hdman
Flt Rider
Premium
join:2003-11-25
Appleton, WI
 ·Alltel Axess
 ·AT&T Midwest
 ·WildBlue
| Sounds like my story
I am a local official in my area, and the previous Town Board signed agreements with a small cable operator who was bought by a medium company, then by Charter. The contract gave Charte the rights to the Town, but no realistic minimums for houses/mile that they HAD to run. I have cable at both ends of the road I live on, with about 2.5 miles in the middle that have the MAJORITY of the homes on it. I am about .3 miles from one end of the cable, and when I asked Charter how much it would cost to run it to my home, I was quoted TWENTY THOUSANS DOLLARS!!! Yep, thats $20,000 and they would have picked up 4 homes in that run.
It is a shame that municiple contracts like this are allowed. The contract comes due in 2008, and our attorney has made it clear that we can negotiate new terms unless done in Federal Court. Also, if we wanted to impose a tax on Charter so that we could fund future build out, Charter would add that to the fees the existing users pay. I would LOVE to see Time Warner move a few miles North and cover our area better than Charter. There is no rule or law that says I can't have 2 providers under contract but nobody seems willing to want to start that mess.....
I think the Cable industry as a whole needs to get slapped by the gov. for keeping so many people in the dark ages....
HDMan
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The proper way to break in a Harley: Grab a fist full of throttle, and ride it like you stole it!!! |
