Jerry and Plainfield cable subscribers. What's wrong with this picture?

What's wrong with this picture?

Plainfield 'cable' subscribers appear about to get the shock of their lives, if a bill passed by the Assembly yesterday is also OK'ed by the Senate, as seems likely.

And what have you heard from Assemblyman Jerry Green about this? Nada.

I say 'cable' in quote marks because the bill will impact not only traditional COMCAST cable subscribers, but also VERIZON customers, as well as LANDLINE PHONE COMPANY customers (see NJ Spotlight coverage here, and Ledger coverage here).

The bill, which passed the Assembly 66-7 with 4 abstentions and three not present, will relieve Plainfield and NJ subscribers of the following consumer protections --

• OUTAGES: Credit to consumers for outages over four hours would be abolished;
• BILLING ERRORS: Law requiring correction of billing errors is lifted;
• DISCRIMINATION: Law ensuring against discrimination or refusal of service is lifted;
• SLAMMING: The prohibition against switching a consumer's phone company without permission would be lifted;
• RATES: Cable and phone companies would be free to raise rates on basic services at will (they must currently be approved by the BPU).

The state's Ratepayer Advocate, who opposes the legislation, holds that 3 million households with basic cable and 1.4 million with basic phone service (local area and emergency calls only) will be left to the tender mercies of the telecom companies (see here statement here, in PDF; and video of an NJN interview here).

And there's a special kicker for MUNICIPALITIES: telecom companies would no longer be MANDATED to provide PUBLIC ACCESS CHANNELS, such as our Comcast and Verizon ones, to local communities.

I don't know if Assemblyman Green voted FOR the measure (the roll call wasn't posted yet when I looked online; see the bill here). If he did, he owes his constituents a full explanation of his support for killing these consumer protections; if he didn't support the bill, why hasn't he been crowing from the rooftops?

Approval by the Senate is the last step to the stripping of these consumer protections.

Here is contact information for the 22nd District's legislative team --

• Sen. Nick Scutari
  1514 E. Saint Georges Ave., 2nd Floor, Linden, NJ 07036
  Phone: (908) 587-0404
  Fax: (908) 587-9312
  
  
• Assemblyman Jerry Green
  17 Watchung Ave., Plainfield, NJ 07060
  Phone: (908) 561-5757
  
  
• Assemblywoman Linda Stender
  1801 East Second St., 2nd Floor, Scotch Plains, NJ 07076
  Phone: (908) 668-1900
  Fax: (908) 668-9962
  

---

• Legislature:  "A3766: Marketing competition and consumer choice act"
• Ratepayer Advocate:  "Statement on S2664" | "YouTube: NJN Interview"
  
• LNJ Spotlight:  "Legislature looks to deregulate telecom, cable companies"
• Ledger --
• 2/17/2011:  "NJ Assembly passes bill to deregulate telecomm industry"
• 1/31/2011:  "NJ Senate panel clears bill decreasing telecom regulation"
  

-- Dan Damon [follow]

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Comcast heals itself. A Plainfield miracle?

My Comcast email appears to have healed itself. Is this a Plainfield miracle, or something else?

As a child growing up not far from the Spiritualist community of Lily Dale, I recall the hubbub when one of the mediums reported an image of the Virgin Mary had miraculously appeared on the tile wall of a bathtub surround.

My mother, profoundly skeptical of such goings-on, was scathing towards her best girlfriend Ruth's gullibility. Ruth was Lily Dale's phone operator, with the switchboard located in her upstairs bedroom, and she was on call 24 hours a day. Mother thought Ruth, though no Spiritualist, was influenced by her medium neighbors, whom Mother regarded as crackpots.

I wonder what Mother would think of my recent experiences with Comcast and my emails.

On April 28, just as Plainfield's Democratic primary campaign was going into full swing, my daily outgoing CLIPS emails disappeared into the ether. Maybe it was into the ectoplasm. At any rate, they were gone.

Though I got no indication they weren't sent, I began to get inquiries from readers asking why they hadn't received their emails.

I have had problems with Comcast on and off over the daily volume, which bumped along near the max they allow for any one customer. Traffic was usually restored within 24 hours after I emailed their spam management center that I was not sending spam, but emails requested by subscribers.

Not so this time.

The emails were simply gone, though they showed up in my 'Sent' folder.

