CableVision responds

December 18, 2009

Dear Sir,

I would appreciate it if you could provide me with a little space in your newspaper to address your readers and the writer who signed his letter "Abandoned and Adrift". CableVision appreciates all customer feedback, positive and negative. Our teams are working every day to constantly improve the customer experience and deliver a superior product in a very competitive market. Occasionally, there are times we don't get it right, but for the most part, our customers have expressed increasing satisfaction with our service.

With respect to the particular issues raised by the writer, we would like to apologise for any inconvenience he experienced and offer some feedback regarding his concerns.

Reaching CableVision: We provide a number of options for our customers to reach us, including phone, fax, e-mail and face-to-face service at our 19 Laffan Street office. We have even extended the hours of our Customer Care department to make it easier for customers to reach us outside of normal business hours. Occasionally, the telephone system may be especially busy, depending on various times of the month. This is apparently what happened to the writer, and we regret that he was not able to leave a phone message to the general mailbox. However, he could have chosen option #3 proposed by the automated message, and he would have been put straight through to our network operations centre. Alternatively, he could have sent an e-mail message to infocablevision.bm and we would have contacted him.

Whatever the method used to reach us, our response would have been the same: We would run a system diagnostic to pinpoint the Internet problem and, if needed, dispatch a technician to the customer's residence. There are a number of factors that can impact the connection, including the lines themselves, issues with the ISP (Internet Service Provider), the customer premise equipment, computer configuration, etc. It is impossible to make assumptions as to the cause of the gentleman's problem; however the equipment we provide helps the customer complete an initial self-diagnosis 5 lights means your line is fine; the lights on the modem indicate the state of readiness for the connection. Our technical teams are available and ready to help as needed.

Television signals and programme guide: As a television services provider, CableVision receives incoming signals and data from multiple international sources, which we then process and distribute to our customers, all of whom have different set-ups for their TVs and related equipment. We manage over 160 video channels, 24 hours a day. In the event a customer experiences a disruption in service, or a programme guide-related issue, we request that they bring this to our attention so that we can pinpoint the source of the problem and remedy the situation. Once again, for convenience, customers can use the e-mail address infocablevision.bm to alert our teams.

Cost and speed of service: The writer also states that CableVision's high-speed data service is expensive. However, the facts do not bear this out. At $35 per month for a symmetrical 4 Mbps x 4 Mbps connection, our broadband service is the lowest-priced in Bermuda, and the only symmetrical service available. I'd also like to point out that CableVision does not set the price for our services. We request rates of the Telecommunications Commission. Finally, the writer states that having more customers slows down the network. This is a huge misconception.

We manage our network load to the highest quality international standards, ensuring that each customer is allocated the bandwidth they have requested — in this case, 4 Mbps. Nevertheless, the final speed a customer receives will depend on their ISP. CableVision's status is that of a "carrier of carriers". not an ISP. We provide the bandwidth, or superhighway, for transportation of their data.

Thank you again for allowing us to respond to the writer. We thank him also for expressing his concerns, and hope that he will contact us again so that we can address them directly. It is our goal and mission to provide the highest-quality customer service and an overall positive experience for every CableVision customer.

TERRY ROBERSON

General Manager

Bermuda CableVision

It is not surprising

December 20, 2009

Dear Sir,

I recently heard the Senate discussion when the Senators were expressing their concern about the current situation. It is not surprising that they were echoing some of the same concerns that I have been hearing from the ordinary person, in some cases, for quite a while. Sen. Burch was emphatic in the importance which he attached to the Police leadership which would determine the ultimate success of the police operations. Increasingly I have heard others expressing my own view that the political and social leadership, the high profile public figures, are equally important in determining the nature of our society. Another Senator expressed concern about the materialism that is so rampant in our society.

When it is so obvious that value is placed on those who are materially successful, those on the margins of our society will feel, as one caller declared, neither wanted nor needed. Those who felt unwanted and unneeded once held the hope that a PLP Government would address their concern. Today many say that they not only feel unwanted and unneeded but unrepresented. Others decide that if they cannot find material success legally they will find it illegally. There was a time when the black community had to place a value on other than material success because few or none had it. We may have lost more than we have gained.

Another Senator was concerned about the lack of respect given to those in authority. That did not happen overnight. Thirty years ago in the 1980s when I first returned to Bermuda, I became alarmed at the extent to which values which had sustained the black community were being discarded. One of the more obvious was the respect which was once given to older blacks. A younger generation of blacks who were beginning to benefit from the erosion of racism and were being given roles with some status and high salaries were treating older blacks who never had either not with respect but as if they did not matter. They were being dismissed and demeaned.

Older blacks were not prepared to respect those who not only treated them with such disrespect but whom they had helped to raise or taught. In any event those who were Ministers today might not be tomorrow. The disintegration of the black community and the undermining of its values had begun. Another Senator bemoaned the current "fratricide". But this Black against Black did not begin with fratricide. Perhaps as with all oppressed people we have always turned some of anger and frustration against each other. But we were always united in our fight against racism and segregation. But the ill-conceived idea of party politics not only justified racial separation but it validated and institutionalised the division between Blacks. Ironically, the PLP victory often intensified black conflict. Those with power within the victorious PLP did not use guns or knives but the methods which they did use, while more socially acceptable, were also ruthless and vengeful against any who disagreed with them even if they were long time supporters of the PLP.

Immediate and drastic measures may be necessary for the current crises but there is another generation coming, If the Political and social leadership do not individually and collectively begin to demonstrate the values which they want to see in the wider society, we will have another generation which disrespects those in authority and worse. As Sen. Burch so frequently says, if we continue to do what we have always done we will get the same results.

EVA N. HODGSON

Hamilton Parish

Clean up Railway trail

December 26, 2009

Dear Sir,

Had I known that Premier Brown and his wife were handing out turkeys in Warwick prior to Christmas, I would have invited him to walk the roads and railway trails of the district he represents but rarely visits. As someone who regularly walks these areas I am saddened by the disgraceful condition of our sidewalks and ashamed that visitors have to witness the filth and trash on our Railway Trails. Between Tribe Rd #3 and Khyber Pass on Middle Road we have crumbling sidewalks, overgrown vegetation, broken fences and endless trash which is never removed on the rare occasion that W&E spend an hour there, neither do they remove the stuff they cut back but just leave it where it falls. Apparently, as this area borders Warwick Pond, the National Trust has some responsibility for the vegetation here but either way the area is in a sorry state. Does anyone in authority ever examine the condition of our main roads?

The Railway Trails are even worse! In the area between Khyber Pass and Tribe Road #3, area residents continually put out trash of every description on any day it suits them and as a result the chickens, stray cats etc rip them apart, resulting in trash everywhere. There are mattresses and other household stuff dumped in the bushes and now we have a home having work done in what appears to have been a garage and the construction company who I would be quite prepared to name are dumping the rubble on the trail. Those of us who take pride in the area in which we live would like to see the representative for our parish put the wheels in motion for a serious clean up and the Ministry responsible for the trails needs to seriously monitor the problem areas.

WARWICK WALKER