 In recent weeks, Snyder received information from Comcast that would
impose a rate increase on local customers effective March 1.
He shared information with the council, saying the letter he had
received indicated there would be changes to certain services, but
the price list attached appeared to reflect those increases in every
service offered locally.
He said that upon receiving the letter he had contacted Stehn,
but she had been unavailable to meet with the council prior to the
increases taking effect.
On Monday, Snyder addressed a letter to Stehn reviewing some of
the recommendations and requests that had come out of a service
evaluation conducted by the council in August.
He pointed out in the letter that there are several requests that
to date have not been fully satisfied.
First on his list was the call for a local phone number for
customer service.
When this came up in August, Stehn said the company's call
centers were very effective in taking care of customer needs, and
establishing a local number to report outages was not
cost-effective, nor did it make good sense for her company.
In Snyder's letter, he argued that the call centers are not
effective and addressed the issue with his own personal experiences:
You stated in your
9/15/10 letter to me, "Comcast... has improved call center
operations by focusing on investing in larger, more technically
advanced facilities." You said you introduced "state-of-the-art
tools" in order to deliver "the best experience possible to our
customers."
Yet, we continue to
hear on a regular basis the difficulties that Lincoln subscribers
have in reaching an appropriate contact through your call centers in
order to resolve their problems.
I can note from
personal experience that these "improved call centers" were rendered
virtually useless during the recent Internet outage that affected
most of your Chicago region (to which you have assigned Lincoln).
I know that during
the course of that outage, the toll-free number provided by Comcast
resulted in busy signals for over three hours and no possibility of
ever reaching a live person during such outage. Is this "the best
possible experience for [your] customers"?
I also note that
Section 3-13-12 of our franchise agreement with Comcast (which is
entitled "local Office") requires your company to maintain a
"business office" (not a call center) "which customers may telephone
during regular business hours."
Snyder's letter also reminded Stehn of a commitment she had made
on behalf of Comcast that the service provider would work with CITV
5 to provide taping of all city council meetings.
Comcast has always provided coverage of the Monday night voting
meetings, but not the Tuesday workshops.
Stehn had said covering the Tuesday night meetings would have to
be done by CITV 5. Celeste Rogers of CITV 5 had also attended that
meeting, and she and Stehn made a verbal promise to the city to work
out an agreement for the taping.
Immediately after the August meeting, CITV 5 did record the
Tuesday night sessions and aired them on Wednesday nights, but the
commitment lasted only about a month.
Snyder in his letter asked Comcast to provide a means for
coverage of these meetings and reiterated the need for a true public
access channel in Lincoln.
In his letter he wrote the following:
At the Evaluation
Session in August you committed to filming, taping, and replaying
our 2nd and 4th Tuesday City Council Workshop meetings In addition
to taping and replaying our 1st and 3rd Monday City Council Voting
Meetings.
Consider this the
City's official request for that service from Comcast. We understand
from your comments at the Evaluation Session that the actual times
for airing these sessions are subject to negotiation with CITV.
Given your
statement that no time is currently available on CITV for Comcast to
air such meetings live or on tape delay, we take that as
acknowledgement that under 3-13-10(B) of your franchise agreement
with the City of Lincoln that "capacity" for the local origination
channel (channels) has been reached and that the addition of a
public access, educational access, and governmental access (PEG)
channel would necessitate "additional utilization."
[to top of second column] |
 The City of
Lincoln, therefore, requests that Comcast make available one
additional channel in the Lincoln market for PEG access in addition
to the local origination programming provided on channel S.
We note that this
request for an additional PEG channel is not out of line with other
area franchise agreements.
In Champaign-Urbana
there are four PEG channels: a government channel operated by
Champaign, a government and public access channel operated by
Urbana, a channel allocated to Parkland College, and a channel
operated by the University of Illinois. As a community with three
colleges, a second channel dedicated to PEG access in Lincoln does
not seem out of line in the least.
In order for the
new PEG channel to be adequately programmed, the City of Lincoln
requests that Comcast fund, build, and outfit a full digital
broadcast studio within facilities owned by Lincoln College to be
utilized by LC, Lincoln Christian University, Heartland Community
College, and Lincoln Community High School.
We would request
that the studio be outfitted with broadband (fiber optic) capability
and that resources be committed to provide: sufficient digital
camera, recording, and editing equipment for the studio; annual
training on all equipment and on technical production of
programming; and an annual grant to update studio equipment.
The studio and
equipment will be used to create programming for the new PEG channel
and to provide educational and training opportunities for the
students of LC, LCU, HCC, and LCHS.
Finally Snyder asked Comcast do one of two things: either drop
their opposition to Illinois
Senate Bill 108 or provide fiber optic services in Lincoln.
SB108 is an amendment to the Illinois Municipal Code that would
classify broadband and fiber optic Internet as a part of a city's
infrastructure. This provision would allow municipalities to use
non-home rule tax funding for the installation and implementation of
fiber optic services.
The amendment was introduced to lawmakers on Jan. 27 by Sen.
Larry Bomke on behalf of the city of Lincoln.
Snyder concluded his letter to Comcast with this issue:
We would encourage
Comcast to take one of two actions with regard to SB 108,
legislation sponsored by Senator Larry Bomke at the request of the
City of Lincoln. Either drop your opposition to the legislation or
provide fiber optic service to end users in Lincoln as quickly as
possible. Lincoln is not pursuing SB 108 as a competitive threat to
Comcast. We are doing so to improve connectivity and throughput for
our existing businesses and organizations and to make our community
more attractive to future business investment. As a community that
recently lost over 800 residents in the most recent census, it is
vital that we fully embrace ways to make our community more
attractive to both investment and prospective residents. Is Comcast
as committed to the future viability of the City of Lincoln as we
are? If so, I would ask you to drop your opposition to S8 108 or to
commit to fiber connectivity for Lincoln.
The Monday night meeting of the city council will begin at 7 p.m.
The public is reminded that all council meetings are open to the
public, and interested or concerned citizens are encouraged to
attend all council meetings and are invited to address the council
regarding their concerns.
[By NILA SMITH]
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