FiOS Gas comes to Yorktown

I meant to post this when I saw it a couple of weeks ago, but I noticed a FiOS banner at the Shell gas station on Commerce Street and Routes 202/35/118 in downtown Yorktown a couple of weeks ago. My family and I have seen this at stations in Cortlandt Manor and Wappingers Falls in the past, and we've started to call it "FiOS Gas". What they did at those stations is make a deal with the station owner to sell gas at what seemed to be 30c off the regular price per gallon, and Verizon would set up a FiOS sales booth at the station and their reps would try to sell you FiOS while you were in the station getting cheap gas (anyone who drove in got the discount -- signing up for FiOS was not required). Either I got there too late or they've changed their approach because I did not see a discounted gas price at the Shell station in Yorktown when I was there, but what I did notice was a $75 gift card offer for signing up for FiOS, which I had not noticed in the past. So, if you are planning to sign up for FiOS, be sure to be on the lookout for FiOS gas stations. And please post here if you see any in the Yorktown area!

Update: I was at the Poughkeepsie Galleria today and there was a FiOS booth set up, so I stopped by to ask about the FiOS gas promotion. It turns out the person at the booth was the same as had been at the Yorktown gas station (earlier this week, in addition to the time I saw it there). He confirmed that they've changed how they work at the gas stations, and no longer offer discounted gas to everyone (boo!), instead offering a $75 gas gift card if you sign up with them. He told me that they are not able to offer special promotions like $10 off per month that I have heard people were able to get when ordering over the phone, so if you can get that, it is a better option than signing up at the gas station promotion. Obviously, it does not hurt to try and get the best deal you can get when signing up. Oh yeah, they tried to sign me up for FiOS, even plugged in my phone number, but of course it said that it was not available :-(.

Verizon Franchise approved - FiOS TV is available in Yorktown!

The Verizon franchise agreement was apparently approved on Wednesday because I got the following note from a co-worker who has been anxiously waiting for FiOS TV to become available:

FIOS TV showed up on Friday as available at my address. I've been getting flyers for a $94.99 bundle.....

So, Saturday morning I was able to order that $94.99 package (HD extreme TV, FIOS 20/5, phone). The deal they offered included the HD set top box and an additional $10 off - with taxes the rep estimated it would cost $105 per month for the first year. Also, he said verizon was about to switch over to all digital telephone service (apparently the service provided now is conventional POTS) and that that would reduce the taxes and add a lot of features. Installation is scheduled for 11/26....I'll let you know how that goes. It should be relatively quick, as most of the pieces are already set up.

The digital TV conversion and cable customers

It appears that there is a lot of confusion about the February 2009 changeover to Digital TV, especially as it pertains to cable television customers. Cablevision has done their part to add to this confusion by their recent switch of several channels (most recently the Public Access, Educational and Government stations, collecting known as the PEG channels) to digital. Just in this past week I’ve heard of two people who tried to get the conversion boxes to work with their cable TV service.

So let me start by saying something that I hope will clear things up for most of you. If you are a cable TV customer and have all of your televisions connected to cable (with or without boxes), the February changeover does not apply to you. The $40 coupons and conversion boxes you buy with them? You don’t need them. If you get one, you can’t plug cable into them. They are only for customers who get their signal over the air (i.e., rabbit ears or roof antenna). They are not a substitute for the boxes you get from the cable company (unfortunately).

Now, let me address the Cablevision conversion of some channels to digital. They started by converting about a dozen back in August, and the PEG channels in September. Cablevision says that 85% of their customers are digital, so they make it seem like it doesn’t affect them and that it only affects a minimal number of customers. But I know plenty of people (myself included) who have cable boxes on some sets but not others (like in the kitchen, or in my case on my DVR). Those folks can no longer access these channels on the box-less analog sets. I can no longer record town board meetings or the educational channel on my DVR. My friend the author can no longer watch Book TV (on CSPAN) from his kitchen (although he can on his big HD set with a cable box). The town and schools will need to pay for boxes for every set they want to be able to view their own channels (ouch!). Several towns have filed complaints with the Public Service Commission over the PEG change, including Yorktown. Whether they will do anything about it is anyone’s guess, but I wouldn’t bet on it.

