The following is an e-mail I recently sent to James Baker (Mayor, City of Wilmington, Delaware), Norman Griffiths (Council President, City of Wilmington, Delaware), and Lowell McAdam (President, Verizon Communications).

Mayor Baker, Mr Griffiths & Mr McAdam,

I am hoping you can provide an update on a matter that’s important to me.  In November of 2008, a decision was made to reject Verizon’s application for television franchise in the city of Wilmington, Delaware (http://web.archive.org/web/20081207072654/http://www.ci.wilmington.de.us/newsroom/2008/1120_Verizon_TV_Franchise_Filing.html).  I understand this decision was made to protect the residents of Wilmington, but, as we are now nearly three years past that initial decision, I was hoping some progress had been made between the City of Wilmington and Verizon.

As Comcast essentially maintains a monopoly in the City, there is no incentive to provide acceptable customer service or competitive pricing, and it shows.  We recently had Verizon FiOS internet service installed and were blown away by the technician simply showing up when he was supposed to, being friendly, knowledgeable, and accommodating.  The reality of this situation is these are behaviors and traits that should be expected of a provider that’s being paid for a service, something that Comcast apparently doesn’t understand.

If nothing else, please consider this message a plea for both parties to return to the table to work on an agreement that will allow the residents of the City of Wilmington to have a choice of service providers.

Regards,

Mike Waters