tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-109086262008-12-04T06:45:47.818-05:00Why I love Comcast, Verizon, the FCC, and everyone else.Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-9362054548209935142008-09-05T13:06:00.002-04:002008-09-05T17:59:52.368-04:00

Followup to last week's report on the Film Fest aka My Latest Comcastic Adventure: Looking at my statement, I found that Comcast credited me $36 for the incident. But I had expected a credit of $47.86, composed of two $20 credits for the two failures of technicians to arrive within the promised windows and then another $7.86 for the pro-rated outage. The billing department representative said

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-76573753403140447392008-08-17T12:10:00.006-04:002008-08-18T12:36:18.989-04:00

The Comcast Film Fest started this weekend and runs through August 24, 2008. I am not going this year although I have in the past. It's quite enjoyable as long as too many people don't show up. Otherwise it can be a mob scene. (Avoid Friday and Saturday!) I also wouldn't recommend going to a movie at the Fest unless you've seen that particular movie before. The sound is just a bit too iffy.

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-29414314151047063352008-08-07T16:16:00.002-04:002008-08-07T16:28:54.517-04:00

The City of Rockville has agreed to adopt the Verizon cable franchise held by Montgomery County. This means that Rockville inhabitants will be able to get TV service as well as internet and phone service. Briana Gowing, Verizon VP of External Affairs said that Verizon hopes "to begin construction in mid to late September, possibly selling FiOS bundles in limited areas before the end of the year

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-89886251910327731652008-06-08T22:34:00.007-04:002008-08-07T16:36:29.330-04:00

It appears that the Rockville Council will put an agreement to bed with Verizon, allowing FiOS service to provided to residents of the City of Rockville. The Council is set to approve the agreement this Monday, June 9, 2008. If you're interested in attending, the meeting is at 7pm, although the Verizon items are slated for 8:35pm. Reading between the lines of the documentation that Rockville

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-11409897869914625352007-11-01T22:23:00.000-04:002007-11-02T17:18:00.669-04:00

Previously, I mentioned that I would ask each candidate for Mayor or Council of Rockville to provide a statement responding to the question:Please address why the city has been unable to come to terms with Verizon for FIOS internet and TV service and how your approach would differ.I am pleased to provide their responses here. Feel free to comment on them. (No mudslinging please!) I also

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-51834452069368476132007-10-24T00:20:00.000-04:002007-10-24T00:56:34.494-04:00

On Monday, October 22, 2007, I attended a debate among the candidates for mayor and council of Rockville, Maryland. I was curious if fresh blood might be the solution to breaking the logjam presently preventing Rockville citizens from getting Verizon FIOS internet and TV. Given the upcoming November 6 election, this may be an opportunity to effect change by voting. Before going on, let me

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-90595424981213093242007-10-20T01:47:00.000-04:002007-10-20T01:50:51.008-04:00

Please stop sending me links to the hammer lady! Yes, I know about it. I was even tempted to write about it. But I think there's little to add that hasn't been said already. 450 people posted comments to the Washington Post article about it! How much more is there to say? For those of you that still haven't heard the story, Mona Shaw, 75, of Manassas VA, a kindly grandmother type right out

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-66360773489556903362007-08-02T02:47:00.000-04:002007-08-02T02:48:38.619-04:00

Last week, the Gazette had a curious article about County Cable Montgomery, the PEG channel that televises official county business such as county council hearings. According to county spokesperson Patrick Lacefield, "We are wanting to make the cable channel more accessible to folks. ... we’re trying make the programming more interesting and increase its relevance to the public." According to

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-2860162438785913752007-07-27T01:07:00.000-04:002007-07-28T23:07:29.924-04:00

Montgomery County officials are warning Comcast customers to study their July bill closely. The July bill contains a notification of an upcoming change to the terms-of-service agreement with an opportunity to refuse within 30 days of receipt of the bill. In short, Comcast wants you to give up a number of rights you currently have and instead agree to, well, something less. Specifically,

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-65734178873545156792007-07-01T00:08:00.000-04:002007-07-12T21:50:23.588-04:00

Free Broadband For Someone Last week, AEPCO, (Advanced Engineering and Planning Corporation, Inc., of Gaithersburg, MD) agreed to provide free WiFi to the new town center of Rockville. If you haven't visited the location, you must. For a mix of shopping and culture, it's quite pretty. Although it doesn't measure up to the walking districts of towns and cities throughout Europe, it's a huge

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-56835325217102736202007-04-25T18:02:00.000-04:002007-04-25T13:53:05.145-04:00

The following citizens have been nominated by the County Executive to serve on the Cable and Communications Advisory Committee. The terms are three years and unpaid. LeRoy Oettinger Benjamin Wu David Friedman Mark Berman Kelly Cameron I know of David Friedman, as he has provided testimony at communications-related hearings before the county. I don't recall having seen any others at any

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-12495932599839217272007-04-23T02:09:00.000-04:002007-04-23T02:23:22.519-04:00

During last week's windstorms, I had some free time on my hands - the power was out and my uninterruptible power supply had long since run out of backup juice. According to the one remaining electro-mechanical clock in my house, I could see the time the power had gone out: 1:50pm Around the time I got home in the evening, it was already nightfall. But I was pleased to see several crews with

