01-11-03: Competition appears to make the difference in area cable TV prices

01-11-03: Competition appears to make the difference in area cable TV prices

By TIMOTHY COX
The Daily Standard

    Unless competition comes to town, residents in some parts of the Grand Lake St. Marys area will continue to pay far higher prices for the same cable television services than people in other Auglaize County communities pay.
    Even though companies like Adelphia and Time Warner charge more than double for services in areas where the companies face no competition, cable subscribers have little choice but to pay up if they want a wide variety of television channels or high-speed Internet access. And some people are turning to satellite programming as it becomes more widely available at rates comparable to cable service.
    A Daily Standard comparison of cable television and high-speed Internet services found huge discrepancies in prices among communities where no competition exists and those served by two cable providers.
    For example, Adelphia cable subscribers in Celina, Montezuma, Coldwater and St. Henry pay $37.95 for an expanded package of about 70 channels. But Adelphia customers in Minster and New Bremen pay just $22.99 for the exact same service. That is because NK Telco, based in New Knoxville, offers cable service in those towns, charging $23.50 for a comparable channel lineup.
    Even larger price discrepancies are evident with Time Warner. In Wapakoneta, where Time Warner has competition from TSC Communications, customers pay $18.53 for a 78-channel expanded lineup. But in St. Marys, Time Warner customers pay $43.04 - more than double - for the same package. In Rockford, where no competition exists, Time Warner customers pay the same rate as in St. Marys.
In another example, a digital channel package and high-speed Internet service costs a Wapakoneta customer about $46 monthly. Getting the same service in St. Marys would cost about $108 per month.
    St. Marys city officials expect price relief when TSC breaks

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