Cable and Internet

Are they any associations out there using their group buying power to get cable tv and highspeed internet? Someone told me it might be possible to save a lot by getting group plans. Would like to hear others' opinions and experiences. If an HOA does have a group rate does everyone have to opt in?

(Verizon and Comcast are the big companies in our area.)

I think I'd hold off on that. Recent news:

"For months, AT&T and Verizon have been asking the FCC to ban cable operators from maintaining exclusive service contracts with the owners of apartment buildings, developments and MDUs (multiple dwelling units). When the phone company asks for something, the FCC delivers:
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending prohibiting such future agreements and preventing enforcement of exclusivity clauses in existing contracts, three FCC officials say. They requested anonymity because the agency's five commissioners have not yet voted on the proposal.

Cable providers and landlords, meanwhile, argue that the FCC lacks the legal authority to intervene and that nothing is wrong with the current system. Comcast insists to the FCC that the deals bring consumers lower prices.

Consumers stuck in such cable arrangements usually don't agree. The smaller exclusive operators in particular have absolutely no competition and therefore no incentive to improve, so they frequently offer pricey services, few features and limited customer support.

Verizon, of course, is making a big push this year into the MDU market with FiOS, and last we checked, they had some exclusive deals of their own. Such deals are sometimes extreme; one development in Virginia is locked into an exclusive 75-year service contract with a FTTH company residents say is unreliable and overpriced."

If this comes through, you won't want to be stuck in a long-exclusive contract that your owners can opt out of.

Joe

Wow Nancy, that's an awful deal! I'm sure Comcast loves it.

Though not an HOA, I love what Philly did to get high speed wi-fi to everyone in the city. They got Earthlink to blanket the city with wi-fi and offer it at very affordable rates ($6.95-$19.95/mo).

Made me think if a whole city can have wifi then wifi for a 200+ townhouse community should be easy in comparison! Most of my neighbors have wi-fi now and I just think how crazy it is that we are each paying 40-60/month for it.

The other thing is verizon is heavily pushing fios in our town. I wanted it but was told basically it could be forever before it comes to our community b/c they would likely have to do the whole community at once.

We have an oceanfront condo that did this. Rates are much cheaper when you do a group deal but everyone is stuck with the same programming. Also, the condominium has to pay the whole monthly bill to the supplier and then bill the condo owners for the service. The board initially announced that they wanted a vote on the issue and if any owner voted against it, they would do the group service. After the vote was take and three or four owners (including us) voted against it, the board announced that it had changed its mind and would do it anyway; everyone would have to participate and would be billed for the service each month. Since we already had our own satellite dish and equipment and did not want to join the group plan, we advised that we believed the boards action was illegal because it violated FCC restrictions on satellite dish installations. We advised that if we were forced to pay for this service or the board interferred with our use of our satelitte dish, we would see a ruling for the FCC. Since these rulings almost always go against the condominium restrictions, the board left us and a few others out of the group buy.

I see this post is from many years ago. Anyone still active on this discussion?