Comporium? (Rock Hill, Fort Mill, Buffalo: live in, zip code, moving to)

[sandchug]

I tried to sign up for Comporium and got told that the next available installation date was TWO WEEKS from now. They do not offer a self-install kit or anything.

Oh, and I work from home, so I use a lot of bandwidth. I was not told about their rate limits until I saw another post on here about it (and a buried post on their website - go figure). I would most certainly go over the bandwidth limits every month.

What kind of half-baked system takes two weeks to install and has download limits? I'm not going to be able to work for two weeks while these clowns figure out a way to come install my internet. Ridiculous.

[FlightAttendant]

I can't understand why another company doesn't come in to York County. Not sure if there is some sort of regulation against it or what. Comporium has a monopoly in my area...they are the only game in town....so they have no need to hurry up with service or to have competitive rates. Again, their tech people are nice but the rest of their service is not only spotty, it is awfully expensive for what you get.

[PharmD/MBA]

I have spoken with some of the Clearwire reps in Charlotte about getting service to Fort Mill. They have said without question, there is no service and will be no service across the state line (into SC) due to the existing company here. I don't know why they can't but for some reason, Comporium has them blocked from SC. Look at the coverage map and where it abruptly stops in SC next time you pass one of their kiosks at Carolina Place or SouthPark Malls

[BrewsterB]

I know Comporium has the monopoy in York county. What are the options in Lancaster County.. specifically in the Sun City area?

[Solco]

The following article in today's St. Petersburg Times is a ray of hope. Perhaps the FCC will move on this issue, since it directly affects Sun City. Your monthly fee includes some Comporium TV. Anything more is extra.

Homeowners who are forced into cable TV-Internet deals aren't happy

By Bill Coats, Times Staff Writer
In print: Sunday, August 17, 2008

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NEW TAMPA — In 2003 a developer, a homeowner association and a cable TV company made a deal that was a portrait of efficiency:

A new development, and every house in it, would be wired from the get-go for cable and Internet service. Fees would be collected in bulk through everyone's home owner dues. The cable company, blessed with those shortcuts and years of guaranteed money, would keep its prices competitive.

But that deal — and others like it across Florida — are fueling a consumer controversy today that stretches from here to Washington, D.C.

The deal actually was an insider arrangement front to back. The same trio of brothers controlled the developer, the homeowner association and the cable company.

They locked the future home owners in the development, Live Oak Preserve, into at least 10 years of payments to the family-owned cable service, Century Communications.

Some of those homeowners preferred Verizon, or satellite hookups. So they paid for those, plus Century. Some never used the Internet. But they still paid Century. Some abandoned their houses to foreclosure. The home owner association remained on the hook for their fees.

The setup is perfectly legal, and far from unique. Ballantrae, in Land O'Lakes, is harnessed into a 10-year contract, binding on all 969 homes. Fifteen thousand homeowners in Weston, west of Fort Lauderdale, inherited a perpetual contract from their developer. A lawsuit rolled it back to 2013.

But now, something bigger than a mere court case threatens such deals. The Federal Communications Commission is considering blocking them outright.

The first strike was a ban issued in October on deals that give a single cable provider exclusive access to a community. The cable industry has sued to overturn that.

Simultaneously, the FCC invited the nation to comment on whether "bulk billing" deals like those in Live Oak and Ballantrae should be outlawed too.

By last week, 751 responses had poured in; 218 came from Live Oak.

'Utter crawl'

Zuriel Cabrera, 30, lives on his laptop. He has used it to inspire what may be the majority of Florida's correspondence to the FCC over bulk billing.

"I don't know when he sleeps," said John Carter, an ally of Cabrera's in Live Oak.

Cabrera moved to Live Oak three years ago from New Jersey. The day before he closed on his home, he learned that home owner fees included cable service.

His connection fee was $200. That had been free in New Jersey. Many of Cabrera's favorites — the National Geographic Channel, the Science Channel, Latin programming — were missing.

The system conked off during thunderstorms. The Internet hookup was slow.

"At peak times, it was an utter crawl," said Cabrera, a computer systems consultant.

Soon, he became homeowners president in Live Oak's Weatherwood Village, with 124 homes. He created a boisterous Web site, liveoakforums.com.

Via the new forum, residents organized an afternoon of picketing in October against their developer and Century. Signs included: "Homeowners Fed-Up; Poor Cable & Internet Service," and "Century Communications; WE WANT U OUT."

