There is a battle being waged across Peabody and we’re not talking about the one being fought by candidates for municipal offices in these final days of the 2019 election season.
The fight by cable media giant Comcast to keep a grip on its Peabody monopoly is a losing battle, owing to the fact that Mayor Edward Bettencourt signed an agreement with New Jersey communications company RCN last summer to provide cable television and high-speed internet services in the city.
But RCN is a year away from getting wired up with its cables installed on local utility poles and its customer service systems up and running. Comcast is by no means staring defeat in the face: Sales representatives are out in Peabody neighborhoods checking up on customer satisfaction and offering reduced-cost packages.
Their efforts and Bettencourt’s decision to end Comcast’s 40-year history as a local cable provider underscore the intense competition defining the cable business, in particular internet and television packages offered to viewers.
If you want to make people shout and complain, start tampering with their cable offerings or jack up the prices they pay for them. Bettencourt preceded his decision to sign a deal between the city and RCN by citing frequent complaints he said he received from Peabody residents about the lack of alternatives to Comcast’s offerings and service.
Competition, said the mayor, is crucial to improving service and possibly lowering prices. Of course, the verdict is out on RCN and the company will have to successfully establish a service track record in Peabody before its marriage with the city can be described as a perfect union.
It’s amazing to think of all the technology and program availability transformations that have occurred during the decades Comcast has offered cable to Peabody. In 1979, cable TV almost had an almost exotic aura about it with most people in Massachusetts viewing network television or channel 38 and public television. The internet and mobile technology were still the stuff of science fiction and many households still had a rotary-dial phone in the home.
We’re in the 21st century and people glue their eyes to not one, not two, but at least three screens a day between television, laptops, and mobile devices.
Competition is so cutthroat and customer demands are so constant these days that the communication business could be compared to a skyscraper under construction that is constantly being redesigned even as it is being built.
Cities and towns have much more authority over cable service than other utilities, including electrical and natural gas suppliers. Bettencourt demonstrated that authority when he signed the deal with RCN. But the mayor’s signature is the first step, not the final one, in ensuring RCN’s debut in Peabody includes clear understandings about service responsibility and reliability and programming.
The battle for the hearts and minds of Peabody voters ends on Tuesday. The battle for the hearts and minds of cable customers is just beginning.
