Cox Raises Rates in LafayetteWhile lawyers keep fiber project on the ropes ( old news - 02:42PM Thursday Jul 13 2006) tags: prices · competition · cable · municipalWhile Lafayette customers have voted yes for a citywide fiber-triple-play system, Cox and BellSouth have litigated the project to a standstill. Meanwhile Cox customers in Lafayette are facing a $5.94 rate increase for basic cable, reports the Daily Advertiser. Terry Huval, director of Lafayette Utilities System, says the rate-hikes are part of the reason why the triple-play fiber system is needed. The system, once built, will offer TV and broadband at rates 20% lower than Cox, says Huval.
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 bluepoint951
join:2001-03-20
Carrollton, TX | Loss on HB699 The governor vetos HB699 and the cable company stepps in and raises rates.... that doesn't suprise me..... | |
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Varlik
Without Honor You Will Never Be Free
Premium
join:2002-01-06
Anderson, SC
edit:
July 13th, @02:50PM
| Time to Pay the Price That will teach Lafayette residents to defy Cox and BellSouth. Yes Bow before your overlords. Do not attempt to adjust your rwin. We control your upstream and your downstream. --
"Sir SIR! We don't use DHCP servers. We only use IBM & Microsoft servers." From there my call to tech support went steadily downhill. | |
|  | jimbo2150
join:2004-05-10
Youngstown, OH
 ·Dreamhost
 ·Armstrong Zoom In..
| Re: Time to Pay the Price said by Varlik  :That will teach Lafayette residents to defy Cox and BellSouth. Yes Bow before your overlords. Do not attempt to adjust your rwin. We control your upstream and your downstream. .. or at Ted Stevens might proclaim here:
"All your tubes are belong to us."
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- "Techie" Jim | |
| 
TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
edit:
July 13th, @02:52PM
|  BB prices down; but gas; electric; water prices up
Terry Huval, director of Lafayette Utilities System, says the rate-hikes are part of the reason why the triple-play fiber system is needed. The system, once built, will offer TV and broadband at rates 20% lower than Cox, says Huval.
Yes, but will the water, gas, & electric rates rise to subsidize broadband? That is the danger with government controlled utilities.
If you have Basic Cable - channels 2 through 22 - the good news is the price is going down in Lafayette from $15.96 a month to $12.97 a month. Seems this was left out of the BBR summary.
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| | Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01 | Re: BB prices down; but gas; electric; water prices up Shouldn't. They'll be providing them at just above cost, unlike cox which wants to make a profit. | |
| | | | | bbenso1
join:2004-11-28
Baltimore, MD
| said by TK Junk Mail :If you have Basic Cable - channels 2 through 22 - the good news is the price is going down in Lafayette from $15.96 a month to $12.97 a month. Seems this was left out of the BBR summary. Fantastic. Now just what percentage of the people do you think actually subscribe to only those 20 channels and nothing more? I'd wager that number is well below 20% if not in single digits. Besides which, the decrease in price of the basic cable package is just over half the value of the increase in price of the other packages - which are the ones most likely subscribed to by the majority of the population.
Hey TK, do you have Basic Cable service or do you subscribe to a higher package? | |
| | kbennett
join:1999-08-30
San Diego, CA
| said by TK Junk Mail :If you have Basic Cable - channels 2 through 22 - the good news is the price is going down in Lafayette from $15.96 a month to $12.97 a month. Seems this was left out of the BBR summary. You also lose The Weather Channel, ESPN, and the TV Guide channel from the Basic Cable tier.
I should hope the price would go down if you're removing channels... | |
| | | bbenso1
join:2004-11-28
Baltimore, MD
| Re: BB prices down; but gas; electric; water prices up said by kbennett :You also lose The Weather Channel, ESPN, and the TV Guide channel from the Basic Cable tier. I should hope the price would go down if you're removing channels... And, on a related note, if you had Basic Cable just for ESPN or TWC (which I'd be willing to bet some people do) and you want to keep those channels your bill actually goes up from $15.96 to to $46.99!! That's right, if you want to keep watching ESPN your cable bill could go up more than 300%.
