It is time for this community to investigate the possibility of owning and operating our own cable television facility. As any subscriber to cable knows, the costs are skyrocketing with no end in sight.
Approaching an endeavor such as this is not groundbreaking, there are many communities that have done this across the country; we could contact several who have done this to get a better understanding of how to begin and what is involved. The city could make a profit and the residents could get some relief from out of control costs.
Anytime you offer what amounts to a monopoly to someone like our current provider you are opening yourself up to abuse, My comments are not necessarily directed towards Mediacom but rather to whomever happen to be the franchisee. Our current provider gives us great service and provides a good product….but they are increasing costs at a rapid rate.
If you look at their promotional offerings the cost is deeply different (less) than current users are being billed. I can understand what promotions are as well as the next guy, but what I am saying here is that if they can open the doors to these drastic price cuts to attract new subscribers; what are they offering to those who have remained loyal customers and have paid their bills on time year after year, after year? The answer is nothing. This is unconscionable; instead of or at the same time when offering these deep price cuts to new subscribers to sign on for the ninety day promotional price; why not offer a locked in offer to those who have stayed with their company for long periods. They could offer discounts in five year segments running up to a twenty year fixed rate that would be locked in for life. It could run some thing like the social security program where the younger workers are paying in to support those who are retired. In this case the new subscribers would pay the standard rate at the onset and the longer they remained loyal subscribers the lower their rate would become until they reached the twenty year mark where it would remain fixed. This incentive nurtures loyalty and discourages subscribers from switching providers; it is in effect an investment in those who are your core base.
We are now seeing up to three year fixed rates being offered by century link, this has never been done before….maybe it’s a crack in the wall of monopoly.
Peter Children
