The cable service shutdown proving to be a boon for satellite providers
It has been more than a week and a half since cable customers in Onaway, Millersburg, Black Lake and neighboring communities, awoke on June 20 to find their cable service gone, and it appears they are no closer to getting it back.
A message on the cable company’s phone said the “cable service should be restored in all areas as soon as the attorneys finalize the operating agreement with Presque isle Electric.”
As of Tuesday, Presque Isle Electric and Gas Cooperative general manager Brian Burns said there was no operating agreement being worked on between the two parties.
Northwoods Cable, which has changed its name to Liberty Communications, did not return a call to The Outlook.
The cable company had its transmission lines disrupted on PIE & G power poles after becoming delinquent with rent payments, owing as much as $57,000.
Business at Rivertown Satellite of Cheboygan has quadrupled since the cable service went down June 20, according to company president Greg Spencley.
Darlene Nason of Power Source Communications, an affiliation of Cellular One of Rogers City and Onaway, started accepting customers for Dish Network and Direct TV two days before the outage.
“We had quite a few calls,” said Nason. That resulted in five activations in the first days of her company offering the service.
Rivertown, which provides Dish Netowrk, has been in business since 1979 and is looking to bringing in some outside help to fill back orders.
Spencley said his company is installing three to four customers a day in the Onaway and Black Lake area, and were booked two weeks ahead.
The two satellite providers say they are getting greeted by customers who are happy to have the television service back, and are not pleased with the cable company.
Nason recalls a comment from one customer who said “even if the cable comes back, I wouldn’t go back.”