AT&T emails disappearing

that

It was written into every CATV franchise I ever saw. It allows the company time to remove their electronics and hardware from the right of way. It was there to prevent some hothead politician from dumping a franchisee at every renewal. Some cities thought they could force them to abandon their investment, and a lot of attempts to revoke a franchise were done after a major upgrade.

If one company is trying to build while another is removing equipment, it gets messy. People have been hurt, and a lot of assets stolen. Just remember that some CATV companies hire people like dimbulb.

water

marginal),

If people want good service it isn't cheap. If you are in a high lightning or hurricane area, it gets even higher. The cheapest are systems that can be self financed, instead of a 20 year loan on equipment that will need replaced 10-15 years.

They tried to make United Video remove it's sat dishes and take down the tower before it was overturned.

The city of Middletown Ohio passed a law restricting ALL antennas to no more than 10 feet over any structure. One of my commercial two way radio stations called me in a panic, when he received a letter form the city's lawyer. I reminded him about his permit from the FAA for his antenna, and told him to call the city and tell them he would take down his antenna after they removed the city's antennas from a nearby water tower. It only took a few days to repeal 'that' stupid law.

that

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Sigh...

I thought that was now part of AOL's AIM Email service?

are

that

Sure, they can retrieve their property but why would no one else be able to "_build_ and operate a _new_ system"?

Since it's all subbed out, it would be the same company doing all the work.

If what you say is true (and no reason to suspect otherwise), once a franchisee always the franchisee.

water

marginal),

taxes

No reason to believe that it can't be run well. The other city services certainly beat the cable company's, hands down.

I'm sure the FCC had a say in the matter.

Again, the FCC has something to say about this.

are

getting

that

Contract law. The ability to work with no one in your way. Also, it can take years to find anyone who wants to build in a city that has terminated a franchise. Some cities got no response for franchise requests. Chicago wanted whoever bid to agree no to disconnect people for non payment, and to assume liability if their employees were killed in some parts of the city.

What makes you think that all work 'is subbed out'? Especially when a system is being wrecked out? You have people and trucks no longer needed to maintain a system, so why would you hire someone else? If the system is old, they just use hydraulic power shears to cut the coax & strand at every pole. If it is newer, they may want to save the passives along with the amplifiers.

No. They run a fixed length, depending on each issue or renewal. They can be terminated, but it is a messy business. The franchise document can run several hundred pages, and the local government would have to prove that there was no reasonable attempt to meet the contract. That can drag out for years in court, unless the owner has already decided to shut down.

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Good luck. I have never hear of one that was. Too many good ol' boys and union members who don't give a damn about what doesn't affect the service to their homes.

It never got to the FCC. First of all, the radio & TV stations made fun of the idiots on the air and told the public that there could be no radio or TV without the banned antennas. Then the public got mad.

Once again, it was shot down so fast that it never got to the FCC.

Sure Thunderbird can do that! Just click that Dropdown-Arrow right near the "Get Mail"-Button and hit "Get All new Messages" or press CTRL+SHIFT+T

HTH

Bernd

that

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That's exaclty what they did when it was over :-)

Yes, thanks, Joel pointed that out in another post. I will try that but not today because I am in the middle of a back-and-forth design review for a client.

Maybe, but back in the 90's I cancelled my CompuServe service plan because the local phone company offered a better deal. And I had a new email address for years by then. Thought everyone had corrected the address book but ...

there are

getting

bad that

build a

Sure, but contract law goes both directions; it takes two to agree to stupid terms.

There has to be money to be made, sure.

The fist part is silliness, though to be expected of Chicago. The second is only reasonable.

Many systems are, totally. It's becoming more and more common.

In the systems I've been in, since Adelphia went away, all work has been subbed out. There *aren't* any company technicians.

Typical cost/benefit analysis.

My point being that even after a contract non-renewal, if the "wrecking" contract is valid, no one would wait for the wrecking and re-installation, so the contract is essentially permanent. The city would be over the proverbial barrel. Why would they agree to such; it takes two...

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(what

pay

Why would cable TV and Internet be inherently different than water, electricity, or garbage collection? I'd rather the city not be involved in any of that, but they are.

Again, the point being that the city had nothing to say about that. Any such laws were unenforceable from the get-go. The city attorney should have been fired for letting it get that far.

It was an unenforceable law. They should have been thrown out for stupidity.

He'll probably get a nice fat pension :-(

Because they rarely pay for proper employee training, and try to use the equipment long after it needs replaced so they can spend the income on other projects. Another is that a lot of government employees belong to unions where "that's not my job" is heard far more often than, "I took care of it"

In Kalifornika, for sure.

The same should be true of the other departments, but doesn't seem so. Given the level of expertise I've seen with cable companies, I'm not too worried about it being worse.

Good luck with that.

Not possible. No luck needed.