About six months later, the cable company - renamed MI-Connection - requested and received an additional $12.5 million from the towns.
Then on Jan. 30 of this year - just after the cable system celebrated its first birthday - the Mooresville Tribune published the following article, titled "Some fees to rise for MI-Connection customers": http://www2.mooresvilletribune.com/content/2009/jan/30/some-fees-rise-mi-connection-customers/news-local/
And hitting the mailboxes of MI-Connection subscribers either today or early next week: a notice that cable rates are going up an average of 9.3 percent, effective July 1, "as a result of the increased costs to MI-Connection" for "programming and other services."
In case you haven't received your notice already, here's a sneak peak of what you'll get:
And for a list of Frequently Asked Questions compiled by MI-Connection, click on these documents:
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18 comments:
WOW...a whopping 9.3%!! Are they honestly saying the people they buy the programming from have increased what they charge by 9.3% and they are merely passing it along??
Have Dish, Direct TV or Time Warner raised their rates 9.3%??? Uhhhh.....NO....but they buy programming from the same people.
Perhaps they are trying to make up for the fact that they have 5% fewer customers than when they took over....and they have a business plan that says they are supposed to GROW the customer base.
Where does this madness end??
Jim
Jim, the only way this will end is for MI to go belly up. The Rader bunch, including Thunberg, spent the money against all our wishes, and we will pay " ad infinitem".
November is approaching, and booting them out on their butts, will only stop them from making more bad judgments. We are all still stuck with their stupidity. Get all your friends to go out and vote out those who voted in favor.
This is the impetus I need to drop my cable subscription. Although TW has a presence here, I have been told in the past they don't serve my area near downtown.
I need suggestions on what cable provider to go with. I would like to avoid dish. If necessary, I will go back to antenna/digital converter box. The $15 cable special they offer is little more than local channels and govt access anyway.
Time Warner,has increased their rates also,The cost of Internet and watching TV is expensive.
They all have great start up fee's but after 2 years they are all terrible.
MI for the last 18 months has absorbed the rate increases by their providers, and hav'nt passed them along to their customers...Though who could predict the economic fall-out that has happened in the last six months?? No-one complains about the cost of milk, or even most of all Oil...Every company must pass the cost along to the consumers if they hope to survive in a failing economy..
The basic fact is that Government does not belong in the free enterprise system. Pure and simple. There was absolutely no practical reason for the municipalities to buy the cable system. Time Warner was already in line to buy the system and operate it. Now our elected officials have made a horrendous decision that will ultimately cost the citizens of Davidson and Mooresville dearly. And while no one could foresee the economic downturn that we are currently in coming at the time, it is a fact that purchasing this cable system was a risk that the Towns simply did not have to take. But they did. They gambled with other people's money and they lost. Or should I say the citizens lost.
Call 1-800-Directv
I have never known a utility company to lose money.. I'm sure the towns and cities did their homework before voting on buying the cable system. The people loaning the money must have known if this venture went bad, they would not lose their investment..Still not sure what you mean when you say the citizens pay dearly..
Yes....all providers have increased rates in the last year and a half. NOBODY has raised their rates 9.3%.
http://charlotte.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2009/01/12/daily7.html
http://www.dish-network-zone.com/news/dish-network-price-hike.htm
Jim
DISH ROCKS!
I've been dragging my feet for months now intending to switch over to Direct T.V. because Mi-Connection service is horrible.
4:14 - It is tax payer money, my tax money, your tax money that is funding MI. The fact that they have already had to come by and ask for more is an indication that they are not doing well. The fact that they are now having to raise rates in the middle of a substantial economic downturn when most of their customer base is cutting back on almost all expenses is another sign that they are having problems. You say you have never heard of a utility losing money. I say I have never heard of a efficient effective operation run by a government entitiy. I believe MI is just another example of major government boondoggle into an arena where they have no business going or ability to operate effectively.
We that live in Cornelius are being held hostage from MI as well, however we do not have a voice in their operations (as a town). We are being held hostage because our local government leaders decided to turn all the town's cable customers over to MI. I have often asked why and the response I receive is usually something to the effect of "We want to be good neighbors". Good neighbors on a sinking ship. Three town's held hostage by a failing utility. Dish or Direct TV here I come.
This is so sad its hard to comment. 1st the powers that be stuff MI-Connection down our throats now this. A $10 plus increase withe the economy being the way it is means tha MI will lose a lot of customers... With the money that Mooresville is wasting on not needed projects like the Mazzapa Rd park ( a money and crime pit waiting to happen) they could of held the line on this increase
The sad part is we're stuck with it. No one will pay us remotely close to what we owe on it and as it continues to bleed customers away Rader and Thunberg will continue to tell us it's "on the verge of turning the corner"....
A few points.
1. Each provider of services has to pay for the programming on thier system. The Town Commissioners were told by the supplier, Bristol Virginia Utilities, that MIC would get competitive programming rates. (Competitive to the big guys like Time Warner, Verizon, Cablevision). If MIC is not getting those rates, BVU should be asked to cover some of these costs. Also, maybe it is time to relook the rate BVU is charging MIC to operate our system.
2. The 'improvements' cited in the document supplied by Jamie are nothing more than what was promised to the subscribers of MIC. These improvments were supposed to be part of the original business plan and subsequent billing rates. Apparently, the cost of these improvements were either underestimated or unknown at the time of the MIC purchase. They should not be used as a basis( justification) for this increase. This is what we paid for in the beginning!!
3. A nine percent increase is ludricous. This system has only been in operation for a year and six months. If the customer straight lines this trend, fully expect 6 % year over year increases!
4. This Purchase was sold to us on the basis that it would attract new Commercial (High Revenue and Margin) customers and add additional residential customers becuase the MIC would be feature rich quickly. Appparnetly, this too, was an error in the "Business Plan". Neither of these happened.
OK, so where are we? MIC has clearly come a long way in a rather short time. There have been major improvements in the customer response times and the system stability and throughput. And the addition of some new (to MIC but old to Time Warner) features but MIC is now the "Queen of the Pigs!" A beautiful system, which is seeing declining revenues, increased costs and clearly lagging its competitors. This Pig is all dressed up but nobody wants to dance with her!
The Commissioners, Major (?) and the Board of Directors of MIC (Appointed by the Towns? ) should be brought to task on this debacle.
Just my humble opinion!
Not on the subject... Mooresville has a new Police Chief. Carl Robbins was promoted to this position this evening.
Great man to now run the police department.
Congraulations Chief Robbins
In February MIC "updated" their system on our street. After they left, we had snail-speed Internet and snowy television.
I contacted them. They returned and fixed the problem. But a few days later I noticed they'd added a large piece of equipment to the previous utility site along our yard, which had been left exposed to the weather with the cable connections to several nearby homes exposed--no cover or weather protection at all. Despite my call and an email that included a photograph of the mess, someone only installed a cover to the equipment two weeks ago. Essentially, this digital equipment and all the cable connections were exposed to ice and rain for three months.
This sloppy workmanship is bound to drive up the cost of operating MIC. We need professionals running the system--not rookies.
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