Anyone want to place any wagers on what the most popular channel was on the old Basic Cable package? My money's on ESPN. | |
| | | bbenso1
join:2004-11-28
Baltimore, MD
| said by kbennett :You also lose The Weather Channel, ESPN, and the TV Guide channel from the Basic Cable tier. I should hope the price would go down if you're removing channels... Although, I'm sure I've heard repeatedly that the per-subscriber rates for ESPN are a major factor in keeping cable package prices high. If that's really the case, shouldn't removing ESPN from a package reduce the cost by more than $3? And that's not even counting any other channels that are getting removed...
On a side note, anyone else ever notice how TKJunkMail mysteriously disappears from discussions when someone points out facts inconvenient to his arguments? | |
| | | 
marigolds
Gainfully employed, finally
Premium,MVM
join:2002-05-13
Saint Louis, MO
| said by kbennett :You also lose The Weather Channel, ESPN, and the TV Guide channel from the Basic Cable tier. I should hope the price would go down if you're removing channels... ESPN and TWC cost a lot more than $3/month per subscriber too. So Cox will actually be making more money per basic subscriber (in addition to forcing quite a few people over to expanded basic to get ESPN).
I can't believe they are actually moving TWC and TV Guide off basic cable. That is just wrong in so many ways and really goes against the purpose (especially TWC) or basic cable. ESPN? It really belongs on expanded basic anyway and was probably unreasonably inflating the cost of basic.
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| | Necronomikro
join:2005-09-01
| said by TK Junk Mail :Terry Huval, director of Lafayette Utilities System, says the rate-hikes are part of the reason why the triple-play fiber system is needed. The system, once built, will offer TV and broadband at rates 20% lower than Cox, says Huval.
Yes, but will the water, gas, & electric rates rise to subsidize broadband? That is the danger with government controlled utilities. If you have Basic Cable - channels 2 through 22 - the good news is the price is going down in Lafayette from $15.96 a month to $12.97 a month. Seems this was left out of the BBR summary. Ahh, yes, the price *is* going down for the absolute basic, but, extended went up by ~$5, internet went up ~$2, basic goes down by ~$2. Overall, a price INCREASE. | |
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: BB prices down; but gas; electric; water prices up said by ricep5 :I am not sure why you keep asking these same questions over and over when it has been explained ad nauseum that the utility bills are not impacted by the LUS Broadband initiative. Your statement is wrong. The bonds would be an obligation of the utility if the broadband revenues were insufficient to pay the interest.
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| | | | | bamabrad
join:2006-01-27
Port Orange, FL | They're making more money- I'm thinking the rate increase is on the 'standard' (that is what we call it) Many more people subscribe to this tier than the basic | |
| | 
DaSneaky1D
one wall to block them all
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-29
The Lou | What's the point of Basic if it only offers (supposedly) better quality local channels?
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TK Junk Mail
Go ahead, make my day
Premium
join:2002-03-03
Margate City, NJ
clubs:
·Comcast
| Re: BB prices down; but gas; electric; water prices up said by DaSneaky1D :What's the point of Basic if it only offers (supposedly) better quality local channels? I remember threads not that long ago on a la carte programming where many claimed they only watched a few channels, mostly local OTA channels and wanted those low cost options. So a low basic tier of OTA channels with good clear pictures is something many would pay for.
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| | | | | 
Orwell1984
@fdn.com | Wow, what a deal, all of the broadcast channels for only $150 a year. | |
| deadzoned
Premium
join:2005-04-13
Baton Rouge, LA
·Cox HSI
| Brainwashed by Big Business The government is not paying for the fiber plan. It is being paid through the sale of bonds. It's an investment. How many times does it have to be said? Maybe a different language or something?
You come back with some concrete evidence of rising utility rates and how they are somehow connected with the fiber plan and then you can make those kind of statements. Until then, maybe just not comment about something that you are obviously so ignorant about.
Regardless - is it your position that we should just somehow trust the incumbants to do the right thing? Heck show me some evidence of that happening and I might be more inclined to be more understanding of the incumbants.
You do know that Lafayette went to both BellSouth and Cox on more than one occasion asking them to provide fiber access?
You do know that they even were willing to help subsidize it right?
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| | 
viperpa33s
Why Me?
Premium
join:2002-12-20
Bradenton, FL
·Bright House
| Re: Brainwashed by Big Business said by deadzoned :
The government is not paying for the fiber plan. It is being paid through the sale of bonds. It's an investment. How many times does it have to be said? Maybe a different language or something?
The town government won't be paying the initial investment that is true but the town will be issuing the bonds. What happens when the bonds reach maturity, who do you think pays out and where they get the money from?
