batageek
Slave To The Duopoly
Premium
join:2003-01-25
Batavia, IL
| From the Daily Herald - February 26th, 2003
»www.dailyherald.com/oped/index.asp
Company surveys straying from the point
It used to be, people in Batavia would call, e-mail or write actual letters to AT&T Broadband, inquiring about the potential for getting high-speed Internet service. And the customer service representative would respond politely but vaguely that AT&T Broadband was "thinking about it" or might do it "someday" but that they would let us know when the time came.
Nothing like the threat of competition to light a fire under a company.
Batavia, Geneva and St. Charles city leaders for years have been at odds with the company (now Comcast) over cable television service. And the concerns come from subscribers who call city hall to complain about interruptions in service, slow response time to restore service, a lack of channels and so forth. You called city hall because you weren't getting satisfactory answers from - or actually getting through to - AT&T.
Well, they are calling you now.
Comcast and SBC, the company that took over Ameritech and provides local telephone service, have commissioned surveys in the Tri-Cities that ask, among other things, your perceptions of such things as AT&T Broadband, SBC Ameritech, Comcast and the Tri-Cities' individually operated electric utilities.
Oh, and surveyors also ask for your impressions of Susan Klinkhamer, Jeffery R. Schielke and Kevin Burns - the mayors of the Tri-Cities.
Huh?
We can understand the telecommunications companies are doing some nail-biting over the April 1 referendums in the Tri-Cities, through which you will weigh in on whether the three towns should build a municipally run utility that would provide telephone, cable TV and high-speed Internet service.
And, of course, the companies have every right to defend their turf. After all, they may be late in bringing high-speed Internet service all the way out here to the boonies, but they are busily doing so right now.
But this cloak and dagger business?
Officials with Comcast said their survey seeks demographics, opinions on broadband and other communication services and a sense of the interest in the upcoming broadband referendums.
SBC says its survey, too, is gauging awareness of the referendums. "This is all about the consumer," spokeswoman Andrea Brands said. "We are trying to find out what people know."
And apparently looking for weaknesses in leadership. Why else would the surveys ask for whether you think your mayor is effective?
If the surveys were intended to cause disruption, then they probably are doing a pretty good job. If questions about the mayors are doing anything, they probably aren't creating a sense of trust with people who can't even remember who Comcast and SBC are in this age of corporate name changes.
But where the surveys are likely to backfire is when surveyors ask about the effectiveness of the city-run electric utilities, which have been around for a century. And have served us well. |
·
