Michael's Insight

Racing toward the digital transition?

DTV NASCAR Campaign Off To Bumpy Start [Broadcasting and Cable]

In an effort to raise awareness about the transition to digital television, the FCC has decided to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland's #38 Ford. The race car features the phrase "Is your TV ready for digital?" on the hood. The cost to taxpayers?  $350,000!

In its first race, the #38 DTV Ford crashed into the wall at the Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, with 13 laps remaining in the race. Car and driver David Gilliland will be fine but just think about it; in a world where the Federal government is spending a trillion dollars to save the economy, how could the FCC write a check for $350,000 to paint a slogan on the side of a racecar?

The truth about net neutrality and the big money behind it

Finally, a truthful article was published on Wednesday about the little known fact of who really invented the debate about net neutrality.  When you finish here, click on it -- it's a must read.  The story was published in a most unlikely place too - The San Francisco Enquirer - the big hometown newspaper serving the Silicon Valley.  And guess who they identify as the inventor of this hot political debate...

Initially, network neutrality was the demand that network carriers ignore the Internet's fundamental inequality. Google had good reason to advocate this, because it is advantaged by a status quo in which money buys privilege. Any move by carriers to selectively boost speeds for fees dulls the advantage Google has secured for itself by building huge complexes of hundreds of thousands of computers.

There you have it.  Net neutrality, and all the puff about fairness, equality and openness is all about "money buy[ing] privilege."  And this time, I didn't say it, Google's own hometown paper did.

Shame on you AT&T!

AT&T has stooped to a new low by running "confusion" ads in Louisville, KY.  The ads obviously were designed to suggest that their bundled pricing is more of a guarantee than ours.  Nothing could be further from the truth. 

We sent a letter to AT&T asking them to stop misleading consumers and guess what -- their lawyers refused. 

I'll be specific and you judge for yourself.

NYTimes Cable Story and a Rash of Bash

Thanks to Saturday's New York Times article on cable rates, there was a rash of cable bashing going on this weekend.  Blogs all over the place, especially from Silicon Valley, piled on.

In one of my first posts, I admitted that I read certain blogs even before I read the New York Times.  I guess one reason for that is because they're all to be taken with an equal amount of skepticism -- not just the blogs but the Times too.

WOW! Where's our Workforce?

A while back we were given the opportunity to hire a number of experienced customer service representatives who were looking for new positions.  Why?  Because their jobs were eliminated when their employer and our competitor -- WOW -- closed one of their local call centers.

Human Contact Doesn't Cost Extra at Insight

According to recent articles on Broadband Reports and MSNBC, AT&T is planning to charge customers $5 to talk to a live billing representative, even if you're the victim of identity theft. Broadband Reports says: 

We mentioned in March that AT&T is prepped to start charging $5 in May if you want to talk to a live billing rep over the phone. MSNBC discovers the practice after an id theft victim (forced to close her checking account) was charged $2 for trying to pay AT&T in cash:

Payne objected to the "administrative charge" that was added to her bill but got no sympathy. Instead, she said, she was told she should consider herself lucky because the fee was about to go up to $5.

"We want our associates to spend their time helping customers as they are thinking about their wireless plans or looking at phones," AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel says.

You gotta be kidding me. Apparently, AT&T doesn't want