Cable costs

When my cable TV bill arrived recently it angered me. The 35 percent increase seemed excessive; but I couldn't make up my mind as to whom or what I should be upset with: AT&T for the increase or the Hempfield Township supervisors for allowing the cable company to get away with it. The postcard from AT&T that arrived Feb. 26, indicating that I should be grateful the rates were not increased earlier, tilted my ire in their direction.

That same evening CBS news carried a story regarding cable rate increases in general. CBS appeared to question those increases it described as ranging between 5 percent and 13 percent nationwide. This, as I'm looking at a bill that had gone up 35 percent. CBS also indicated that it had been informed that the cost of programs had gone up about 15 percent on average. AT&T's postcard blamed our increase on the increase it had to pay for programming. I assume we are to believe that AT&T permits the various cable networks to charge AT&T over 200 percent more for programs than other cable companies pay for the same programs. I bet AT&T's stockholders wouldn't like to hear that.

On my bill Hempfield Township is shown as the franchise authority, and on the last bill AT&T had charged me a $2.10 'franchise fee.' According to township Supervisor Bill Reese, federal law permits a political entity to charge the cable company a fee for doing business within its jurisdiction but is not allowed to regulate rates or programming. Last year Hempfield received $290,000 in such fees. AT&T collects that money from us, its cable customers, and gives it to the township. A cynical person might look at that arrangement as a cushy way for a cable company to pay a political entity to not make waves and allow the cable company to gouge its customers as it sees fit.

Closer examination of my AT&T Broadband bill revealed that the charge for 'Expanded Basic' had been increased a whopping 52.4 percent. That's the part that covers all those great new channels we can now receive - E!, International, Oxygen, TV Guide, ESPN2, C-SPAN2 and the Home Shopping Network. There were a few good and worthwhile channels added to the menu but hardly enough to justify the huge increase in our bills. As a matter of fact, it seems to me that channels like QVC and the HSN should be paying AT&T to carry them and not the other way around. They are, after all, 24-hour commercials.

At their March 12 meeting, Hempfield supervisors directed Reese to seek quotes for two audits of AT&T Broadband's records to ensure the township is being paid its full franchise fee and to determine whether the overall 35 percent increase is justified. With the $290,000 we paid in franchise fees in just one year, they should be able to afford the best auditor in the world.

We probably don't have any realistic chance of a rollback by AT&T. However, I certainly have no plans to give them any more of my money to have AT&T serve as my long distance carrier, as my local telephone service provider or as my Internet provider. Enough is enough!

George P. Young
Hempfield Township