Now, if you have a fairly new television with a “QAM” tuner (short for quadrature amplitude modulation, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAM_tuner for more details), you can still watch the PEG channels without any box. This is because the QAM tuner allows you to watch digital channels. However, to add to the confusion, you will NOT be able to view the other digital channels that were removed earlier, because those are scrambled and need the box (or a CableCARD, which is a topic for another day).

The good news is that Cablevision does not have any plans to discontinue their analog service until 2012, which is the deadline for cable services to switch to digital (I didn’t even know there was such a deadline!). Here’s an interesting article on that topic: http://saveaccess.org/node/2171. That said, I would expect that the number of analog channels will continue to shrink over time. Why? Because analog channels take a lot more bandwidth than digital and Cablevision needs that bandwidth to add more HD channels to the system. So look for more low rated channels to drop off the analog service.

If you are not currently a digital customer, you can get one free digital box from Cablevision, and I am told that it will be free forever, so long as you do not change your service. Earlier reports had said that there would be a charge after the first year. You have until the end of 2008 to request it. Call customer service if this applies to you.

How does this affect the Verizon FiOS service? I’m told that their service is fully digital, so you will need a box for every set. Something to consider if you want to switch providers, although Verizon does appear to have some bundle deals on box rentals. And I have read something about $3 boxes (or maybe even free) for low end boxes, but I do not see anything on their site.

Confused? Please post your questions here and I’ll try to answer them.

Verizon Agreement Approved

I just came back from the Town Board meeting and the Verizon franchise agreement has been approved. The next step is PSC approval. I'm not sure how long that will take (I will try to find out) but hopefully it won't be longer than a couple of months.

Some highlights of the agreement, which runs for 15 years:
- Two educational channels, one each for Lakeland and Yorktown, so both can broadcast 7 days a week
- $150,000 in PEG (Public, Educational and Government) grants, spread over the length of the contract
- $27,000 in connectivity grants, which is in lieu of Internet access

Several Verizon employees I spoke to said that they had ramped up their buildout in Yorktown (I was told that they currently have 45% complete) so hopefully those of us who do not have FiOS Internet yet will have it sooner rather than later.

Update: I am told that they hope to have the PSC approve the franchise on November 12th. If it does not get done then, it would be December 10th. I suspect they can turn on the service almost immediately after that.

Article in Westchester paper about Cablevision's switch of PEG channels to digital

The deadline for requesting a free converter box is 10/16, so if you have not done so already, you probably want to call Cablevision. Of course, this does not make what they are doing right, and after a year you will probably have to pay for the box. I think more towns should file complaints with the PSC and make them investigate the legality.

Here's an article from the 10/4 Journal News on the topic:

Officials, users criticize Cablevision changes on government programming

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081004/NEWS02/810040361/1136/SPORTS0265

Tentative agreement with Verizon

The Town of Yorktown has reached a tentative agreement with Verizon regarding a cable franchise. There will be a public hearing at the Town Board meeting on Tuesday, October 21st, to be held at the John C Hart Memorial Library in Shrub Oak.

The meeting is scheduled to start at 7:30pm. I don't know the exact time of the public hearing but hopefully it won't start much after 8 (it is fairly early on the agenda).

If you have interest in the Verizon franchise, please attend and make your views known

Article in Rockland paper about Cablevision's switch of PEG channels to digital

I guess the switchover took place yesterday. Would residents like the Town Board to invite the rep from Cablevision to attend a board meeting to answer concerns like this (as they were doing in Haverstraw)? If people think it's worthwhile, I will suggest it. Not clear it would convince them to change their plans, of course.

http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080917/NEWS03/809170385/-1/SPORTS

By the way, I am amazed at the number of people (relatively small, but I never expected that anyone would find this blog) who have told me that they read it. Feel free to reply and tell me what your concerns are.

