i consider it a "glitch" if the cable company is hiring technicians who don't know how to do the job right.

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quote:

Originally posted by lücid i consider it a "glitch" if the cable company is hiring technicians who don't know how to do the job right.

its not that they dont know how to do their job right. they are human. think about it this way.

your the tech. in the morning when you get in you have 5 service calls and 3 installs. 2 of the installs are 2 outlets + internet. all 3 installs are overhead drops and they arent run. you think he will get to all that stuff if he takes his sweet time? hell no. a 2 outlet tv install normally takes about 1 to 1.5hrs with the overhead drop. lets just make the service calls easy and they are all just easy issues that they are there for 30 mins each. so lets calculate that.

2 tv installs + internet = 4hrs +30mins drive time to each place = 5hrs
1hr lunch
5 svc calls 30mins each + 15mins drive to each = 3.75hrs
total = 9.75hrs

now he is SUPPOSED to complete that all in 8 work hours.

i hate cable companies. they over charge because there's no competition. Internet is $57 and standard tv package is $45. I watch only a handful of channels. So my monthly bill is a little over $100, that's $1,200/yr for internet and tv, what a rip off!

quote:

Originally posted by igottaknow i hate cable companies. they over charge because there's no competition. Internet is $57 and standard tv package is $45. I watch only a handful of channels. So my monthly bill is a little over $100, that's $1,200/yr for internet and tv, what a rip off!

the price of cable tv isnt something the cable company can do anything about really. the content providers wont allow less than $40/month for the cable service we get in the populated areas.

the internet though is a different story. cable companies make boat loads off their internet.

I used to be the guy that came to your door to install cable, and more specifically, your internet services...It basically comes down to this. The internet and cable can go through the same line because cable has a much higher capacity to transmit information than does the phone line; therefore, cable can do all three without a problem, (this may have changed in regards to phone lines transmitting all three since I have last installed internet).

Since the internet goes through the same line as cable, provided you have cable coming through ok, and you haven't spliced the line too much, then there won't be a problem at your end, unles the modem is faulty. The line needs to be able to transmit a certain amount of info at a given rate, and this rate is affected by the strength of the signal, hence, when you splice your cable eight times in one house, certain channels come in fuzzy, a lack of signal; it has been diluted too much via splicing to provide a nice picture. The internet is more sensitive. It used to be that i-net needed its own separate cable line from the box, which may also have changed. If you don't have cable working properly, then you can guess the source of the problem is probably the line running to your house from the tap, or pole.



Therfore, the only real problem can be at the central office. They can perform the necessary tests from the office to determine if the signal coming through is adequate, called a ping test. They also have the ability to reset your modem, which is usually the only other source of trouble. It's basically like rebooting your computer. On and off, no one but techies really know why a computer restarts perfectly after a crash, and I doubt any mindless able guy, me, could tell you either. (the short answer to this question is that I don't fucking know)

When I installed the internet, the technology was brand new, so there were often delays of weeks to fix problems, so it's kinda cool to here they've finally been able to implement a basic, and speedy standard of service...for the most part, it seems.

I hope this was accurate, as it has been some time since I've had any need to provide this knowledge, and I wasn't very accurate back then, so let me know if anyone has a correction for me, I'd like to hear about it.
That'll be fifty-nine ninety-five.

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Last edited by misterpink on Mar-07-2007 at 23:17

quote:

Originally posted by misterpink I used to be the guy that came to your door to install cable, and more specifically, your internet services...It basically comes down to this. The internet and cable can go through the same line because cable has a much higher capacity to transmit information than does the phone line; therefore, cable can do all three without a problem, (this may have changed in regards to phone lines transmitting all three since I have last installed internet). Since the internet goes through the same line as cable, provided you have cable coming through ok, and you haven't spliced the line too much, then there won't be a problem at your end, unles the modem is faulty. The line needs to be able to transmit a certain amount of info at a given rate, and this rate is affected by the strength of the signal, hence, when you splice your cable eight times in one house, certain channels come in fuzzy, a lack of signal; it has been diluted too much via splicing to provide a nice picture. The internet is more sensitive. It used to be that i-net needed its own separate cable line from the box, which may also have changed. Therfore, the only real problem can be at the central office. They can perform the necessary tests from the office to determine if the signal coming through is adequate, called a ping test. If you don't have cable working properly, then you can guess the source of the problem is probably the line running to your house from the tap, or pole. They also have the ability to reset your modem, which is usually the only other source of trouble. It's basically like rebooting your computer. On and off, no one but techies really know why a computer restarts perfectly after a crash, and I doubt any mindless able guy, me, could tell you either. (the short answer to this question is that I don't fucking know) When I installed the internet, the technology was brand new, so there were often delays of weeks to fix problems, so it's kinda cool to here they've finally been able to implement a basic, and speedy standard of service...for the most part, it seems. I hope this was accurate, as it has been some time since I've had any need to provide this knowledge, and I wasn't very accurate back then, so let me know if anyone has a correction for me, I'd like to hear about it. That'll be fifty-nine ninety-five.

