Here’s my suggestion. The reason why Comcast started using the DTAs is because they no longer disconnect or install RF traps on the signal into homes. With the DTAs, they no longer have to spend the money on truck rolls to send someone out… instead, they just provision your DTA from the office. Thus, they no longer include channels they pay for on your line. Seems like a common sense approach, and one which should be within the bounds of franchise authority, is to require EITHER A) Broadcast all former analog tier channels on Clear QAM so they can be tuned by any HDTV, and thus Comcast would have to continue with truck rolls and RF traps… or B) Comcast must provide 2 bundled DTAs as part of any tier of cable service that includes encrypted channels. Let Comcast choose, but don’t let them charge a fee to receive something that used to be included.

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I don’t really know if I could cut the cord or not. I’m not one for any network TV at all, except for sports, and I don’t really watch any cable channel series either. For me it’s mostly sports (MLB, NFL, and F1 primarily), and I fill in with movies from the pay channels (HBO, Starz, etc.). If I could fill those in with the other methods, I’d be tempted. That still leaves me with needing Charter for internet, though.

I have a couple of Apple TV’s, and I pay for the MLB.tv service, so I can watch baseball through the Apple TV, but the quality isn’t always what it should be for viewing on big TV’s, so I worry about that too.

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I read more now, I interact with more people now (although admittedly it’s mostly via online games) and watch less TV. The cable company/Hollywood’s loss is my gain.

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A long time ago I used to think cable was cool. I liked that there were local people I could talk to and they tended to be more friendly and work with you than the phone company. Somewhere around the mid 90′s cable companies started being acquired by larger companies and local service suffered. At one time they were begging for customers. Now they have zero interest in customer service. Their goal is customer fleecing. They promote services that provide little to no value but cost too much. When you have a problem with billing, you can hardly find a human to talk to as their phone system is designed to route you into empty space.

$1.99 bump for the year isn’t too bad, but they are already way over priced. Their profit taking is unrivaled. They have wires in the ground that have been their for years and equipment that easily distributes to a large area, plus a captive market and yet Satellite companies like Dish and DirecTV can still beat their price and afford to have satellites launched into space every couple years.

Cable is a scam. I only have them for internet because their price for value is way high, it is still better than the junk from Frontier (DSL) or Verizon (LTE).

I also use a Roku with Amazon Prime. I’ve watched more stuff on my Roku (old FX Series Rescue Me, and Bob the Builder for my grandkid) than I have on my Satellite TV over the last month. A couple more years for Hulu and such to shake out and I can see the satellite going away and going strictly ip tv. Both of my kids have already done it.
p.s. my satellite service went up $5 this year, though it hasn’t gone up for 2 years, and they did give me a $10 per month credit for the first year. They also paid for my roku when they were having a fight with AMC and AMC was pulled from the satellite for a few months. They also paid for me to buy the amc shows I watched on Amazon. Think Charter would do that kind of stuff? I think not.

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Here’s to another 1,000!

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MSPD was the first: http://www.lazylightning.org/the-rack-bar-grill-burnsville-mn#comment-283056

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It took lefty 2 years, 5 months, 13 days, 12 hours, 14 minutes, 23 seconds to reach 2000 comments. Just for reference, it took him 1 year, 1 month, 18 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes and 22 seconds to reach 1000 comments.

You can view his 1000th comment here:
http://www.lazylightning.org/d-spot-maplewood-mn#comment-120512

You can view his 1st comment here: http://www.lazylightning.org/st-paul-pioneer-press-ignores-do-not-call-list#comment-63099

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Jerk-off kid ruining a game/once-in-a-lifetime event because he isn’t given his God-given playing time and he doesn’t like his coaches.

Grown adults, many of whom have no good reason to be out on roads during a snowstorm pissing and moaning about a City/government not having every single road in an entire metro area pristine 24/7/365, especially at the exact moment they think it should be done and in the exact manner they think it should be done.

Now a bunch of freaking whiners screaming bloody murder because a private company they WILLINGLY do business with increases their rate a whole $1.99 for maintaining the infrastructure necessary to deliver their LUXURY SERVICE.

This has been one hell of a week on here.

“OMG! $1.99 more so I can continue to have a perfect signal to watch Real Housewives of Whereverthehell in HD on my 720″ TVs. Unconscionable! Call the City! Call the media! Call the FEDS! This is an outrage!”

Here’s my TGIF message to our Complaint Society, which seems to be just about everyone nowadays: Shut…the….f**k….up. This is not YOUR WORLD. Society doesn’t revolves around you, your needs, and your stupid demands. GET OVER YOURSELVES.

Rant over. Let the thumbsing downing commence.

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The article was about their profitability. It would seem that they made a profit last year. While they have a number of “profit centers” they have one that actually made more profit than the rest of the business alone. This means that this profit center made more in profit than the rest of the whole company alone. The business channel that made the profit? Dial up. I will say that again. Dial up.

Dial fucking bzzzzzzzzzzz… bazing….bazing…bzzzz…..phhhhht. Up.

Is it any wonder that people are bitching about $1.99 in increased fees because they still have a tube television and probably have not yet accessed the internet? Not to me. Not after finding out AOfuckingL is still in business and selling to people with 14,400 bps modems.

The fact they are complaining to the city is also hilarious. Cancel your service idiots. If I were Comcast, I would add a $100 fee for this. Sometimes firing your customers is a good idea, especially the ones stupid enough to complain to the government over 2 fucking dollars. They are more trouble than they are worth.

lefty

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