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[December 30, 2006]

Cities get improved Comcast TV

(Palo Alto Daily News (Palo Alto, CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 30--Better cable service is on the way to several Bay Area cities that have been saddled with a weaker network in recent years.

Comcast this week announced an $80 million effort to "turbocharge" its existing cable TV and Internet network in cities including San Leandro, Half Moon Bay, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos and Saratoga over the next year-and-a-half.

Residents of those cities will receive services that had been available elsewhere in the region, such as digital telephone and video-on-demand. They'll also leapfrog neighboring cities in the bandwidth of their network, jumping from 550 MHz to 1 GHz.


The move by Comcast comes just as the regional cable market is becoming competitive, with other companies such as AT&T and East Bay-based Astound Broadband rapidly expanding their own networks. All three are beginning to "bundle" cable TV, Internet and digital voice services.

That competition -- facilitated by a new state law -- should be a boon for Bay Area consumers in the coming years, said Brian Moura, chair of the San Mateo County Telecommunications Authority.

"We might in some communities soon see three different choices for cable, which is interesting because they just had one choice before," Moura said. He described Comcast's announcement of upgrades as an opening salvo before a new state law opens the market to further competition in the new year.

Comcast spokeswoman Lorena Hernandez characterized the improvements as part of the company's long-term effort to keep its technology up-to-date.

It's welcome news for Sunnyvale, city spokesman John Pilger said. "I know that it's been a concern of many of our residents, and it's come to the attention of City Hall that the cable service provided to the city doesn't have as many features as some of our neighboring cities have. So we applaud Comcast if in fact they are going to upgrade the service here."

In San Mateo County, the improvements will finally give Coastside residents access to Peninsula TV, the county's government channel, Moura said. One concern about the new law spurring competition is that it could have the side effect of allowing service providers to drop such free public-access channels, but Moura said there are no signs of that yet.

Pilger said Comcast has told Sunnyvale it intends to provide the same concessions as before, even though the city no longer has bargaining leverage.

Saratoga Mayor Aileen Kao hadn't heard about Comcast's plan yet, but said, "If they're offering to upgrade the service here, I think that's something our residents would really appreciate."

E-mail Will Oremus at woremus@dailynewsgroup.com

Copyright (c) 2006, Palo Alto Daily News, Calif.
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