well things have changed a lot.

they have changed the way they break up the nodes. they put less on each node. the topology has slightly changed but is mostly the same.

was the stuff you installed 1way or 2 way? i know i had to deal with both with the company i worked for.

also the headend equipment has changed tremendously.

they no longer check signal strength via the ping test.

they just look at the power levels and they have set tolerances.

they can also put 3 devices on the same tap and the internet can be included in those 3 devices. its no longer required to have a dedicated internet tap.

otherwise everything you said is spot on.

quote:

Originally posted by gehzumteufel the price of cable tv isnt something the cable company can do anything about really. the content providers wont allow less than $40/month for the cable service we get in the populated areas.

I've never heard of that, sounds more like a fake excuse. Content providers can't dictate what the distributors charge. There are also packages under $40 like the stripped down 4 channel local package for $15/month and there is satellite tv that offers $25 dollar packages. Time/Warner is both a distributor and content provider. The cable companies want you to pay that much for cable. I heard that congress was going force them to allow customers to pick and pay for only the channels they want. Experts say that the cable companies would counter by restructuring it so you would still pay the same amount. Like they do for utilities, $25 dollar delivery fee then like $8 per channel making cost of a few channels close to what you would pay for a bundled package.

Last edited by igottaknow on Mar-07-2007 at 23:34

quote:

Originally posted by igottaknow I've never heard of that, sounds more like a fake excuse. Content providers can't dictate what the distributors charge. There are also packages under $40 like the stripped down 4 channel local package for $15/month and there is satellite tv that offers $25 dollar packages. Time/Warner is both a distributor and content provider. The cable companies want you to pay that much for cable. I heard that congress was going force them to allow customers to pick and pay for only the channels they want. Experts say that the cable companies would counter by restructuring it so you would still pay the same amount. Like they do for utilities, $25 dollar delivery fee then like $8 per channel making cost of a few channels close to what you would pay for a bundled package.

i worked for a small cable company and im telling you that from experience. im not saying people like time warner and comcast cant throw their weight around but the fact that they dont make much money off tv service in the first place makes it hard to lower the price. we as a company made i think it was like $10-12 per subscriber i cant remember. thats not that much considering all the overhead. now internet service is where they make the money. it cost us around 12/month for each subscriber and we charged $40 for tv subscribers and $50 for non.

the alacarte thing is bad. it will actually raise prices because the way the contracts are worked out is that for the basic package (not the limited basic) they will have a set of channels and the price will be set at $X/sub.

it took the company i worked for over a year to get the wrinkles worked out for their HD service. they wanted way too much money so it took a lot longer than it was supposed too.

quote:

Originally posted by gehzumteufel i worked for a small cable company and im telling you that from experience. im not saying people like time warner and comcast cant throw their weight around but the fact that they dont make much money off tv service in the first place makes it hard to lower the price. we as a company made i think it was like $10-12 per subscriber i cant remember. thats not that much considering all the overhead. now internet service is where they make the money. it cost us around 12/month for each subscriber and we charged $40 for tv subscribers and $50 for non. the alacarte thing is bad. it will actually raise prices because the way the contracts are worked out is that for the basic package (not the limited basic) they will have a set of channels and the price will be set at $X/sub. it took the company i worked for over a year to get the wrinkles worked out for their HD service. they wanted way too much money so it took a lot longer than it was supposed too.

What I'm saying is its unfair to force the consumers to pay for programming they don't want. Its also a better way to evaluate how much a content provider should get paid. Let say 90% of customers want HBO, while only 10% want MTV2. Price of the content should be based on its demand. People like choice they don't like packages dictated to them and the cable companies use it up sell you on channels you don't want. It be like going to Blockbuster and being forced to get five bad movies with the one you want. They're stuck in an old business model and need to change.

Btw, I have a hard time believing the cable companies are having a hard time turning a profit. I don't think I can ever remember any of them going bankrupt. Unlike the broadcast networks, they have a dual revenue stream subscription and advertisement.

Last edited by igottaknow on Mar-08-2007 at 00:45

quote:

Originally posted by D-res plus juan. delivery 8 minutes after placing the call. can't beat that

lol i remember you talkin about that place, i still have to go

quote:

Originally posted by lücid but for technicians and stuff, part of their job requirement is to drive to the customers house and to get there on time.

there's a good reason why time warner gives us a 4 hour block of time for their technicians to arrive!