• Municipal suits: ganging up on TWC
By Brian Santo
Encouraged by a suit filed by the City of Los Angeles against Time Warner Cable (TWC), nearby Costa Mesa is reported to be evaluating the possibility of filing a similar suit of its own.
Los Angeles is suing TWC over service shortfalls in the systems that the company purchased from Adelphia; the claims cover the period ending in 2007 (story here).
Residents of Costa Mesa had also filed complaints about TWC’s service, and that city wants to study the substance of the Los Angeles suit, according to the Daily Pilot, which serves Costa Mesa and Newport Beach (story here).
• AT&T adds VoIP to service slate in Oklahoma City
By Mike Robuck
AT&T announced today that it has added a VoIP service in parts of its Oklahoma City footprint.
With the addition of the VoIP service, AT&T’s U-verse platform has wireline, wireless voice, and broadband and TV services on one bill for some of its Oklahoma City subscribers.
AT&T U-verse Voice is a managed IP-based service that is delivered over AT&T’s own fiber network, as opposed to some VoIP services that use the public Internet.
• Verizon offers biz subs new VEC portal
By Traci Patterson
Verizon Business and Verizon Wireless have joined forces to launch the Verizon Enterprise Center (VEC), a unified portal that gives Verizon’s large-business customers a single online site where they can view and manage all of their wired and wireless communications.
Formerly known to Verizon Business customers as the Verizon Business Customer Center, and to Verizon Wireless customers as My Business, the new VEC portal provides a single sign-on with integrated access, allowing customers to place orders, view and pay invoices, create trouble tickets and analytical reports, and monitor and manage their wired and wireless voice, data and IP services, the telco said.
“State-of-the-art self service is becoming the new gold standard for customer service,” said Nancy Gofus, CMO for Verizon Business. “The Verizon Enterprise Center is a useful and environmentally friendly online tool that helps customers do business with us whenever and wherever they choose, while giving them better command and control over their communications landscape.”
• Peak8 launches tech support service for WildBlue customers
By Mike Robuck
Peak8 Solutions said today that it’s offering a newly branded technical support service for WildBlue Communications’ high-speed Internet customers.
The new service, called “Support Services Live,” will provide technical support for issues that are beyond the scope of issues covered by WildBlue’s standard technical support team.
The new support service draws on Peak8’s Support Solution Suite, which uses a full 360-degree support methodology for intelligent self-help, assisted help via chat or voice care representatives, dynamic content delivery for CE device resolutions, and remote support services when required. Consumers are able to use the Support Services Live portal to find relevant support content, self-help tools/automated fixes and live assistance.
More Broadband Direct:
• Arris, Motorola modems 1st to get PacketCable 3.0 seal
• Rogers to enforce data usage caps in July
• 6 companies to team up on WiMAX patent pool
• OpVista bows optical networking system for 40G, 100G services
• ACA cautions congress on impact of digital transition on retransmission deals
• DirecTV, Thomson’s MFH3 rolling out with new software release
• Nielsen: average U.S. home received 118.6 TV channels in 2007
