[opendtv] How to bankrupt cable companies
- From: "John Willkie" <johnwillkie@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 12 Jun 2004 23:02:31 -0700
The house I grew up in has been connected to cable since 1967. I seem to
remember that the connection was upgraded in 1970 or so, but if not, the
same drop has been in use for almost 37 years.
RG-59, copper shield.
Up to a few years ago, I did not notice any degradation. The situation got
progressively worse -- although much of the problem was intermittent. Then,
last year, Cox Cable San Diego moved PAX (one of my mother's favorite
networks) from Channel 51 to channel 96. As a result, PAX ended up on a
channel that was basically unusable. In RF terms, TASO grade 5 or worse:
much more noise than signal. At best.
I called Cox to fix the situation last December. I didn't make plans to be
there when the tech arrived, and basically this loyal Cox Cable subscriber
who has paid them more than $16,000 over the years was given the little old
lady treatment. The tech put a new white cable in the room where she mostly
watches TV, and assured her that the signal was better and would improve
when "they" did some more work.
Two weeks ago, I visited and decided that the time was ripe for reading Cox
the riot act. In other words, I called them up and told them I was a TV
engineer, and that my mother was not getting the channel she wanted. I told
the representative (who looked up the previous visit) they would need to put
in a new drop, and if they didn't fix the problem with the next visit, I was
going to switch mom over to DirecTV, which would provide her with more
channels at the same or lower cost than Cox.
I made a point of being at her home when the tech visited. Apparently, the
guys had been assigned three home visits during the 7:30 to 9:00 am time
period allocated to mom. They first changed all the connectors on the house
side of the drop, then checked the signal levels and reported signal levels
were strong. So, they tuned in channel 96, and the signal was as useless as
usual.
The tech cussed. Somehow, it had not been communicated to them that a new
drop would probably have to be run, and they were going to be behind
schedule before realizing the scope of their task. But, they gladly ran the
new drop. The tech had never seen copper-braid RG-59 outside plant before.
They did a great job. When I checked the signal, there was no interference
from XETV 6 (more than 33 years of beating between the RF and cable signals,
and no interference on channel 3 between a Mexican LPTV on channel 3 -- a
channel used at that house only when there is ice skating on ESPN. 95 and
96 looked like we were watching large dish analog satellite signals.
The next step will be to get a refund from the cable company for (at least)
two unusable channels between December and June. My mother is a pious
Catholic (American Latina version) and she discovered a few months ago
Eternal Word Television Network, which she might also like to watch. Cox
Cable carried that network decades ago, when there were more available
channels in their system than there were good cable networks. DirecTV (at
least) also carries EWTN.
I started extrapolating this anecdote into the future, when -- cable
companies are starting to say -- there will be no analog cable. It seems to
me that cable firms will not be able to charge a premium for digital at that
point, and will still have to endure a transition when analog and digital
signals share the same circuits. No additional revenues, and at least one
truck roll per analog household to upgrade their drop to 800+ mhz cable (or
fiber?) Since rates for basic and extended basic cable are set by the FCC,
they are unlikely to permit cable companies to charge more for post-analog
digital cable. And, they'll have to drop the rates for digital cable to
current analog rates. Count on it: franchising authorities will insist on
the former, if not the latter.
I suspect that this hidden liability is larger than the amount of money
cable companies have spent to date updating their plants to digital and
two-way.
But, that isn't the explicit way to bankrupt cable. The explicit way is for
each analog cable subscriber to call up their cable company and complain
about any interference, and insist on a new drop from the cable company when
the first truck roll does not solve the problem. All the time, threatening
to drop the cable for the "dish."
It's called whipsawing.
The only way around the increased costs is to charge customers serious
installation rates for digital cable or cable modem. Which, at least in
this market, are proving hard to charge, since the installation charge for
digital is an impediment to new customers (and is not charged at the present
time) and cable modem service competes directly with DSL from the phone
company, which right now is available for $29.95 for each of the first six
months and with no installation charge.
Cable arrived in cities to save people from variable TV signals and became a
phenomenon when it provided much wider selection of channels than offered
over the air.
What happens when OTA TV offers signals as good or better than available via
analog cable?
John Willkie
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