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-53780648045368114182007-04-01T20:41:00.000-04:002007-04-03T20:50:38.994-04:00

A few tidbits to enjoy in honor of April 1. An alternative for everyone waiting for FIOS TV ... http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html And two behind the scenes views of our favorite call centers ... http://www.callcentermovie.com http://www.deadtroll.com/video/helldeskcable.html

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-91151758552205465022007-02-18T08:58:00.000-05:002007-02-18T09:04:15.824-05:00

Hopefully at least one person will benefit from today's story. Maybe more. Like many retirees, my parents travel for months at a time. When they do, they redirect their US Mail to me. I open it, dial their cell phone and tell them which bills have arrived and for how much. They pay the bills over the web. This system works pretty well. But not always. Best Effort As I was going through

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-4254796764147868842007-02-11T23:46:00.000-05:002007-02-14T11:55:52.525-05:00

As I mentioned earlier, the county's MFP committee was scheduled to review the performance of the cable franchises. I was unable to attend so I plowed through the packet - 42 pages of the same stuff as usual. I already mentioned in my all-too-verbose report (Rubberstamp This) from last week that Comcast was being fined. Some new statistics were mentioned but in the interest of brevity, I'll

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-2961835818169721742007-02-11T22:55:00.000-05:002007-02-11T23:15:15.438-05:00

This is a test of Google's new blogging software. That's all it is. This is the last sentence in the test.

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1170115982413505972007-01-29T19:09:00.000-05:002007-01-30T13:59:30.666-05:00

This past Wednesday (Jan 24, 2007), I attended a meeting of the Cable and Communications Advisory Committee (CCAC) for Montgomery County, Maryland. This is a meeting of citizens who volunteer to meet once a month to discuss cable-related issues and advise the County Executive. As I've said before, it's difficult to tell whether the committee has an impact any more. As long as I've been writing

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1167895611154180112007-01-04T02:15:00.000-05:002007-01-07T15:59:17.640-05:00

Montgomery County's MFP committee will be holding a quarterly hearing on the county's cable franchisees. This will be the first meeting with Verizon as an official franchisee. Are we still in the honeymoon? We'll find out. February 5 at 9am on the 7th floor of the Council Office building. My guess is that the honeymoon is still on (and the council has its hands full of other problems) but

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1167255198485950482006-12-27T14:08:00.000-05:002006-12-31T02:34:39.446-05:00

Christmas is over. I can go back to delivering uncheery news. Here goes. Montgomery County's cable franchisees provide customers with "free" email and "free" email addresses. Great! Or is it? Let's look at these two offerings one at a time. Free Email Addresses By "free" email addresses, I mean addresses such as chocoholic@comcast.net or poodlefan@verizon.net. The domain names (

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1164914043301134692006-11-30T13:58:00.000-05:002006-12-01T22:03:24.350-05:00

As I predicted, the Verizon franchise was approved on Tuesday (November 28, 2006). With the full council present instead of just three MFP committee members, the same questions were asked; the same responses were given. The very same responses were also given to new questions. For example, one councilmember asked how Verizon was able to buy out of the unlimited future obligations to provide

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1164700297642180342006-11-28T02:32:00.000-05:002006-12-01T22:04:57.496-05:00

Readers may have noticed my recent lack of updates here. It's been a consequence of work-related deadlines followed by an invasion/occupation at my home over Thanksgiving. (No dad, I would not consider it helpful if you defrag my computer.) Things slacked off enough for me to attend the MFP Committee Meeting on Monday, November 27 2006. Alas, the briefing packet appears to be an outdated

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1162534238392885802006-11-05T22:21:00.000-05:002006-11-06T09:54:04.976-05:00

First of all - a correction. Previously, I mentioned that Verizon TV would require an annual contract. I was wrong. The Verizon packages and prices page says nothing about that - it does mention an annual contract option on the internet side which is where I became confused. My fault. Fortunately, I didn't mention that in my testimony on Tuesday. In fact, I didn't testify on Tuesday nor did

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1162185253877014082006-10-29T23:58:00.000-05:002006-11-02T10:56:14.896-05:00

MFP Committee On Monday, October 30, the MFP committee will meet at 10:30am for a quarterly review of its franchisees - and soon-to-be-franchisee Verizon. The MFP briefing packet contains reports by Sonya Healy (MC Council staffer), Jane Lawton (MC Cable Administrator), and CTC (testing and inspection contractor) which describes the good and bad for the last quarter - otherwise known as

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1159995291770638122006-10-04T16:53:00.000-04:002006-10-05T08:21:39.926-04:00

I trust everyone enjoyed the presentations at the Public Hearing on the Verizon Cable Franchise Application. It's too late to submit comments for the record; However, there will be another opportunity - this time for the County Council which must approve the application. But I'm skipping over something important. The Executive is supposed to digest the public testimony and based on it, make a

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10908626.post-1159672013544720212006-09-30T23:01:00.000-04:002006-10-01T23:05:54.090-04:00

This past Thursday, September 28 2006, I attended the hearing for the public to testify on the Proposed Verizon franchise. There were 15 speakers, most of them members of the public. There were no council members present and the executive (whose hearing it was) was not there either. I was not surprised as the same thing happened at the previous hearing of this type (the last was during the

Don Libeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12396665796257950441noreply@blogger.com1