I am not saying I agree with Verizon or Cox. All I am saying is the town has to make enough money to support the system and pay the bonds at maturity. If the town can do that without pinching the taxpayers then I don't have a issue with it. | |
| | | wtansill
Ncc1701
join:2000-10-10
Falls Church, VA
| Re: Brainwashed by Big Business said by viperpa33s : said by deadzoned :
The government is not paying for the fiber plan. It is being paid through the sale of bonds. It's an investment. How many times does it have to be said? Maybe a different language or something?
The town government won't be paying the initial investment that is true but the town will be issuing the bonds. What happens when the bonds reach maturity, who do you think pays out and where they get the money from? They will likely price the service at a point that will pay for ongoing operations and maintenance as well as debt service/principal repayment on the bonds floated to build the system. And that price will still likely undercut the cable and telecomm companies...
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| | | 
zitch
join:2002-07-08
Lafayette, LA
| But those taxpayers even voted to take that risk! Why do you even have any issue with it? I don't get it, what with people from outside the state telling this city what to do with its *own* money?
I'm no big-government fan, but this seems to be one case of how a democracy is supposed to work at a city level, just to be blocked by corporations! | |
| | | deadzoned
Premium
join:2005-04-13
Baton Rouge, LA
·Cox HSI
| First, it's BellSouth and Cox not Verizon and Cox.
Second, and most important, is that it would be paid off over a 25 year period. With that much time, I highly doubt they would fail at paying back the bonds. More than likely, they will pay off the bonds within the first 5 years.
If they actually ever get to a point where they can build the system, it's going to be a major money-maker for Lafayette. Aside from the local customers, it opens up the way for a major boon in business from a corporate perspective. I just don't see this project failing if it gets off the ground. It could be another positive example of the value of FTTH. | |
| | | | pabster
join:2001-12-09
Waterloo, IA | Re: Brainwashed by Big Business Which is EXACTLY why they're working so hard to stall it. | |
| | |
sueme
@cox.net | bonds will be issued by LUS, a public authority separate and distinct from city goverment. | |
|
IsmellA-Rat
@verizon.net
| I smell a RAT! Don't subscribers love paying higher cable rates to support fat-cat lawyers down in AOHELL land (that would be Va).
With the world going into the crapper, I hope they lose loads of subscribers and have to adopt an AOL model.
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| 
jjgb10
Premium
join:2004-11-24
Kasson, MN
clubs: | Should be lowering prices!!! You would think that is Cox wanted to keep customers, they would lower their prices, not raise them. That is what Cablevision has been doing in FIOS areas, lowering prices and offering triple play bundles. | |
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LATechPoster
@cox.net
| Comments There is alot more to all of this then most people know or think about. Here are some general thoughts as someone who has worked for both Cox and the City of La.
First, the recent price increase is for many reasons. One cost of doing business, yes they are a business and want to make money. Not just to line their pockets full of gold, but to offer better things and stay competitive.
The channel changes and price increase have alot to do with the fact that the Lafayette system moved from Tyler to Baton Rouge. The Lafayette system was under the control of Middle America Cable which was another company bought by Cox but who kinda ran things their own way. So Lafayette merged in with Baton Rouge. They are trying to standardize channels and what not. For example, alot of this has to do with converting all channels over to 256 QAM from 64 QAM. Why? Because guess what is about to be rolled out, Video on Demand service. Which takes up more freq. and they need to make changes to be able to provide it. In the end its better for everyone because the system becomes more unified across the South Louisiana region.
Also, there were a couple of major hurricanes that came through the area. Alot of work and investment had to be made to rebuild alot of stuff. You can balk at it if you want but its true.
And laugh if you want but gas prices are eating into any businesses profits. Cox has a TON of vehicles on the road all the time doing service calls and work it adds up. Cox south louisiana is also automating the fleet an awful lot, rugged laptops, gps and high speed wireless to all the techs adds up. This is all done to make things better for everyone, including the customer. A service tech who is empowered to do more on his/her own is much more efficient and helpful. Better chance of being on time to calls, not having to call in to dispatch to get help with problems or billing or to reschedule another call. Its all being done via technology and automated. Again better for everyone, and yes there are costs associated.
Now, obviously I have a tad bit of bias at least thats how others will percieve it. The problem is people simply do not know what all goes on behind the scenes, and thus don't understand price hikes not to mention people simply will always complain when it comes to something costing more. Especially when they don't feel they are getting anything in return.
