TV and Internet

thomasmnile wrote:

Lwiddis wrote:
Not correct, thomasmnile. The California Public Utilities Commission regulates traditional wireline telecommunications facilities and services in California and is also the state video franchising authority in California. Your state, OP’s state may or may not.

Regulation of Cable/Satellite Providers

Reread the OP's post. Appears they are referring to their part time residence in Florida. Ultimate regulation of the provider is FCC. In Florida locally, it's the city or county government, and all they do is negotiate franchise agreements which these cable providers or their predecessors (since they have changed hands many times over the year and absorbed by Big Cable). I can tell you from experience ranting to the franchise grantors is a fundamental waste of time. Gotta keep the franchise fees and taxes (state and local) coming. State PSC here does electric utilities (private, not municipally owned), legacy wireline phone companies (who has that?) gas utilites, and pipeline transmission companies. No state oversight that I'm aware of in 5 decades living here.

Did you even bother reading the document in the link you posted?

"The Federal Communications Commission and local franchising authorities are responsible for enforcing a variety of cable television regulations. A franchising authority is the local municipal, county or other government organization that regulates certain aspects of the cable television industry at the state or local level. The name of the franchising authority may be on the front or back of your cable bill. If this information is not on your bill, contact your cable company or your local town or city hall.

The Commission expects cable operators to follow all of its rules and regulations. However, the FCC has designed enforcement mechanisms to protect consumers if these rules are not followed.

You should always contact your cable company first when you have a complaint. In many cases, the customer service representatives at your cable company will be able to assist you and solve your problem. The telephone number for your cable company should be on your cable bill. Your cable company has jurisdiction over the following issues:

Programming carried on the system. With the exception of rules that require cable systems to carry certain local broadcast stations, cable systems decide which programming services to carry. Therefore, you should contact your cable system if it has dropped a particular channel.
Carriage of FM and AM radio stations.
Charges for pay-per-view or pay-per-channel programming. The rates charged for this type of programming are not regulated."


Further it says..

"If you are not satisfied with your cable company's response, contact your local franchising authority.

Questions or complaints handled by your franchising authority include:

Rates for basic service and equipment, installation and service charges related to basic service. This refers to the lowest level of cable service and generally includes local broadcast channels and public, educational and governmental access channels.
Rates for cable programming services tiers, also known as "enhanced basic." Cable programming services tiers ("CPSTs") include those programming services except the basic service tier, and does not include any premium channels (such as HBO or Showtime) or any pay-per-view services. The CPST rate is determined by the cable operator and is not subject to government review.
Customer service problems, including billing disputes, office hours, telephone availability of personnel, installations, outages and service calls. Local franchise authorities may adopt the Commission's Customer Service rules, at any time. The local franchise authority must provide the cable operator 90-days notice prior to enforcing the federal standards and may not adopt more stringent standards without the cable operator's consent.
Franchise fees, which are determined and retained by local governments.
Signal quality, including interference and reception difficulties.
Use of public, educational, and governmental (PEG) channels. These channels may be required as part of the franchise agreement. Your local franchise authority can provide information on any terms or conditions of use."

Further on it says..

"You should contact the FCC if you have complaints or questions about the following issues:

Cable Consumer Complaints. File complaints at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints. Contact the FCC, Media Bureau, Policy Division, EEO Branch, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554.
Signal leakage from cable systems, which can result in interference to other users of the spectrum, including aeronautical services. Contact 1-888-225-5322 or send your inquiry to FCC, Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554.
Cable home wiring questions. If you believe that your cable company has violated the rules governing your ability to access and to use cable home wiring, please send a letter outlining the facts to the FCC, Media Bureau, Policy Division, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554.
Commercial limits for childrens' programming. Write to the FCC, Enforcement Bureau, Investigations & Hearings Division, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554.
Indecency and obscenity. Generally, the rules concerning the content of programming on cable channels are not as strict as the rules concerning programming content on non-cable channels. If you object to programming on a cable system, you may contact the FCC to determine what rules may be applicable and what action may be appropriate. Call 1-888-225-5322 or send your inquiry to FCC, 45 L Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20554."


Now, if you stayed fully awake reading that, you will notice that the absolute first place to start is YOUR LOCAL CABLE CO OFFICE.

IF no action or attempt to make it right THEN go to your LOCAL governing body (IE City, County officials) provided the Cable Co has a written contract with that LOCAL governing body (Cable cos often only have a written contract agreement with the local city for non compete reasons which prevent other cable cos from coming in to that area).

If all else fails, then contact FCC with a complaint.

It is the duty of the local cable co to make things right.

FCC has much bigger things to do than chase down random cable co outages that do not affect RF broadcast transmissions.