What Should We Get From Comcast?

By ARLnow.com

Every 10-15 years, the ‘franchise agreement’ that gives one company a virtual monopoly over cable TV service in Arlington is put up for review. The current agreement with Comcast is expiring in 2013, and the county is asking for citizen input into whether it should renew the company’s franchise, and under what conditions.

Right now, if you exclude fiber optic TV provider Verizon FiOS, Comcast is Arlington’s sole cable provider. Under its current franchise agreement, Comcast provides a number of guarantees, including customer service standards, regular system testing and maintenance, and free internet service for Arlington Public Schools. It also makes annual contributions to support the television channels run by the county government, county schools and by public access organization Arlington Independent Media. (About one percent of your cable bill goes to support AIM.)

Arlington, a lucrative market for cable operators, must now decide what to ask for as part of another 10-15 year agreement with Comcast. As part of that process, the county will be holding a number of focus groups that will discuss ways to improve cable service and while providing additional community benefits.

The focus groups will involve specific interest groups with a stake in the outcome of the franchise negotiations. A total of eight focus groups — each open to the general public — are planned for the month of June. Among them:

  • K-12 Schools, Teachers, Staff, Students, and Parents (June 16)
  • Local Government Agencies and Departments (June 20)
  • Emergency Services, Federal Agencies & Institutional Network (June 20)
  • Non Profit, Health and Human Service Organizations, Civic Societies and Groups (June 21)
  • Arts, Culture, Music and Heritage (June 21)
  • Churches and Faith-Based Organizations (June 22)
  • Neighborhood Organizations, County Board Commissions (June 22)
  • Higher Education, Healthcare Institutions, and Businesses (June 23)

“These focus groups… provide a chance for interested community members to learn about the franchise renewal and to share opinions about future services that could be available to our community through the Comcast cable system,” the county said in a press release. “The process of granting a new franchise to Comcast deserves serious consideration and public input.”

See more information on the meetings on the county’s web site. The focus groups will be conducted by The Buske Group, a consulting firm that’s assisting the county during the franchise renewal process.

Comcast Switches on HD Channels in Time For NCAA Tourney

By ARLnow.com

Update at 6:40 p.m. — Readers are reporting in the comments that the channels are not operational in all parts of the county.

Two days after we reported about a delay in Comcast’s plan to switch on additional HD channels for Arlington customers, the company has managed to get the promised channels up and running.

As of this morning, channels including CNBC HD, Comedy Central HD, BET HD and ESPNews HD were up and running. Also available was truTV HD, which is carrying a number of NCAA March Madness basketball games.

The new additions were made between channel numbers 800 and 900.

The channels were originally supposed to be available on March 15, according to a mailing sent to customers. After they missed the self-imposed deadline, Comcast told an Arlington County official that the channels were to be switched on no later than March 24.

Hat tip to @reidjoshua

Comcast Customers Will Have to Wait to Get More HD Channels

By ARLnow.com

Update on 3/18/11 — The channels are now available.

In a mailing that went out last month, Comcast told Arlington County customers that they would be getting “The World of More” — the company’s phrase for a slew of additional high-definition channels — on March 15.

Alas, that date has come and gone and the channels are nowhere to be seen. In fact, the only noticeable change in the past two weeks is that customers can no longer receive basic cable channels without a digital converter.

We’ve been unable to get in touch with Comcast’s PR department, but Arlington County Cable Administrator Rob Billingsley says the company has told him that it will be at least a week until the first batch of new HD channels reaches local television sets.

March 24 is now the date when channels including Comedy Central HD, BET HD and truTV HD will be switched on. The lack of truTV in HD will be a big disappointment for college basketball fans — the channel will be airing nearly a dozen NCAA March Madness games this week, including two first-round games tonight.

Other HD channels are now scheduled to come online on April 7. Those channels — including ESPNews HD, Fox Business HD and IFC HD — were originally promised on March 15, as well.

Update on 3/17/11 — A Comcast rep says all HD channels that were originally scheduled to come online on March 15 will be available no later than March 24.

According to Billingsley, the company said they were delayed in turning off the analog cable channels earlier this month. By making those channels digital-only, Comcast freed up bandwidth for the HD channels. However, no formal explanation was given for why the HD channels were still delayed.

The confusion comes at a time when Comcast’s cable monopoly in Arlington is up for review. The Comcast franchise expires on June 30, 2013, and over the weekend the county board approved a resolution that will start an official evaluation of the company’s performance.

Billingsley says the review will likely consist of public hearings and surveys that will look at Comcast’s technology, performance and customer service. Our informal poll of satisfaction with Comcast revealed strong negative opinions about the company.

Comcast Going All-Digital In Arlington, Will Add HD Channels

By ARLnow.com

Starting next month, Comcast will be expanding its HD channel selection in Arlington as it transitions to all-digital cable service.

Comcast recently mailed informational material to customers regarding the changes, and earlier notified the county’s Cable Television Policy and Administration office of its plans.

