Manassas OKs agreements with Comcast, Verizon

By KIPP HANLEY, Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger
Published: May 1, 2008

The Manassas City Council approved franchise agreements with Verizon and Comcast cable companies on Wednesday after the two companies officially presented their bids during Monday's regularly scheduled council meeting.

Those agreements will take effect after May 5. Before this year, Comcast had a de facto monopoly in the city and had not renewed its franchise agreement since signing one in 2000.

"We believe the new performance requirements related to responses to service and customer service will serve the community well going forward," said Manassas City Manager Lawrence Hughes in an e-mail Wednesday. "The new element of competing service providers will also cause improved customer service in the face of alternative choices."

"We have worked very closely with the council to create an agreement that we feel is fair to both Comcast and our customers," said Comcast spokesperson Jaye P. Linnen in an e-mail Wednesday.

Last year, resident complaints to the city and council about Comcast's poor customer service drove council to look at renewing the company's franchise agreement to include tougher standards. At the same time, Verizon wanted to expand into Manassas and Manassas Park after recently moving into Prince William County.

In both agreements, specific standards of customer service are enumerated. Some of those standards include limiting telephone holding time to 30 seconds and placing a 72-hour limit to the start and finish of repairs under most circumstances.

During the city's study of Comcast's practices last summer, 1 in 6 non-maintenance cases took four days or more and 1 in 6 maintenance cases took seven days or more. The city also found numerous issues with the cable company's distribution connection boxes where temporary cables and safety hazards abounded. On Wednesday, the Comcast director of government affairs for Northern Virginia, Marie Schuler, told council and staff that many of these issues have gone away as the company has finished upgrading its systems.

In regard to its new competition with Verizon, Linnen said the company is very confident in its network and products and services.

"We compete every day for video, Internet and now phone customers and will continue to offer advanced products and services on a reliable, scalable fiber network that meets our customers' needs," Linnen said.

Verizon spokesperson Catherine Hogan-Lewis was also on hand Wednesday and said the company is excited to be in the city. Construction has already begun in Manassas and some residents will soon be able to sign up for service.

"We are welcoming the competition [with Comcast]," Hogan-Lewis said.

Staff writer Kipp Hanley can be reached at 703-369-5738.