break up Comporium ? (Columbia, Rock Hill, Lancaster: rental, how much, attorneys)

[robm]

Does anyone know the legal standing for Comporium to have a monopoly on cable and phone service in the same area? This may not have been such a bad thing 20 years ago, but it has given them a monopoly on highspeed internet access now.

Is there a way we can force a break up of Comporium and get either the phone or cable side of the business sold off to another company to bring some competition to the market.

Any attorneys out there looking for a class action case.....

[29seven20]

a few companies have tried to come into the area, but there's some sort of "rural provider" loophole.

[moedog2]

This continual bashing of Comporium is really getting on my nerves. The fact is, competitors are welcome to come in and provide competition in York and Lancaster Counties. The fact is, "monopoly" landline telephone service is the norm in the US. From a practical point of view, it makes no sense to run duplicate sets of telephone (or video/internet) cables down every street. That is the reason the telephone industry has been very closely regulated by the states, who require a certain universal level of service for a specified price. In the mid 1960s, Comporium introduced cable tv to this area, long before it was available in other comparable areas. At the time there was virtually no regulations on cable systems, but this changed in the early 70s, when it was ruled that telephone companies could not operate telephone and cable systems in the same area. Comporium, however, was grandfathered and was one of only a few telcos which also operated a local cable system. In the 1990's regulations were changed again, allowing telephone and cable systems to operate as a single unit (susposedly to encourage competition). Time Warner has a franchaise to operate in several areas of York county, but thus far serves only the immediate Clover area, an area where Comporium does not operate. In any event, Time Warner is considered an "overbuilder" in this area---they do not have to provide or offer service to every single household like Comporium does. In other words, they can pick who they serve, which of course means only the more affluent homes--exactly what they have done in the the Indian Land area, where they do compete with Comporium. Even so, TW rates are substanually higher in every category than Comporium, in IL, and the service is not as good, though TW does provide a few extra services such as xxx rated movies, expensive sports packages, on demand services which seldom work. Most of their HD offerings are also "on demand" and if you read any of TV message boards in the Charlotte area you know what a pain that is. Still, TW, Verizon, AT&T U-Verse or any of the other big boys can jump into the York County market any time they want to. It hasn't happened because it doesn't make ecomomic sense.

[sandchug]

The continued bashing of Comporium is getting on your nerves, moedog, because either you work for them, a family member works for them or you have stake in them somehow. Every time someone comments on how much Comporium sucks, you ride in on your white horse to come to the defense of the damsel in distress. Quit trying to fall on the proverbial sword and reveal your connection to Comporium.

[CarolinaWoman]

Rock Hill Telephone Company (the Barnes Family owners) has been here for 125+ years ... they have some sort of lock on the area with a 'rural clause' ... you can contact the Public Service Commission in Columbia that governs and controls telephones/internet/cabletv for our state ... or the feds at the FCC ... good luck.

When technology started to change they jumped aboard cable TV ... thus Rock Hill Cable TV was born and believe me back then it was the pits ... but like our telephones that was all we had ... then as the area grew and their services grew they changed their name to Comporium to enhance all of their services.

When we built our home and moved from the city to the 'boonies' our first telephone was a 14 party line ... needless to say it just hung on the wall with 13 other families + us sharing the same line ... I have a nephew that works there and he was able to get us a private line after I informed them to come and get the darn thing.

When I bought my first computer many years ago I opted to go with Cetlink in Rock Hill ... but Cetlink had to buy their line time from Rock Hill Telephone ... I had DSL and out of the blue I received an email from Cetlink stating they were discontiniung all DSL service ... Comporium was in charge and had raised their rates to purchase the lines and it was no longer feasible for Cetlink to offer DSL. Thus I was left without internet service.

I have talked to other carriers and they are not willing to fight Comporium. I view it as a monopoly too but the Public Service Commission of South Carolina doesn't look at it that way. The contract or agreement whatever that was established 125+ years ago assured the Barnes family they would have the area and the service. I thought sure back when Ma Bell/ATT was deregulated we had a chance to open up this area with a choice but somehow that didn't effect this area.