Ten days later, the FCC lit a fuse on the bulk-billing debate. "That's when it just blew up," Cabrera said.

So he built another Web site, BanBulkBilling.com. That connected Cabrera with more activists, including Marilyn Castro, 39, of Virginia Beach, Va.

Castro's homeowner association inherited a 75-year contract with Cox Communications, now at $145 per month, per homeowner.

"They're trying to say it's a deal," Castro complained. "A deal for whom?"

On June 18, Castro, Cabrera and several other protesters against bulk billing met in Washington with FCC staffers.

"They were very good," said John Norton, an executive in the FCC's media section, who met with the group for more than an hour. "They carried their message forward more than competently."

Choice or discount?

The FCC's formal comment period on bulk billing has expired, but late comments are being accepted, said Norton. The issue isn't on the agenda of the FCC's next meeting, on Aug. 28, but could come up later, he said.

Norton said the FCC essentially will decide whether consumers are better off choosing their own communications service or reaping the discounts that bulk billing often generates.

At Ballantrae, homeowner president Richard Solkin is skeptical about that. He said the development's contract with Bright House Networks is for $27 a month per house.

"If you call around to other developments, you'll see they're paying 18, 19 dollars," Solkin said.

Live Oak's price, which combines cable TV and Internet, is for $85 a month.

Its contract with Century didn't promise a discount. It allows for a 5 percent increase each year, limited by a pledge "not to increase the monthly service fee above that charged by a majority of other similar companies providing similar services in the county," as determined by Century.

In most respects, Live Oak is now free of the three Boca Raton brothers — Arthur, Robert and Edward Falcone. The Falcone Group sold Live Oak's developer, Transeastern Homes, in 2005. Century, another Falcone subsidiary, sold its service contract for Live Oak earlier this summer to Bright House.

Residents say the TV package is better now, the Internet connection faster.

But their stream of complaints prompted Bright House representatives to visit the FCC last month. They told FCC staffers that Live Oak's $85 fee is a 37 percent discount off Bright House's retail price. Without bulk billing, most of those customers would experience "a significant increase in rates," Bright House argues.

John Carter acknowledges the improvements. But the retired math teacher remains irked at the contract terms. Carter alone accounts for 53 of the e-mails from Live Oak to the FCC, as of last week.

"You must take the service, and you must pay for it," he complained. "All those homes, whether they're empty or not, must pay.

"That's the one deal I can't accept."

[FlightAttendant]

Wow, thank you Solcol. What a great article....and while I found it extremely interesting, I also got my blood pressure up. What a back handed deal. Don't you just know there was a pay off to the principals involved. this is what happens so often in developments...HOAs are forced by the developers into long-term deals that they would not necessarily choosen for themselves.

Welcome to the new century..hang onto your wallets.

[Solco]

Here is more information on bulk billing for FCC regulated services, it gives a lot of information:

FCC Open Procedure MB 07-51

Perhaps Bilking Billing would be a better description of this practice.

[muskratlove]

Originally Posted by BrewsterB

I know Comporium has the monopoy in York county. What are the options in Lancaster County.. specifically in the Sun City area?

I live across from you in Belair and I'm using Time Warner with no problems. If they're already in the neighborhood then perhaps you can see about getting service to your home. If not now it should be soon as it has started to build out this year and has expanded greatly.

[rothbear]

Originally Posted by BrewsterB

I know Comporium has the monopoy in York county. What are the options in Lancaster County.. specifically in the Sun City area?

Our house in SCCL is wired for both Comporium and TimeWarner. Not sure about the earlier houses built a year or more ago, but ours started to build last October (and we closed in March) and it has both wired. Once I get down there permanently the end of Sept. I'm going to check into both of them and compare. Daughter has always had TW up in NY and has been happy with them, especially customer support. And she says they do have a 12 month new customer special that they usually run.

There are reps for both that deal with SCCL. Just remember that your HOA dues include the basic cable with Comporium, and you will still pay the same HOA with or without. Maybe that FCC thing quoted above might change that, but because it is just basic cable I probably wouldn't make that much difference, but anything to decrease the dues would be great. The "free" SCCL channel would go away, but not sure I care about that since I can get the same info from the resident's website.

[Solco]

Excellent information. We purchased our lot in February and don't expect a house before late second quarter '09. Been reading about Comporium and TW looks good right now.

Solco