Now as for the fiber and City of La., man oh man. Personally I feel sorry for us in Lafayette, because the citizens have been suckered into this not by the city, but by many businesses men political wanna be followers of Joey Durel. This was not done for the greater good of Lafayette, it was done because a few high powered business men wanted to line their pockets even more. The contracts their companies will get to build alot of it, the jobs they will get working at this new enterprise they will create. At NO expense of their own, they will have no liability in it. So if it fails no biggie, if it succeeds YAH they make more money.
Lafayette is already got fiber every where. Seriously, if a business wants fiber they can easily get it. Between the existing fiber ring the City has laid down or by Cox and others even. So don't think building this fiber will magically make lafayette oh so much greater and business will all of a sudden jump on it and have this wonderful advantage. Business out here don't go all techy because well the majority of people aren't all techy. They still do things the old way out here. Its who you know, who you recommend and so on. Only about 2% have websites or care to offer online service of some sort to their customers. Not because they can't get online or get fiber, because they know it just doesn't matter out here, not now anyway. Their business is fine without it, so why bother is the philosophy. If they wanted to they could get $9.99 a month web hosting package some where and get a website up for their customers. But they dont.
Now everyone is blaming BellSouth and Cox for this or that. What about the fact that BOTH of them offered to subsidize fiber out here for the City and help make things happen? As someone who worked very closely with some top politicians and wannabe's who were part of this I know a great deal of insider info about it all. I heard them sit around and joke about this or that. I know what they were doing and thinking behind the closed doors to the public. They don't really care if this doesn't happen, most have already moved on. Most involved were younger 30/40 year olds who had moved away from the area at some point in life and came back and wanted to make Lafayette like some of the other places they had lived or visited. They were able to spin it and see the $$$ they could make by having a stake in it. Either to advanced a political career, or gain connections with political or business leaders in the area, or to get the upper hand and have some insider connections to get their own business in the door to making some money off of it through contracts and what not. They don't have the money or skill to get the technology they wanted or needed to try to do some of the business plans they had in mind, they didn't want to leave the area because well they would have to start over in making their business or political connections. So they instead concocted this whole thing at the expense of others.
In the end they lied about most of it to the public and spun things the way they wanted to make BellSouth and Cox look worst then they really are. And the general public doesn't know any better, and its not their fault there is no way for them to know the truth when one side will simply lie and cover up everything to come out looking innocent.
It's quite sad, and in the end its the people who matter who are going to be scorned, hurt and loose. And they will never truly know the truth. Its just like any other lie or cover up, hell even if someone came out and said exactly what happend with JFK right now still the majority wouldn't believe or accept it or know if it really is the truth.
The City of Lafayette has NO idea what it takes to make this system happen and work. They are so in for a treat and surprise. All that money to make something that would take a few years before they could even get a customer on board, just to have the technology they originally set out to use change. I am not talking the fiber, I am talking about everything else behind the scenes that makes it all work. The Juniper, Foundry, Cisco, Scientific Atlanta all the equipment is simply mind boggling and changing ALL the time. Take them three years to get to a point where they would only be able to offer a fraction of the services others can provide right now, which is also changing all the time. Video on Demand is one example. Sure the fiber is nice, not going to argue, but hell Cox and Bell all have fiber everywhere as it is. Not to the home, but to almost all nodes in the area, which is a huge advantage already to the City.
The big boys know what they are doing, its all a fine balancing act. Price and Costs, services and so on.
Guess time will tell, and people will believe what they want to believe. Not going to change any of that. | |
| |
LATechPoster
@cox.net
| Re: Comments Correction.. I got off on a tangent and well I read someones post and it stuck in my head and I meant to talk about it, not post the comment about Cox or BellSouth wanting to subsidize the Cities fiber plan.
They did not, at least I don't know they did. I stated that as I said by mistake as I had read someone else say the opposite of it and I mean to say something else.
Anyway, what I meant to say is that both BellSouth and Cox wanted to compromise and do more out here since the City was so adament about it. They had a different belief though, they did not want to do fiber to the home, but other alternatives like fiber to the street or neighborhood options. However the city is stuck on this whole fiber to the home thing. The costs far outweight the benefits of doing fiber to the home, especially out here in Lafayette Louisiana where everything is strung along poles and what not. Easier to initially to install fiber that way yes. But the maintenance is going to be a nightmare to have fiber to homes. I mean seriously with the trees and storms and hurricanes, its no where near as easy to fix fiber then it is the other services when there is a break from a tree down or a squirrel or something chewing through. This happens all the time, if not daily out here and with storms and hurricanes shesh. Fiber to the home, oh my, fiber strewn about and broken every where. Calling in techs to come and splice and fix a single strand to a home is going to be much much more costly and timely then any other medium.
