Here is some good (well not good) but accurate information as to why COmcast HD is soooo limited in Santa Cruz. Many THanks to Mikef5 and "Mr. J." for sending this to me.
About Santa Cruz....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope you don't mind the private email but I've talked with Mr. J. directly about the Santa Cruz situation and he's given me the reason for the problem with Santa Cruz getting the World of More so far. This is directly from him and I hope this gives you a good idea of the problem.
------------------------------------------
The situation in Santa Cruz is in a word, complex. And requires some background details to set the stage.
Most of us know that Santa Cruz is hemmed in by the Pacific Ocean and the mountain range that separates it from the Santa Clara Valley. Prior to the establishment of the cable television industry less than a handful of over-the-air television signals could be received, and those were located in Monterey. The picture quality suffered and permits to build new antennas to help boost signals, combined with no access roads and electrical power supplies to serve these over-the-air antennas on top of the mountains made the idea of even getting 7 channels to the area a pipe dream.
In the 1970’s when the cable television industry was first established in Santa Cruz a group of folks were concerned that the cable television technology, (with its ability to offer 30 channels!)could establish a “monopoly” and elected to use the federal courts to provide them safeguards. The end result…a “law” was put in place that to this day is still in force and adds an extra layer of regulations, rules and procedures that any cable company who does business in the area must comply with. Despite the leaps in technology that over the years have brought satellite dishes, 3G/4G wireless signals and the internet into the mix the rules set up in the 1970’s are still applicable.
Given the unique geographic circumstances outlined above the United States Government put in place a “federal consent decree” on top of the franchise agreements, state laws and federal laws that govern cable television. In my 15 years as a telecommunications professional I know of no other city/region in the country that has a “federal consent decree” like Santa Cruz’s and I’ve literally spoken to the best federal telecommunications attorneys across the country who have come across similar results. The old saying “only in Santa Cruz” must have started with this law.
The bottom line, the “consent decree” is still in place, we are unable to make any changes to our analog channel lineups (which remain under these regulations) without going to federal court and amending the decree and/or revising the franchise agreements with the City & County of Santa Cruz. I’ve aware of only once such amendment to the consent decree since my tenure here, but we are currently in discussions with a large group of folks/attorneys to try and hammer out a change in the local franchise that may result in us getting the opportunity to boost the Santa Cruz lineup.
So we didn’t “skip Santa Cruz”. We are deeply involved in negotiations to make it happen. Simply put, in Santa Cruz we face a singularly unique situation that is a remnant of the 1970’s and forces us to take a different, and longer route, to get to our destination.
----------------------------------------------
I hope this helps explain the situation for you. The reason I did this by private email was I believe you are the only Santa Cruz person in this forum but if you think it might be advantageous to post this in the open forum, in case there are other Santa Cruz people, then I will do that but I thought that you deserved to know first since you posted your concerns to the forum.
Anyway, I'm sorry about your situation in Santa Cruz but maybe you can get others in your area to get the franchise people to have this law amended to help expedite the upgrades to your area. It's what I did about 5 years ago when I was told Milpitas would never be upgraded pass the 550 MHz system that we had, we are now a 1GHz system.
Laters,
Mikef5