I have Hughes Net satellite internet and it is the pits. I am considering going with Comporium, I have their landline telephone but I have DirecTV satellite with all the HD channels and we are happy with them. I do not want Comporium's cable.

Ten or twelve years ago AOL and Net Zero sneaked into the area (dial-up modem only) using a Bullocks Creek (out in the sticks) phone number.

It's difficult to fight the Barnes family, they have the area locked up tight. I have a nephew that's worked for them 30+ years ... a niece been there about the same time ... many friends works there ... they are a good employer and good to the community.

I am happy with my landline telephone and I use their Community Long Distance but it's all I know. I have had their cable and their internet service, perhaps I am judging both of these from long ago when they first ventured into those services and maybe things are better now. But we had nothing but problems with both.

You can look up your Public Service Commisioners that serves your area on their website and give them a call to discuss or go higher to the FCC. But I am afraid you will find most companies do have certain areas exclusively.

SC Public Service Commission

[chunew]

I don't work for comporium, have any relatives that do, own none of their stock (don't even know if they are a publicly traded company or not) but my observations are this:

- They have been extremely professional in dealing with me, from meeting with me to plan the household wiring (building new in Baxter), actually doing the wiring extremely well, and then working with me personally and directly on the services I wanted.

- Local basic service (just a dial tone) is on-par with what I was paying with Bell South, and with Vonage's recent price increase, the same as my previous VOIP service. I was bummed that I could not port my 704 number, however.

- Long distance service is way too expensive, but I'll just pick a different LD provider.

- Cable service, I'm not interested in and don't use so can't comment there.

- Security service - great price

- Internet service - no complaints

Like many things, I think your mileage may vary and perhaps it has something to do location, infrastructure buildout, etc..

[MilesBFree]

moedog's complaining about everyone else's complaining is getting on my nerves :-) (just kidding)

However, I think that a lot of good people work for them. It is a local company. I see a lot of good reasons to support them in concept. Does that mean that they can't improve service? No. There is always room to improve. I also think that having issues brought up will help them improve their service. It is only when they don't take care of the issues that people get upset with them.

For those that have not had their issues fixed, you can always do a DIY virtual split-up. e.g.-

For TV, go with Dish or DirecTV.

For internet, Comporium cable modem is probably the most practical choice given the lack of wired options. For wireless, Hughes satellite is an option but will probably be slower. However, once you hit the Comporium download data transfer limit, I think they reserve the right to throtle your traffic and the speed difference may not be much different at that point. You could also use a wireless data service such as a data card in your PC. You can get a WiFi router that accepts these cards and connect everything on the house to that. The speed would probably be a little slower than wired data service, but it might be fine as long as you are not trying to stream HD movies. Hopefully we will get Xohm/ClearWire/WiMax service in the area soon (call those companies and ask for it so they know htere is demand).

For phone, VoIP (e.g.- Vonage) and mobile are options. Although with VoIP yu are probably stuck running it over Comporium cable modem.

[jenn02674]

The way I understand it, is other companies are completely free to come into York County (and actually I have heard a rumor that TWC is coming in soon). What has happened in the past is that when a company has stated an interest, Comporium basically pays them to stay away. That might be a simplistic way of putting it, but perfectly legal.

[MilesBFree]

They would have to structure the agreement to stay away pretty creatively to not fall afoul of the law. I think Netflix just made the news (not in a good way) for paying Walmart to get out of the online movie rental business.

My guess is that in the past it was just not a good business case to come in to the area given population density, but that may be changing due to the influx of new people over the last few years.

[29seven20]

as we say in Lancaster: "Comporium. Because you have a choice."

(that's a little joke). It's always puzzling to see Comporium advertisements in Lancaster b/c it's not as if they have any competition (when I say "Lancaster" I am referring to the county seat).