2008

[stevenl]

Well the rumor mills have already started here are just a few.....

1. As I mentioned earlier this year it seemed bhn was going up for sale.... I think that rumor is more true now then ever, so lets see how this plays out....

2. RoadRunner customers expect another "free" speed increase next year along with a new faster speed package to be available. BHN has already been allocating more "space/bandwidth" For the RR service in preparation of this with the addition of 2 new Qams dedicated to RR. Giving them now 4 downstream qams and 2 upstream qams.

3. The obvious increase in HD content, is coming as well as announced by another member here. (and back in October)

4. Reduction in Analog channels? Switch Digital Video? New phone service options? Oh boy where do we begin!!!

[jcarrera]

A typical event when a company is sold is that the employee base is reduced by the new owners. Guess what that does to service.

[stevenl]

When We went from CVI to TimeWarner to BHN we did not see any lay offs, perhaps a few at the very top as they brought over their own "presidents" etc, but below vp levels we saw little to no layoffs. In fact we are hiring pretty quickly atm, while our biggest competitors in Orlando are laying off. I do hope the new company who takes over (if it happens) (rumors are Cablevision or perhaps a twc/comcast split like with the adelphia mess) do what the previous takeovers did and improve the employees working situation and not harm it.

[LonghornXP]

I've been hearing the rumor of the sale but was told not to make it public. I'm hearing that Cablevision might be the buyer because right now Comcast most likely won't get FCC approval because of the number of customers they will have unless they swap markets among say TWC. The net result will be that TWC will gain customers while Comcast will mostly have the same number of customers. The difference for Comcast is "where" those customers will be not how many extra customers they can get. Also keep in mind that Comcast is in Sarasota County and I believe Polk County as well so it makes sense that they might buy the Tampa Bay and Central Florida markets from BHN.

BHN wants to sell because they are getting killed by Verizon and they just don't want to spend the money anymore. They upgraded the networks in this area to 1Ghz along with adding SDV to increase the value of the systems which in turn will allow them to increase the asking price to buy.

[stevenl]

Well the biggest rumour I heard was cablevision but what makes me think comcast, is they already have plant here in orlando, and it sucks. When they took it over from Adphelia that have done little to nothing to improve it, which leads me to think they dont want that plant anymore, and want BHNs.. I think it will be a buyback with TWC and possible Comcast, in the loop as well. Id be happy with either or, In this area Comcast (which has not even 20% the customer base bhn has in the area) pays its techs starting out what our guys make after about 5 years. So As an employee it should be very benefitial to us if its comcast. TWC would not change much as we were TWC before BHN anyway, of course we had a few more benefits under TWC id like back (like the stock options which made me have a good time, until AOL TWC merged WTF!!!!)

So either way, I think it will be better for customers to have a seasoned Cable company run the system, one who's core business is cable, and one who is willing to spend a fortune in upgrades, whereas BHN is leary of doing so, as Cable is not even their biggest earner..

[Khandurian]

That would explain ALOT of the things going on with the sub-contractors. I must go find my little lost puppy and spank him for not telling me about this!

[iceturkee]

That would explain ALOT of the things going on with the sub-contractors. I must go find my little lost puppy and spank him for not telling me about this!

its christmas, khands, could you wait a day before spanking the puppy?


steven, i need more poop about the upcoming rr changes. and how might a bhn sale affect my phone and internet service?

[JonOrlando]

I was looking at the different providers' lineups and Comcast matches fairly close, with the addition of the upcoming HD channels BHN announced they would be adding.

[Khandurian]

That would be interesting. I would imagine that if a sale does go through, that they have to honor the contracts of existing customers: IE: Unlimited Florida, Unlimited Nationwide, etc. etc. I know BHN did honor the contracts of the TWC customers when the bought certain systems from them, so who knows....

Iceturkee I do have to be careful right now anyways. Ive caused so much trouble over there with the new software upgrade (in house software only) they just did that there are quite a few people who are not happy with me right now.

[stevenl]

haha Khaun

Well technically BHN does not have any contracts with customers, its a month to month thing, so they could I suppose change the price and you have the option to leave or stay... Id assume though any company taking over would not do anything drastic, because the CFL Market is a goldmine, for any cable operator it is BHNS biggest earner, and was TWCs top earner as well. We run this system right, from CVI to TWC to BHN not much has changed except of course technology, and we still remain one of the top earning and most coveted clusters of any cable system...