Red Phone: Have Morgan Hill's utility companies 'abandoned us?'
Aug 14, 2008
Cover me
I'm calling because I love the paper, love getting the local coverage every week. However, the sports section seems to be exclusively about the Wolfpack and their triathlon training and its great while those 4 athletes are working hard, there are lots of sports in the area; local kids who deserve as well to have their pictures in the paper and have articles written about them. For instance: this weekend there's a huge swim meet at the Morgan Hill Aquatic Center with many hundreds of swimmers. Some local here, Gilroy, and Hollister who are competing in one of the biggest swim meets and yet there's not even a word mentioned about it. So instead of focusing continuously on four athletes who, while doing a great job, are not the only fabulous athletes in Morgan Hill; we definitely are doing a disservice to the other sports and all of the other athletic endeavors in the city. So I definitely think the sports coverage needs to be a little more comprehensive, thorough and a little less focused on one particular thing and sport and tiny group of athletes.
Red Phone: It's tough covering the various youth events in the summer because for one: there's so much going on; and two, there are hardly any media representatives for the various organizations.
One of the reasons why there was no coverage in Tuesday's paper is because it takes a while for us to obtain the results of youth aquatics - mainly because they're slow to come out. As of Tuesday morning, coaches were unable to sift through the countless results and provide them for us, which is why they are mentioned in today's sports section.
On top of that, our sports editor, Scott J. Adams, only heard about the event at 7 p.m. the night before through a casual conversation with one of our other reporters.
As the Wolfpak, its members were competing in a national championship triathlon last weekend that's considered a proving ground for Olympic hopefuls. Their season has ended.
High Speed FailOS
I'm not sure if anybody had ever complained about this, but these two utility companies, I believe have abandoned us, at least me and my area in Morgan Hill. AT&T had upgraded their lines to fiber-optics in San Jose and other bay area cities like Los Gatos. This gives them the option to have HDTV, phone including VOIP, hi-speed internet connection in one package. Verizon have their "FIOS" which Morgan Hill was supposed to be one of their first areas to be upgraded but reading through some of the comments that I read from the internet, MH is considered a "rural" area. In regards to Charter, they had promised me when I called in 2006, that, in a year time, they would have HDTV programming. Right... Do these companies ignoring Morgan Hill. We are in Silicon Valley but not getting respect from these 2 utility companies. Can't the city council do something about this?
Red Phone: Red Phone understands your situation reader. In 2000 I remember putting an order for a DSL line with Verizon. Shortly after I was charged an installation/setup fee and given a modem for a service that wasn't even provided at the time. After three months of waiting, complaints were filed and a refund was given. Another company claimed to have cable Internet service (remember Covad?), and the same runaround was given with them. Charter finally came through with cable Internet but even during peak hours random drops are just round the corner.
Red Phone also contacted Morgan Hill's Program Administrator Anthony Eulo about your inquiry and this is what he had to say:
"It is the City's understanding that Charter Cable has been offering HDTV service in the community for over one year. Charter will continue to make investments in their company's infrastructure in the community to remain competitive with their satellite competitors.
"Verizon has implemented their FIOS system in many locations around the country. The City has never been told from Verizon that any deployment in Morgan Hill is imminent. Installing this infrastructure, which literally requires running fiber optic lines to every service address, is very costly and Verizon will likely continue to invest first in the areas with the highest likely economic return. ... When Verizon does apply to make the necessary physical adjustments to their infrastructure in the City's streets, the City will respond to their applications as quickly as possible in order to facilitate this service improvement."
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