From the April 2002 issue of
Ann Arbor Area Business Monthly
(Photos by the author)

COMCAST SETS SIGHTS ON LOCAL BUSINESS BROADBAND

Support Being Beefed Up For Home Users, Efforts To Attract Business Users On Tap For 2002

By Mike Gould

Still smarting from the recent transition that left hundreds of users unable to check their email or connect to the Internet, Comcast is forging ahead.

Business to Business was recently invited to meet with Comcast officials to hear their side of the recent unpleasantness and to discuss the state of cable-provided broadband with regard to the local small business community. We met with Leigh Ann Hughes, Vice President/General Manger, Bill Black, Regional Director of Corporate Affairs, and Bob Chodkiewich, regional General Manager at Comcast's offices on South Industrial in Ann Arbor.

A Matter of Timing
After the recent problems involved with the Comcast switchover from MediaOne and subsequent acquisition of thousands of former Excite@home users, we asked if there was one main factor that could be blamed for the events. The answer: timing. Comcast had a very short window available for the transition after Excite declared bankruptcy. Already in the midst of the non-trivial task of transitioning the MediaOne users to a newly-built network and email system, the sudden demise of Excite caused a planned transition period to shrink from 6 months to one. This caused an overloading of their support staff and the resulting period of confusion.

Comcast also decided to keep the Excite users online while bringing them onto the Comcast network. "It cost us a ton of money, 160 million dollars to pay off Excite; to keep things running through Feb. 28th", said Bill Black. "We felt that was the right thing to do. There was a lot of short term pain, and we're not entirely through it all, but we think we're past the rough spots."

Indeed, the weekend of March 2 passed fairly uneventfully for local broadband users. This was the cut-off point at which the Excite system was turned off and all their users had to start using the Comcast system. The massive number of calls to Comcast support has slowed from its peak of 28,000 calls per day to the pre-switchover level of 1000 calls.

The CD ROM of Doom
Also contributing to the onslaught of service calls was the CD ROM that was distributed to Comcast users before the transition. Designed to automate the switchover of email addresses, the program made a number of changes to users systems that ranged from incorrect Internet settings to complete deletion of users' bookmarks and address lists.

"If we had it to do over again, we would never send out a disk. Sending a disk is just a way to distribute outdated software", said Black. "In the future, we'll distribute the information electronically".

One problem is that there are just too many variables involved for such software to work properly. Given the number of different versions of Operating Systems out there, and the potential for conflicts with user-installed software, it is no wonder that user experiences were all over the map.

"One thing we learned is that only 1/2 of our users are using our email; the rest use AOL, or HotMail, or university systems", said Black. Thus, preliminary email newsletters sent to many users went unread, resulting in more confusion. Some Comcast customers didn't get the email and never received the CD ROM. These users were totally unprepared when the switchover happened.

Help is On the Way
Leigh Ann Hughes revealed that Comcast is set to start building a huge new service center in the Jackson Road/Zeeb Road area, which will house 400 providers of phone support, up from a current 60. "We are hoping to break ground mid-year and open the Broadband Service Center in the first quarter of '03". This center will provide support for all the Comcast users in Michigan when complete.

Downtown Ann Arbor Service Coming Soon
"2002 is our target date for bringing cable broadband to downtown", said Bob Chodiekavich, who heads up the local marketing effort. Most of downtown is already wired for broadband, left over from the MediaOne days. If you are a business person based in downtown Ann Arbor, expect to see a broadband salesman at your door sometime this year, as Comcast goes after the market currently being served only by DSL providers.

"Our business customers will see a much different level of service than home users", said Leigh Ann Huges. "We understand that business use is not recreational. The quality of service is different, the customer support is different, pricing; it's a different product." Comcast has a separate group of support staff just for business users, and is committed to providing a level of service that businesses need to stay running in today's electronic environment.

Broadband Commuter Service
In addition to services aimed at businesses downtown, Comcast provides other services to the Michigan business community. "Broadband Commuter Service is a residential service for executives", explained Bob Chodkiewich. "Ford Motor is one of our biggest users for this - they have about 287 executives and technology people that work out of their houses. This enables them to use their own encryption and tunnel through the Internet back to their servers at their headquarters."

This process is called a Virtual Private Network, or VPN, and is a means for increasing the security of business communications. Comcast will be offering a variety of services that utilize VPN. A number of municipal (police and fire departments) and health care organizations are starting to use Comcast for their networking because of security features like this.

More Than Just Cable TV
Comcast provides a wide spectrum of services outside of the cable TV and home broadband arena for which they are known. A visit to their business Web site at http://www.comcastbusiness.com/ gives an overview of their offerings, especially Comcast Commercial Internet Service (CCIS). They have a service aimed at small businesses (CCIS - Lite) that should appeal to those with one to eight computers to hook up. This gets you basic connectivity (at speeds up to 256K) and email, with optional services such as Web space storage that cost an additional fee.

The more elaborate (and expensive) CCIS 2.0 includes hardware as well: an on-site Router and Cache Server, which provide improved security and speedier Web browsing. This service also includes Web hosting with such full-service features as CGI, ASP and logging of visitors. LAN services such as print and file serving are also provided, which enable Mac and Windows users to share files and printers.

Engler Proposal
Comcast is in favor of the Governor's recent call for increased broadband availability throughout Michigan, paid for by a tax on cabling. This is seen as simplifying the licensing and bureaucratic complications the provider encounters when entering new markets. "The biggest benefit is the streamlining of this process", said Black. "When you come right down to it, the $.05 per foot [of wiring tax] is minimal - we're already paying $.30 [in some locales]".

The Right Wires at the Right Time
Comcast is making money. Their press release of Feb. 6 reports record revenue of $9.7 billion, with an operation cash flow of $2.7 billion for 2001. Comparing this with the large number of bankruptcies and other conniptions in the communications business, Comcast looks like a winner, in spite of the recent problems and bad press.

When asked the reason for this, Bill Black replied: "Our president, Brian Roberts. The vision that Brian and others had 6 to 8 years ago to spend all this money to upgrade our network so that we could continue to layer on new services; to expand the analog lineup, to expand pay-per-view...to switch to digital cable and then high-speed Internet... The vision to build a network capable of doing all that is why we are in such good shape today. Three things contributed to the success of our network: owning, managing, and flexibility".

According to Black, one reason others have failed is that they were leasing their networks, relying on others to provide the basic infrastructure upon which their services ran. By controlling all aspects of its network, from the wires to the switches to the support staff, Comcast has managed to prosper and expand.

And, as Black put it, "This is not an easy business to be in."

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