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
Peter…we already have a “commission” looking into the city owning its own cable TEEWEE system…well at least they did for a while. I did hear the members were “miffed” because they had to buy their own “coffee”…maybe they have disbanded…they never really accomplished much anyway!!!
Figures
I dropped mediacom many years ago after there was a service interruption and nobody would answer the phone at media com. When I finally got ahold of someone I asked why I wasn’t entitled to a refund for the time I was out of service. They informed me they do not do that. I agree its time for the city to provide cable service it will be a better idea then the civic center and serve more people and cost a heck of alot less.
I dropped Mediacom after many years , high priced and unreliable.
I was having problems One technician was very nice and another chewed me out.
I am using Dish now but I keep wondering where is the fiber optic network?
Small towns and some rural people have it but in stone age Mason city it is a very slow process.
I pay about $30 a month for Century Link and then another $8 for Hulu. Way cheaper than a cable/internet package. I can watch all my favorite shows whenever I want. New episodes are usually put up almost the same day as well.
I think Mediacom wanted $50 just for internet…they were actually quite useless when I went in there asking about a price sheet or brochure. The lady at the desk just scribbled some numbers on some scratch paper and said that was it. One price. I though, “don’t you have more than one package available?”
But I figured I’d be better off going elsewhere if this is how they are right away. I was right.
I agree cable has gone crazy. I don’t have anything now but free TV. If you think cable is bad wait until bookmeyer brings up paying for our own garbage. I got rid of mine almost 6 months ago do I miss it? Yes, do I like having an extra 100.00 in my pocket priceless.
I switched to Dish Network and haven’t had much trouble. I pay about half of what I was paying with Mediacom. I looked into DirecTV but there wasn’t much for savings there. I’d much rather have cable than to have dish that sometimes performs poorly in weather situations but its not economically feasible for my pocketbook.
I agree with Peter. I’ve been a subscriber to mediacom since they’ve been here. Several years back, the city set up a panel/board of people to look into different cable providers, but i’ve never heard anything positive from them. Like alot of things, you never haer about things that will benefit the citizens of mason city. Sure would be nice if this would get the ball rolling.