TV and Internet

[monkey44]

We just had Fiber Optic cable installed in out community 1500 homes. Since then, a lot of the homes get freeze picture, and pixelation frequently. We also get WIFI on same cable ... and drop the connection for ten or fifteen minutes at a time before it re-connects. The set-up it WIFI TV as well as internet. So we lose everything.

Not one or two, but probably all or most homes. Comcast says it's US, our house cable or our TV or our equipment (Their equipment) and mostly will do very little. Occasionaly, will dend out a tech and tell us everything is working properly. IT's NOT ...

We are a senior community, and lots of folks online or on TV and much of the day. This install is recently complete - several months.

I suspect Comcast installed a lower grade or small size Fiber Optic cable, and it's over-loaded. Any comment from you tech experts?? thx

BTW: All boxes in our homes are new, and installed at the same time.

[drsteve]

In many markets Comcast has rebranded themselves as "Xfinity" in an effort to shed the stench of their well-earned reputation for delivering terrible customer service.

[monkey44]

wa8yxm wrote:

monkey44 wrote:

BTW: We only got residual wind and rain from Ian, not Hurricane force.

Though you only got "Residual wind and rain" Do you now where Comcast's "head end" is (The central distribution center) and how bad they got hit.. And it only takes one lightening bolt in the right place and you get nothing.. Now assuming the cable is all fiber you don't get "Zapped" (But if there are power wires paralleling the cable... Well I( don't know So long as there is anough FIBER ONLY between you and the street should be safe) But the cable is fried, well fried, and the amplifiers/relays as well.

OK - wa8yxm ssume you are correct - as you usually are. All of us were getting lost signals and pixelation months BEFORE Hurricane Ian hit anywhere. So, Ian might have 'injured' Comcast, but it had nothing to do with our original installation problems which Comcast continously ignores. Now, it's blaming Ian - a conventient answer to use whenever we call Comcast. We now have a Tech (community member) compiling a formal complaint.

A NOTE: Comcast continues to get paid monthly for our community service because it's part of a bulk deal and in our HOA fees. Legally complex, but we cannot refuse to pay our HOA fees, and HOA cannot refuse to pay Comcast unless our BoD takes legal action. Our BoD is unwilling, because - well, it's a relatively typical BoD without knowledge or 'guts'... in cases like this. BoD says it's our individual problem to contact Comcast ... Not true, HOA / BoD has a contract with Comcast, not the individual community homeowner.

I know, an HOA, but as I said, it is what it is and we cannot do anything individually. So, it's a struggle, but we're continuing the fight and not lying down for it.

I originally opened this thred to gather a bit of tech info, but it seems like it's turned into a Monkey44 complaint thread about HOA and BOD stuff. Not my intent, but M44 certainly appreciates all the input. Will let folks know the outcome, if anyone's interested. 🙂

[Gdetrailer]

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.

[wa8yxm]

monkey44 wrote:

BTW: We only got residual wind and rain from Ian, not Hurricane force.

Though you only got "Residual wind and rain" Do you now where Comcast's "head end" is (The central distribution center) and how bad they got hit.. And it only takes one lightening bolt in the right place and you get nothing.. Now assuming the cable is all fiber you don't get "Zapped" (But if there are power wires paralleling the cable... Well I( don't know So long as there is anough FIBER ONLY between you and the street should be safe) But the cable is fried, well fried, and the amplifiers/relays as well.

[thomasmnile]

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.

[monkey44]

We all had our coax tested and repaired (in-house) where necessary at the same time as the new equipment was installed.

After this discussion here, and with some techs in our community, I'm convinced it's a Comcast system-wide issue in our new installation of the Fiber Optic. Comcast installed Fiber, then had to return numerous times and replace the new underground cable before it would connect a signal to the many of the homes. A mess, and lots of damage to our yards.

[2oldman]

monkey44 wrote:
buT, we have oringinal coax cable in our homes and equipment is coax connectable, not Fiber Optic.

I seem to remember I had Ethernet from the outside box to the router. Maybe coax is your issue.

[monkey44]

Note from Comcast: We have fixed the issue. It was Hurricane Ian. All complants before today will be ignored. If you have issues from today, photo it an include it in your complaint. Altho' our complaints began well before the convience of Hurricane Ian. SO, unless COmcast has a crystal ball to predict the effects of Ian, it's once again full of ...it.

These issues have been happening BEFORE Ian. Ian is a convenient scapegoat and deflection of responsibility. We have a central email to our HOA community rep that collects our complaints. But that goes nowhere with Comcast. Our in-house community tech rep collects only, did not contact Comcast, just made a record. How absurd is that? We just dismissed the Tech for lack of action, and we now have a new one. We'll see what he does. But, at least we all have a record.

AS for the 'dozen homeowners", planty more than that - probably in the hundreds from a community of 1500 homes. We'll win this, but it takes Comcast forever to finally act. HOA will probably have to threaten withholding payment before Comcast acts to repair it. It's a brand new sytem, so it should work. RIght? It's not old and worn out.

It's probably not feasible to coordinate "at the same time" between our residents, but we can log individually when it happens. We have a new 'blurb' from our HOA that we should begin logging the time and photo the screen error. It's definitely community wide, not individual. We have a community social forum, so it's discussed frequently.

BTW: We only got residual wind and rain from Ian, not Hurricane force.

[Krusty]

I would take a picture and keep a log of every time it happens. Try to get your neighbors to do the same thing

[Lwiddis]

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.

[valhalla360]

joebedford wrote:
Have you checked with a neighbour when your internet / tv goes out? Are they out at the same time?

This ^^^^

To establish it's not your house, if you can get a dozen homeowners documenting that they all went out simultaneously, it's very unlikely to be an issue in your home.

If it's just you, it's very easy for them to claim that it's not their portion of the service.

[wa8yxm]

When I said the cable system is regulated by Federal (FCC) State or local. Local authority regulates the install of the cable itself. State may regulate all utilities (Like Gas and Electric) But the FCC regulates the transmission of signals. Yes. it's complex.. But start complaining.

If the system is not working as it should.. They need to fix it. Comcast (And I think Comcast and Spectrum may be.. related) has a rather bad satisfication rating among my online friends.. Don't know the Official ratings but Is see lots and I mean LOTS of complaints about 'em.

[pianotuna]

monkey44 wrote:
I just ran a speed test now ... 111 mbps DL --- 9 mbps UL

Run the speed test 3x; wait an hour, run it 3x again. Run it again when you believe the system is loaded.

I've been in two homes with fiber.

500 down and I don't remember the up--but it was blazingly fast.

[joebedford]

Have you checked with a neighbour when your internet / tv goes out? Are they out at the same time?

We're at 27 down / 6 up. Plenty good to stream two at a time. There's nothing wrong with your speed (when it works)