bad news for cable modems in Lansing

[Paul Melson]

On Tue, May 02, 2000 at 08:19:09AM -0400, Alan Garrison wrote:
> My understanding is that the city of Lansing is generally 
> happy with BWL utility service.  I think that the company 
> is capable of doing this, the question is "do they want to?"
> My feeling is that they wouldn't want to take this on, 
> just because of the "newness" of the whole thing.  Consider 
> that the BWL is over 100 years old, and for that time, they 
> have almost exclusively dealt with electricity (most of the 
> time), water, and steam.  Just three services, and now
> there is the possibility of a fourth.  This would involve 
> a major overhaul of company internally and externally, 
> and I don't see any major excitement in the company about 
> adding a fourth utility. 


	As a BWL customer, I would agree - I am very happy
	with the quality of service I receive, both in terms
	of cost and quality of service.  Even during that
	nasty ice storm back in early 1998, I had power back
	before most of the Consumers' customers I know.

	However, I don't see BWL throwing their proverbial
	hat in the arena to compete for ISP business.  They
	don't have the right people (or at least their ppl
	don't have the right training) at the central office
	or on the lines to take that on.  Of course, these
	are the same issues that plague TCI/AT&T and Horizon,
	and it didn't prevent them from getting into the
	business...



PaulM

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