There is a reason the majority of cities and towns don't have fiber to the home, there is a reason companies are not keen about doing it. It costs so much to maintain. Why do these guys here think they know better then so many others? Maybe they just don't really care ultimately about it, but about other things as a result of it for themselves? | |
| | |
CorrectionDude
@bellsouth.net
| Re: Comments Anyway, what I meant to say is that both BellSouth and Cox wanted to compromise and do more out here since the City was so adament about it. They had a different belief though, they did not want to do fiber to the home, but other alternatives like fiber to the street or neighborhood options. However the city is stuck on this whole fiber to the home thing. The costs far outweight the benefits of doing fiber to the home[...] It the short term only do the costs outweigh the benefits, however, in the long term, with lower maintenance calls, better and more numerous services and the ability for their to be even more ISPs available to the customers, the benefits eventually match and beat the costs.
There is a reason the majority of cities and towns don't have fiber to the home, there is a reason companies are not keen about doing it. It costs so much to maintain. Not quite. The cost of maintaining fibre optic lines is actually cheaper than maintaining copper infrastructure. Whoever told you otherwise pulled the wool over your eyes. There are a whole host of concerns that exist with copper networks that are virtually eliminated with fibre networks. In fact, in areas like New Orleans or Lafayette, the use of fibre optics makes sense with the real chance of flooding since fibre is much more water resistant. | |
| | | |
LATechPoster
@cox.net
| Re: Comments I agree with you about most of what you said particularly in regards to flooding and the life of fiber. However I disagree with you on the costs of maintaining in relation to breakages. Which I think in these areas with the amount of breaks and down lines you see after any given storm the costs will be very high to maintain a fiber to the home system. No one told me otherwise, I made my own assumption based on my knowledge of the various mediums. I have worked with all the copper based cabling "ethernet and coax" as well as fiber. There is no way i could pull apart and break with my own hands coax, however I know I can break a single strand fiber patch cable. | |
| | 
BillRoland
Premium
join:2001-01-21
Ocala, FL
clubs:
·Cox HSI
| Real world Threads like this always remind me that a lot of our readership here do not live in the real world. I can name a dozen different things that I buy that have all sustained rate hikes over the past year because of "high energy prices" and because the supplier they buy from is charging more. Its called "passing the cost along." Happens everyday, in the real world. Every time the cable company does that, though, its "that darn monopoly just railroading the poor little guy."
As for Lafayette's little fiber project, I honestly just don't see any role for government providing broadband. I just don't see providing broadband to a community that already has at least 2 choices, as being a role of a responsible government. But here's the question I really want to know the answer to: Do customers in Lafayette have a "choice" for who they get electric, gas, and water service from? I would suspect that only LUS provides those services. Not having a choice is the definition of a monopoly. One wonders how LUS would react if Cox and Bellsouth both announced their intentions to string up power lines, bury gas and water lines all over Lafayette in order to compete with LUS in the utilities business. I suspect LUS would cry "that's not fair."
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| | bamabrad
join:2006-01-27
Port Orange, FL
| Re: Real world Electric,gas,water are utilities and government regulated- I'm coming to the conclusion that data delivery might be considered one also because who ever controls data delivery controls information,which is converted to knowledge, and knowledge is power- and power ( or delivery thereof) of this sort should not be in the hands of a select few-it should be open and readily available to ALL at a REASONABLE cost. | |
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Rob A
Same Old Jets
Premium
join:2005-01-17
Pompton Plains, NJ | Cable rates... Just keep continuing to rise. I recently switched to DTV and I'm not lookin back. | |
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oliphant
I Have 8 Boobies
Premium
join:2004-11-26
Corona, CA | Gotta get money for bribes somewhere... Greasing palms and paying bloodsucking lawyers can get pricey. | |
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linicx
Caveat Emptor
Premium
join:2002-12-03
United State | Maybe Now that Cox sold off most of its smaller to mid-size markets, maybe it is short on cash? Increased price is always a response to cash flow issues.
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