I recently wrote a letter to the Mayor of Goleta complaining about the monopoly that my ISP has over the city and the surrounding areas. I feel that it would be worthwhile to have competition, especially if it would use a different medium to provide the service. Currently, I access my internet content over cable-TV coaxial cable. There is sufficient noise and overload to consider moving to an all fiber-optic approach. There are several companies that offer that service, but not here. The response was that they were shut out of the competition for service supplier. Here is the letter that I received in return:
Dear Mr. Lapman:
Mayor Easton forwarded your below email to me and asked that I respond.I'm copying my response to our Administrative Services Director as well,as she may have additional and more specific information for you.
Nonetheless, based on my knowledge of the subject, let me provide a bit of background which may prove helpful.A number of years ago the Federal Communications Commission (FCC)strengthened the feds control over local cable television systems.
Similar to the federal regulation of telephone networks and cellular systems it was believed and determined that the entire country would best served by standard laws and regulations. While local jurisdictions like Goleta lost a good bit of local control, customers around the nation were guaranteed a certain level of service and migration to new technologies that may not have been achieved uniformly were it not for the FCC regulations. That is just a bit of context.
Cox does not have a monopoly with the City. We could indeed entertain other competitive franchises with other providers or could even provide the service ourselves. But there is a hitch. Cox owners the delivery system and is not required to share it. As a result, there would have to be a very large incentive for another company to invest millions and millions of dollars in infrastructure costs and then attempt to underbid the competition in order to get enough subscribers to make their investment worthwhile. I suspect that rarely happens, especially not in
these economic times. What provides the greatest competition for Cox,however, is the satellite system that Direct TV offers. Similarly, the internet, wireless systems, and streaming video is opening up new avenues for customers to choose from.
Our Administrative Services Director, Michelle Greene, may be able to provide facts about local rates over the past 10 years, but you should know that rates in Goleta have not risen that greatly, at least over the past 6 years that I'm aware of. The FCC limits how much say we have over rates, but we have been active in trying to hold Cox accountable and have them maintain competitive rates while continuing to expand and improve service levels.
I hope this information helps in some way. Please feel free to contact our offices if you would like to speak with Michelle further about this subject or receive a copy of our franchise agreement with Cox Cable.
Sincerely,
Dan Singer
City Manager
City of Goleta
It is obvious to me, after reading this letter, that no company will EVER come in to compete with Cox. It is a lost cause.... There also doesn't appear to be any INCENTIVE from the local government to stimulate some competition. One must also keep in mind that it is not only the content for which we pay, but the poor service. Cox also has no incentive to perform better or cheaper! My response the the city manager:
Thank you Mr. Singer.
Please let me remind you, though, that even though there is no incentive (without major investment) for an additional company to try to compete with Cox; there is also NO incentive for Cox to perform or offer better than they currently do (which is poor, by any measure).
You speak of streaming video, of which I have recently attempted in order to replace my Cable TV with, except the ONLY internet service provider that offers enough bandwidth and speed is also Cox. I have found that most of the time their service is not reliable enough to watch a two hour streamed video without interruption.
Please reconsider your (the city's) stand and encourage other companies to compete, whether by WiFi or fiber-optic or other means to rein in the poor performance and higher prices that we get from Cox. If you had the means and/or desire to poll the community, I would bet that half or more of the Cox subscribers would drop them cold, given the chance with another supplier.
Sincerely,
I'm not sure where this is going, but I don't think I have anything to lose. It sure does add to my frustration level, though.
I'm looking forward to some heavy competition between the bat chain pullers in Iowa tonight, too!
Definition of a gun collector:
You may have heard on the news about a southern California man that was placed under 72-hour psychiatric observation when it was found he owned 100 guns and allegedly had an estimated 1-million rounds of ammunition stored in his home. His house also had a secret escape tunnel. My favorite quote from the television reporter was, "Wow! He has about a million machine gun bullets." The headline referred to it as a "massive weapons cache”. By Southern California standards, the man was assumed to be "mentally unstable." However, if the same guy lived...
In Arizona, he'd be called "an avid gun collector”.
In Arkansas, he'd be called "a novice gun collector".
In Utah, he'd be called "moderately well prepared", but they'd probably reserve judgment until they made sure that he had a corresponding quantity of stored food.
In Montana, he'd be called, "The neighborhood Go-To guy".
In Idaho, he'd be called, "a likely gubernatorial candidate".
In Wyoming, he'd be called, "an eligible bachelor".
And, in Texas,he’d be called, “a deer hunting buddy”.
No comments:
Post a Comment