Comcast will shift channels in its expanded basic cable service and offer additional channels starting August 18. The transition will begin in Lower Bucks, and customers will need to get a digital device from Comcast in order to watch the stations they are used to if they subscribe to standard/expanded basic service, and receive an analog signal through a cable that runs from the wall to the TV.
Comcast will provide up to three boxes per household for free, and additional adapters will cost $1.99 per month to rent. The other counties including the rest of Bucks, Montgomery, and Burlington will make the transition between September and the end of this year.
If you don’t pick up a box, you will just see a screen with information telling you the steps to take in order to get the stations back- so it’s important to prepare. You can have the boxes shipped to your home at no cost by calling 877-634-4434 or pick up a free self-install kit at a Comcast service center. Comcast technicians can install them for you for $18, but most say that it’s easy enough to do on your own.
Tags: consumer, technology
Comments
what if you have internet and cable?
#How can they legally do this? Wasn’t there a ruling by the FCC in the last 15-16 years that a cable provider could not charge a consumer for the “box” that they require to filter/convert a channel if the consumer was already paying a fee FOR the channels. After month and months and months of their advertising that we as existing cable customers would be “safe” in the national digital conversion they are now sticking us AGAIN… as Comcast is so apt to do!! Whoopee, I get TWO (not three, two) free boxes to accomodate my home (Delaware County) that has 6 TVs. I will then pay an additonal $1.99 per TV in order to merely watch the SAME channels I already pay for! Once you throw in taxes and other miscellaneous fees I will pay over $2 per television for the same service I am paying for already! I could care less about supposed new channels (Because I imagine in the usual Comcast fashion I will end up having to pay extra to get those too). I just got off the phone with Comcast only to find out that the TVs without the new box will go black. Meanwhile, had Comcast not REASSURED all of us paying customers that we were secure in our service during the national digital conversation, I could have gotten FREE boxes from the government and told Comcast to stick it where the sun doesn’t shine. Comcast has the corner on the market here and they know and they do care one bit about the customer. The picture on many of my current Comcast cable channels looks no better than if I had an antenna on my roof and my Comcast internet is slow as molasses… and they just keep taking more and more of my money while their on-going supposed improvements never seem to make any difference. Can someone tell me how and why they are doing this and what on Earth can we do about it?!? Verizon’s offers aren’t much better because you HAVE to have a converter for every television with them too… and they limit the number of TVs you can hook up to altogether!!!
#i have a sanyo flat screen that has a digital side to it that has been giving me some HD channels automatically. maybe comcast is getting hip to the fact that some tv’s are coming with HD built in already. also i dont like the fact that you have to call comcast after you put the boxes on so they can set your channels for you. also i will cut the power to the box off when i’m not watching. even though they say not to do that.
#i hate comcast…they are bullies and greedy
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