raj2001
03-27-03, 09:41 AM
http://www.marinij.com/Stories/0,1413,234~26641~1274766,00.html
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether Comcast Corp. is using an "unlawful tying arrangement" by hiking high-speed Internet access fees 33 percent for Marin and other Bay Area customers who don't also use Comcast's cable TV service.
Boxer, in a letter this week to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, said she had concerns that the rate increase "could
constitute a troubling threat to the burgeoning competition for cable TV service from satellite providers."
The Greenbrae senator's letter was in response to a March 19 article in the Independent Journal in which two Marin residents expressed outrage at the rate increase.
Since the IJ article, Boxer's office has received "a number" of complaints from constituents on the issue, her letter said.
Andrew Johnson, a Comcast spokesman, declined comment on Boxer's letter.
"We have a great deal of respect for Sen. Boxer, but we're not going to respond to her comments in the newspapers," Johnson said.
The FCC has received Boxer's letter and is reviewing it, according to an FCC spokeswoman.
Comcast's broadband Internet rate increase, effective April 1, jumps from $42.95 to $56.95 per month - but only for Comcast Internet subscribers who do not have Comcast cable TV service as well, according to a Comcast letter sent earlier this month to the affected Marin customers.
The letter said the customers could avoid the increase by purchasing Comcast basic cable TV services at a reduced rate of $5.99 per month for the first six months, after which time the rate increases to $16.95.
"I believe that the FCC should investigate whether this is an unlawful tying arrangement," Boxer said in her letter to Powell. "It appears that Comcast is using its leverage as the only provider of broadband Internet access in Marin to force customers to buy cable television service in order to avoid a 33 percent rate increase."
In the March 19 story, two Marin residents who use satellite television service along with their Comcast cable high speed Internet line said they felt the rate hike was unfair - one man called it "extortion" - because they had no other viable options except to pay the increased fee.
They said the other choices - a high-speed digital subscriber line through SBC, a satellite Internet line or dial-up Internet access through the telephone line - were not viable because they were either not available in their neighborhoods (DSL), too expensive (satellite) or too slow (dial-up). Cancelling their satellite TV service also was not an option because they'd paid months in advance, they said.
Rem Calvin of San Rafael, who does not have a TV but who still got a Comcast letter saying he must pay the rate hike, said this week he was so irate about it that he canceled his Comcast broadband service and instead signed up for telephone dial-up access and a second telephone line for Internet use.
"I cannot afford any increase in my cable Internet bill," said Calvin, who said he uses the Internet access as his only form of news, information and entertainment. "This is an absurd increase, and I feel like I am being punished for not having a TV and punished for not choosing (Comcast) cable TV service if I did have a television."
Comcast contends the move is simply a way to "reward our better customers who purchase multiple products," as Johnson said in the March 19 article. He said it is no different than if people are at a restaurant and they pay a higher price to buy a meal a la carte than they do off the dinner menu.
He added the number of people affected by the increase was very small, since most Comcast customers take multiple products.
Boxer, in her letter, warned Powell that the ideal of free competition between cable, phone, satellite and wireless broadband providers the FCC wanted to create "is not yet a reality in my state."
"A recent report by the California Public Utilities Commission shows that 18 percent of California cities only have cable modem service, while 34 percent only have DSL service," Boxer said. "That means that more than half of California cities are at the mercy of broadband providers who are the only service provider in those cities and can use that market position to force other services on consumers or price gouge."
Boxer added in the letter that she expected agencies like the FCC and PUC to "protect consumers from broadband monopolists" until the point where there were enough options to create free competition.
Comcast is the Philadelphia-based telecommunications company that merged Nov. 18 with AT&T Broadband.
U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., is asking the Federal Communications Commission to investigate whether Comcast Corp. is using an "unlawful tying arrangement" by hiking high-speed Internet access fees 33 percent for Marin and other Bay Area customers who don't also use Comcast's cable TV service.
Boxer, in a letter this week to FCC Chairman Michael Powell, said she had concerns that the rate increase "could
constitute a troubling threat to the burgeoning competition for cable TV service from satellite providers."
The Greenbrae senator's letter was in response to a March 19 article in the Independent Journal in which two Marin residents expressed outrage at the rate increase.
Since the IJ article, Boxer's office has received "a number" of complaints from constituents on the issue, her letter said.
Andrew Johnson, a Comcast spokesman, declined comment on Boxer's letter.
"We have a great deal of respect for Sen. Boxer, but we're not going to respond to her comments in the newspapers," Johnson said.
The FCC has received Boxer's letter and is reviewing it, according to an FCC spokeswoman.
Comcast's broadband Internet rate increase, effective April 1, jumps from $42.95 to $56.95 per month - but only for Comcast Internet subscribers who do not have Comcast cable TV service as well, according to a Comcast letter sent earlier this month to the affected Marin customers.
The letter said the customers could avoid the increase by purchasing Comcast basic cable TV services at a reduced rate of $5.99 per month for the first six months, after which time the rate increases to $16.95.
"I believe that the FCC should investigate whether this is an unlawful tying arrangement," Boxer said in her letter to Powell. "It appears that Comcast is using its leverage as the only provider of broadband Internet access in Marin to force customers to buy cable television service in order to avoid a 33 percent rate increase."
In the March 19 story, two Marin residents who use satellite television service along with their Comcast cable high speed Internet line said they felt the rate hike was unfair - one man called it "extortion" - because they had no other viable options except to pay the increased fee.
They said the other choices - a high-speed digital subscriber line through SBC, a satellite Internet line or dial-up Internet access through the telephone line - were not viable because they were either not available in their neighborhoods (DSL), too expensive (satellite) or too slow (dial-up). Cancelling their satellite TV service also was not an option because they'd paid months in advance, they said.
Rem Calvin of San Rafael, who does not have a TV but who still got a Comcast letter saying he must pay the rate hike, said this week he was so irate about it that he canceled his Comcast broadband service and instead signed up for telephone dial-up access and a second telephone line for Internet use.
"I cannot afford any increase in my cable Internet bill," said Calvin, who said he uses the Internet access as his only form of news, information and entertainment. "This is an absurd increase, and I feel like I am being punished for not having a TV and punished for not choosing (Comcast) cable TV service if I did have a television."
Comcast contends the move is simply a way to "reward our better customers who purchase multiple products," as Johnson said in the March 19 article. He said it is no different than if people are at a restaurant and they pay a higher price to buy a meal a la carte than they do off the dinner menu.
He added the number of people affected by the increase was very small, since most Comcast customers take multiple products.
Boxer, in her letter, warned Powell that the ideal of free competition between cable, phone, satellite and wireless broadband providers the FCC wanted to create "is not yet a reality in my state."
"A recent report by the California Public Utilities Commission shows that 18 percent of California cities only have cable modem service, while 34 percent only have DSL service," Boxer said. "That means that more than half of California cities are at the mercy of broadband providers who are the only service provider in those cities and can use that market position to force other services on consumers or price gouge."
Boxer added in the letter that she expected agencies like the FCC and PUC to "protect consumers from broadband monopolists" until the point where there were enough options to create free competition.
Comcast is the Philadelphia-based telecommunications company that merged Nov. 18 with AT&T Broadband.