Wednesday, August 25, 2010
 
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Comcast hears issues at town hall meeting

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[August 25, 2010]  Tuesday evening the doors of the Lincoln City Council chamber opened at 6 p.m. for a public meeting regarding services offered to the citizens of Lincoln by Comcast.

Approximately 10 people showed up for the meeting and only five of those spoke: local businessman Eric Notto of Notto Technologies and Consultants, residents Sandy Johnson and Charles Anderson, CITV-5 representative Celeste Rogers, and Comcast representative Libby Stehn.

Notto was the first to speak, saying that when he opened his business at 503 Woodlawn, he initially went with Verizon for phone service. However, he soon became dissatisfied with the cost of the service and looked into doing a bundle of services from Comcast that included phone lines as well as Internet.

His experience with Comcast has been quite positive, and he said he was very well pleased with the cost compared to Verizon.

Notto also read letters from Midwest Records Storage and Heritage Packaging that again praised Comcast for their services to their businesses.

When Celeste Rogers took the podium, she spoke about the unused channels that are seemingly available for more public access television. She said that in the lower 100 channels, there are 31 going unused, and that is an opportunity for more public access.

As she spoke about this, questions came from the council regarding CITV-5's use of the local origination channel.

It was asked what amount of time was available on Channel 5 for public access, and according to Rogers, the majority of the prime daytime and evening hours are under contract to CITV-5. Rogers said that right now the time slots that would be available are during the midnight hours: late night to early morning.

Mayor Keith Snyder asked specifically what the proper mix of local origination and public access would be on that channel, and Rogers responded that she really didn't know that there was any established proper mix.

Rogers did promote the idea that there needs to be more airing of city council activities, such as the Tuesday night workshop meetings, and she said that the contract between CITV-5 and Comcast could be discussed to see if those items could be added as public access.

As the evening progressed, several subjects were addressed, including the inability to get through to customer service via the company's 800 number.

Alderwomen Joni Tibbs and Melody Anderson both commented about the difficulty in reaching customer service. Anderson referred to going through "16 different phone trees, getting a different person each time they called and a different story from each person talked to." She said that this was a complaint she had heard from her constituents.

She added that she had also been told that those who take the time to travel to the local office get better responses and more help with their problems. The problem there, though, is that some people can't go to that office, and it appears they can't call there.

It was also mentioned later that in many cases, even though the local office is willing to help, they too have to go through corporate to get a service call logged.

When local resident Sandy Johnson spoke about Comcast, she too expressed a desire to see more of the city council meetings aired, as well as county board meetings.

It later came out that CITV-5 used to air the county meetings, but they were not public access then. The meetings were provided through CITV-5 and paid for by various program sponsors.

Johnson also commented on repair work the company had done, saying that they had left a cable running on the ground across her back lawn for nearly a month before coming to bury it.

Her final comment addressed the cost of the service. She said that it was a concern to her as a senior citizen that rates are continually rising, making it less and less affordable for her to have the service at all.

Charles Anderson addressed another problem that he feels is prevalent for seniors, and that is the lack of proper education on how to deal with the new digital equipment that the company is switching to.

He said he felt like the installers could have spent more time showing him how to use the multifunctional remote control and coordinating how to get the TV and the digital boxes all to work.

Chuck Conzo, city treasurer, asked Anderson whether or not the instruction manual that came with the box and remote was helpful to him, and Anderson replied that he did not receive an instruction manual.

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When Stehn took the podium, she began by commenting on Comcast's community involvement, noting support the company has given to Community Action through Comcast Cares as well as to the public schools.

She said she had taken note of all the concerns of the council and the citizens, and she was going to address all of them.

Among other things, she said there was a possibility that Comcast might be able to offer a technology workshop for the senior community to help them understand the workings of the new digital systems.

When asked about the public access programming, she said it would have to be worked out with CITV-5, but that it was possible that the Tuesday night meetings could be aired. She said she would look into that, and Alderwoman Anderson asked when.

Anderson commented that Stehn had said in the past that it could be looked into and discussed, but it didn't happen. This time she wants a specific timeline.

When Rogers had spoken earlier in the evening, she said there were 31 channels not being used in the lower 100. Stehn was asked about that, and she indicated that even though the numbers weren't being used, the bandwidth of those 31 channels had been assigned to other places.

Alderman Tom O'Donohue then commented that what she was saying was that Channel 5 is the only one available, to which Stehn said that right now that is correct.

Anderson then asked if another channel could be made available for public access. Stehn said it was something that could be discussed, and O'Donohue asked for a timeline there as well.

Stehn said she would try to be in contact with the mayor within the next week or so.

Stehn also addressed the desire of the community to have a local service contact number. She said that for the company, 800 numbers were more cost-efficient. She said that while it might not be the best answer for the community, it was what the company felt worked best for the business. She added that she would provide each council member with her direct phone number, and anytime they or their constituents had a problem with the customer service department, they were to call her directly.

Other comments that came out during the meeting included problems with Internet outages and an inconsistency in the volume between channels and also between programs and commercials.

Stehn said that some of these problems were merely technical issues that needed to be addressed, especially in the problem with the volume. She added that she would report this and see if something can be done in the very near future.

In the end, Snyder went through a list of issues that that had come from the constituents, various letters that had been received and council members' comments and said that he would expect to hear back from Stehn on all the issues.

Snyder said specifically that he wanted a better answer in regard to having a local service number.

He commented: "I understand that it is better for your business, but these are our local citizens asking for that, and I think you can give us a better answer."

[By NILA SMITH]

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