Cablevision goes digital early with public access channels

This is from the Lewisboro Ledger web site (http://www.acorn-online.com/joomla15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6702:cablevision-goes-digital-early-with-public-access-channels-&catid=19:lewisboro-news&Itemid=79) but it applies to Yorktown as well. It means that customers without a digital cable box or new digital ready TV will no longer be able to watch the government and education channels. I don't like this at all, but Cablevision is doing it system-wide (as they did with the recent moving of Family Cable channels to digital) so I am not sure what can be done to stop it.

As of Sept. 16, Cablevision’s public, education and government access and local programming channels will be transmitted only in a digital format. Lewisboro channels affected are channels 18, 20 and 74.

As a result of the change, a digital cable-ready television, a digital cable box or a CableCARD will be needed to receive these channels.

Residents with questions may contact Robert Hoch of Cablevision at 378-4515.

Welcome / State of Verizon Negotiations

Greetings, and thanks for visiting my blog. I'm Bill Rubin, co-chair of the Yorktown Cable Advisory Committee in Yorktown, NY. A town resident (and former cable committee member) suggested I create a blog where residents can discuss the state of cable television in Yorktown. It sounded like a good idea to me, so I created this page. I'm going to start by posting the letter that I had published in North County News last week, to try and correct some misinformation that was being spread in letters to the editor as well as an article a few weeks earlier. More after the letter.

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It appears from the article in NCN a few weeks ago and recent letters to the editor that there is a tremendous amount of interest in having Verizon as a provider of Cable TV services in Yorktown (not surprising). Sadly, there seems to be just as much misinformation being spread, particularly by people who have no first-hand information on the negotiations. In the interest of setting the record straight and getting accurate information out, I would like to share the following.

1) Verizon negotiators have been meeting with town representatives for the past several months, and continue to - in fact we just met with them last week. There is absolutely no evidence (or even a hint) that they plan to withdraw from negotiations to focus on other “less hostile communities”.

2) Verizon continues to install FiOS capability in the town (you may even have seen them running fiber in your area). Several residents currently have FiOS Internet access and will be able to receive FiOS TV as soon as a franchise agreement is negotiated and approved by the PSC. Once again, there is no evidence that this is slowing down as one might expect if one thought that Verizon was stopping negotiations.

3) The speed (or lack thereof) of our negotiations with Verizon has absolutely nothing to do with our relationship with Cablevision. Our Cablevision franchise agreement is non-exclusive, which means that we can also have an agreement with Verizon, as has occurred in many other towns. Cablevision knows this, they signed the agreement.

4) We do NOT have a standard franchise agreement with Cablevision, and we will not have one with Verizon. Obviously there is a standard framework but every municipality that has negotiated a franchise agreement with Verizon has its own unique requirements, which is why it takes so long (the recently approved NYC FiOS agreement took YEARS).

5) We all understand that residents would like to receive FiOS TV as soon as possible and are optimistic that we will conclude negotiations with Verizon in the near future. However, there are issues still being discussed which affect the town in a material way and we do not want to make the wrong decision just so we have something to sign. Due to the “level playing field” requirements of the Public Service Commission, the agreement we sign with Verizon becomes the basis for our new franchise agreement with Cablevision when the current contract expires next year. This makes it doubly important that we make the right decisions now.

When we do have a franchise agreement with Verizon, residents will be able compare their offerings with Cablevision’s and decide for themselves which is better for them. I suspect that many will find that the prices are comparable due to competition. However, their packages are different, as is everyone’s situation. It is our hope to give Yorktown residents that opportunity as soon as possible.

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That was the end of the letter. An addendum to it is that right after I emailed it to NCN, I saw a truck with a big spool of fiber driving around my neighborhood. I subsequently saw several lawns marked with flags identifying existing utilities in preparation of digging. I then received a letter in the mail from Verizon saying that they were upgrading the network in my neighborhood and should expect some digging. Then my lawn got marked and I had a note on my door saying that they'd be starting construction the following day. So it appears that my block will be getting FiOS a lot sooner than I expected. Of course it will be data and phone only until there is a franchise agreement.