Comcast service people assured me that they were not blocking my emails, and suggested it must be my email program (Mozilla's Thunderbird).

This is an old customer service technique perfected by Microsoft (the problem is not with us, it's with you), but I wasn't buying it. The Mozilla software had run impeccably for years and there had been no recent updates or reason to believe anything had changed with the software.

The experience was a kick in the butt to finally get everything moved off Comcast, which I had threatened before to do but had always forgotten about once the issue eased.

Not so this time.

I moved to my Gmail account and began moving the subscriptions over to Google's automated email delivery. (Gentle nudge: Some of you need to complete the second step in the process.)

But at the same time (belt-and-suspenders guy that I am), I kept sending a daily email to myself in the hopes that Comcast would self-heal. Which is exactly what happened day before yesterday.

On Sunday, my email to myself went through and showed up in my Inbox.

Tempting the Fates, I tested by sending to some of the email groups manually yesterday and asking for confirmation of receipt. Nearly 50 readers confirmed -- thank you! -- and I believed I had witnessed a miracle.

Then I remembered my mother and the bathtub Madonna, and I could just hear her voice in my head: 'You dope! Your email is back because the election is over. Forget about this miracle stuff!'

Mother always was good with advice.

---

-- Dan Damon

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Will Comcast charge for Plainfield channel?

Comcast subscribers in the Plainfields are facing big changes come July 28.

Those who have survived this week's transition from analog to digital TV broadcasting may wonder why they are now facing losing 14 cable channels (see story here).

But wait! All is not lost!

The installation of ANOTHER set-top box will allow subscribers to view the channels from Comcast's 'basic' package that are being switched to Comcast's 'World of More' initiative (O Orwell, you died too soon!).

The set-top box is free (or $18 if you want it installed) says Comcast, according to the story in today's Ledger.

Two questions go unanswered --

1. Will you continue getting the channels AT NO EXTRA CHARGE forever?
2. Will you lose Plainfield's public access channel, PCTV 74?

According to a report aired on NPR earlier this week (see here), some cable companies are giving folks free access to their lost channels via the new set-top box FOR ONE YEAR, after which they will be asked to pony up $3 to $10 per month for the missing channels.

This might give the Cable TV Advisory Committee something to look into when they meet Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, what do you think of possibly paying $10 a month to see delayed tapes of Council meetings and photo opps for the Mayor?

Maybe you'd rather take in a movie?

---

• Ledger: "Comcast to switch 14 analog channels to digital"
• NPR: "Cable Users Could Lose Channels With Digital Switch"

-- Dan Damon

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Raritan Valley Line WiFi hotspots: What's your mileage?

With about 900 Plainfielders using the main and Netherwood stations of the Raritan Valley Line on a daily basis, I am curious for feedback on the Comcast WiFi connection noted in a story in today's Ledger (see here) and earlier in eWeek magazine (see here).

Feeling the pinch from Verizon's FIOS rollout, Comcast and Cablevision are looking for a way to retain customers -- at least that's the 'hook' for today's story.

It is also said to be FREE, though that should be qualified by noting you will have to log on with your Comcast username and password -- so guess what? It's FREE if you're already shelling out to Comcast.

But that's a minor catch, as connectivity vendor Devicescape finds in a new survey (see here) that 91% of commuters EXPECT WiFi, and are willing to pay for it.

Comcast is said to have rolled out the test in January, and may use the results as a gauge to whether to roll it out on a national basis.

So, here are my questions --

• Are you aware of this WiFi test by Comcast?
• How and when did you find out about it?
• Is it available at Plainfield's two stations?
• Have you tried the WiFi access with your cellphone or laptop?
• How would you rate the service?

The story also notes that the service is available at the STATIONS ONLY, NOT ON THE TRAINS.

Which leads naturally to the next question: When will WiFi be available on commuter cars of the Raritan Valley Line as it is on some other railroads per the image below?

P.S. For those annoyed by their Comcast bills, be aware that you can negotiate a reduction in line with Verizon's FIOS fee by telling the customer service rep you are looking into FIOS and asking what Comcast can do to meet Verizon's prices. You will be pleasantly surprised.

---

• Ledger: "Comcast turns to WiFi in effort to retain customers"
• eWeek: "Comcast Providing Free Wi-Fi to NJ Commuters"
• Devicescape: "WiFi comes of age"
  

-- Dan Damon

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