[colug-432] Comcast and connectivity alternatives

[tom]

On 02/13/2014 07:20 PM, Rick Hornsby wrote:
> On Feb 13, 2014, at 18:22, Don <donohio53 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> My mother however has a whopping cable bill because she lives in a small town and only has ONE cable option.  Competition does help.  I negotiated for her with Time Warner Cable and they would not even budge on making a better deal for her.  At least with choice you can threaten to go elsewhere.  Too bad I cannot put up an outside antenna to get my local digital channels but in a condo that is forbidden.  And then there is the need for Internet.  Surely there has to be a better way someday?
> My hope is that the market pressure from Verizon FiOS, Google Fiber, Wide Open West, etc will put fear into the likes of Comcast (remember this lady? http://tinyurl.com/2vk37z) and Time Warner.  I fear this merger may set that back somewhat and provide those two some undeserved relief in the residential space, but the market will eventually find a way.
>
> A few years ago, 3G/4G service for your home Internet was insanely expensive and completely unthinkable.  Someone mentioned it on this thread as a possible option.  It certainly doesn’t fit everyone’s use case, but it does fill a need.
>
> There is nothing stopping someone from petitioning their condo board or other association from considering opening up the access to competitors.  Of course, an entrenched and exclusive player like Comcast will howl and cry and beg forgiveness and probably offer some sweet deal that leaves the customers will the same lousy service and same lousy customer service.  Aside from the inherent technical challenges, there is (generally) no law that says the condo board, owners, etc cannot form their own private ISP for their residents using a leased line from AT&T, Sprint, L3, etc.
>
> There are usually other options, but sometimes they are, at present, bandwidth, cost, or technically prohibitive.  Unfortunately, in too many association/condo type situations the board has signed a long-term contract that even after it has long expired has the effect of keeping other players out — because the original ISP owns the lines and it is too expensive and too risky for a Wide Open West to come in and run their own.  Partly the risk is the behemoth ISP swoops in and undercuts the smaller player who then loses their investment.  The residents, the customers have to be willing to stand up to a TWC and say no regardless of what “offer” is made to keep another player out.  You _might_ have to pay a little more.  When an alternative option exists, people have to decide if they’re willing to do that for intangibles like better customer service.
>
>
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Condo Restrictions and Neighborhood Deed restrictions on antennas may be 
illegal by federal law. There was a case where a neighborhood deed 
restriction on satellite antennas went down because broadcast and 
receiving antennas were under federal domain. I forget the details.

Tom