Starting on or about March 3, Comcast will stop transmitting most basic cable channels in analog. Instead, anybody who currently watches cable TV without using a set-top box or a CableCARD device (like TiVo) will need to get a digital adapter to see the channels. Comcast is offering up to two digital adapters free of charge, with each additional adapter priced at $1.99 per month.

The switch from analog will free up space for new HD channels. Comcast will offer about 50 new HD channels to Arlington customers, most of which will be included in the Digital Starter cable package. Many of the new channels will be rolled out on March 15, with a few other channels set to come on-line on April 12.

Comcast is in the midst of a nationwide transition to all-digital and Arlington is just the latest area to get the service, which the company has alternately dubbed “Xfinity” and “The World of More.”

Last month, an ARLnow.com poll of nearly 800 people indicated that many local residents are unhappy with the quality of Comcast’s service.

Robert Billingsley, Cable Administrator for Arlington County, said that anyone who has unresolved complaints about their cable service can instead contact his office at 703-228-3242. He said his office gets about 15 complaints about Comcast per month, compared to 7 to 8 complaints per month about Verizon FiOS.

See a list of the new HD channels, after the jump.

(more…)

Verizon and Comcast Reps Respond to Poll

By ARLnow.com

One thing Comcast and Verizon certainly excel at it knowing when people are writing about them on the internet.

In a poll we conducted yesterday, nearly three quarters of respondents rated their overall experience with Comcast “poor” or “very, very bad.” The comments section generally reflected the same sentiment.

In the article that accompanied the poll, we also mentioned Verizon’s FiOS service, saying that it helps protect consumers by giving them a viable alternative to cable.

Within just a few hours of the article being published, representatives from both Comcast and Verizon called and emailed us and left notes in the comments section.

Comcast, to their credit, was solely concerned with looking into the frustrating personal experiences with customer service that were mentioned in the article and in the comments. Kudos to them for that.

Verizon, unsurprisingly, appreciated our words of support for the continued expansion of FiOS service into local apartment and condo buildings.

Local Verizon sales manager Mark Harrington said he personally agreed that “any service provider, including Verizon, has been shown to be more responsive where there is the real option of being fired by our customers.” He shared the following information and advice for anyone who would like to get FiOS service in their community.

We’re trying to get to as much of Arlington as quickly as we can with our Verizon FiOS service. If you live in a condo or apartment building… I generally advise residents to make their voices heard with their board or property manager and have those people contact us.

We’ve reached out to every property we can and have successfully built out many at Verizon’s expense, but with others we have not yet, either because the owners have not yet granted permission, we haven’t been able to contact them, or in some cases we are still working on the fiber build to reach a few areas of Arlington.

Our website with more information for property owners is here…

http://communities.verizon.com/default.aspx?page=ownmulti

Morning Poll: Rate Your Experience With Comcast

By Scott Brodbeck

Last night I had my most horrid Comcast customer service experience to date, and that’s really saying something. I’ll spare the details, but suffice to say that it was an hour and a half of my all-too-rare free time that I’m not getting back.

It’s not so much that the Comcast customer service agents themselves are that bad, it’s just that the customer service system in which they operate seems to be designed with the sole purpose of minimizing cost at the expense of producing meaningful solutions to customers’ problems and complaints.

Comcast has a partial monopoly in Arlington. Sure, Verizon FiOS and satellite TV are available to single family homes and certain apartment buildings and condos. But for many apartment and condo-dwellers, Comcast is the only game in town. The only option for those folks in the event of an unresolved grievance is to either grin and bear it, cancel service and forgo cable and/or internet altogether, or complain to the county’s cable administration office and hope for the best.

Competition is a customer’s best friend — a point of leverage in disputes. With any luck, FiOS will continue making inroads and internet-based TV will continue evolving into a viable alternative. Until that time, however, Comcast will continue to exasperate and frustrate those for whom going without internet or cable television service is not an option.

Rate your Comcast experience below, and feel free to vent in the comments. Who knows, maybe someone in a regulatory position will be listening.


Jim Moran Gets His Own On Demand Channel, But Is It Fair?

By ARLnow.com

Today Rep. Jim Moran became the first member of congress to get his own On Demand channel.

Jim Moran On Demand is now available to thousands local Comcast, Cox and Via Media cable customers.  It will feature information and news programming, including in-depth, fireside chat-style policy discussions.

A preview of the channel’s slickly-produced videos is now up on YouTube.

To access the channel on Comcast, go to the On Demand menu, select “Searchlight,” then select “Inside the Beltway,” then “My Government” then “MiCongress.” The technology for the service is provided through a company called iConstituent.

“Given Northern Virginia’s mobile, fast-moving population, this is proactive way to supply information and reach out to new residents on an ongoing basis,” Moran said in a statement. “Now constituents can tune in any time of day to hear the latest on what’s happening in Congress and the community. I’m really excited about it and look forward to hearing people’s feedback.”

Not everybody thinks it’s a good thing, though. Virginia political blogger Ben Tribbett says the channel is “an absolutely horrible idea.”

“Incumbents already have plenty of advantages, without getting their own channel for propaganda on local cable TV,” writes Tribbett, a Democrat. “I understand why the cable companies would do this, to curry favor with incumbents, but it ought to be outlawed.”