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Free calls to Haiti, where to watch benefit concert

January 22nd, 2010, 5:13 pm by

Hope for Haiti NowWith all the rain in Orange County this week, it’s hard to believe that the devastating earthquake in Haiti was just last week.  Donations continued to pour in this week via text messages, plus there’s tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” benefit concert for the country.

Here’s a round up of what local TV and wireless services are doing:

Cox Communications: Waiving fees on international long-distance calls to Haiti (country code 509) through Feb. 28. This is retroactive to Jan. 12. The Cox Foundation also donated $250,000 to relief efforts. See press release.

Time Warner Cable: Waiving fees on international long-distance calls to Haiti through end of February, retroactive to Jan. 12. This applies only to direct-dial calls and not calls made through an operator. See press release.

AT&T: Waived fees on calls to Haiti numbers. Also letting customers watch  tonight’s “Hope for Haiti Now” telethon on their phones, U-verse TV or web. To watch on a phone, go to AT&T Mobile TV on MTV’s MediaFlo channel. U-verse subscribers can tune in to the major networks and MTV for the performance. Online, the event will be streamed at entertainment.att.net. Wireless customers can also donate $10 to Red Cross International Relief Fund by texting the word “HAITI” to 90999.

Sprint: Waiving texting fees to Haiti through Jan. 31. Customers donated $3.1 million to the effort, as of Jan. 19, by texting “HAITI” to 90999.

T-Mobile: Waiving international long-distance fees through Jan. 31 and dropping fee to text “HAITI” at 90999 to donate $10. Customers donated $3 million, as of Jan. 19. T-Mobile and its parent company have  also donated $250,000 to the effort.

Verizon: Waiving international long-distance calling fees plus offering a live broadcast of the relief concert to mobile users who have access to VCAST Video on their phones. See press release. Verizon users can also text the word “HAITI” to 90999. So far, the company has collected $4.84 million in text donations. Verizon also has a page dedicated to the Haiti relief effort with information on several organizations accepting donations. Click HERE.

Tonight’s benefit concert includes singers Madonna, Jay-Z, George Clooney and Haiti native Wyclef Jean. It airs at 8 p.m. tonight on the following channels:

ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, CMT, PBS, TNT, Showtime, Comedy Central, Bravo, E! Entertainment, National Geographic Channel, Oxygen, G4, CENTRIC, Current TV, Fuse, MLB Network, EPIX, Palladia, SoapNet, Style, Discovery Health, Planet Green, CNN en Español, HBO Latino and Canadian networks, including CBC Television, CTV, Global Television and MuchMusic.

Posted in: news • • • • • • • • • • • | Comments Off

Cox promises ‘unbelievably fair’ mobile service in March

January 14th, 2010, 8:32 am by

Cox wireless service begins in March 2010 in Orange County.Back in December, we learned that Cox picked Orange County to be one of three regions where it will first roll out wireless phone service. The service will begin in March 2010 and, as with any major move, a big marketing campaign begins this week.

In Cox’s ads, it promises “unbelievably fair” service and watching the commercial, that seems to say Cox is getting rid of surprise overage fees and vanishing minutes. Those interested can sign up on Cox’s new Unbelievably Fair web site to get notified (if you sign up and are a Cox TV customer, you’ll get a free movie on demand). You don’t have to be a Cox Cable customer.

cox-wireless2

The company expands further in a press release by pointing out how unfair it is that wireless phone customers have to pay for minutes in their plan that they don’t use. Cox’s research showed them that consumers want value and transparency in wireless plans.

It’s definitely a campaign of the 21st Century. Cox has set up a Facebook fan page to chat with customers Facebook to Facebook.

More commercials have been posted on Youtube.

Cox is also launching the mobile service this spring in Hampton Roads, Va. and Omaha, Neb.

More on Cox at the Gadgetress Cox Cable page. Recent news from Cox:

Posted in: Cell phones • Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 7 Comments »

Cox getting EPIX movie channel in April

January 13th, 2010, 11:27 am by

Epix HD, a new movie channelNoted: Cox Communications is the latest to sign up to get EPIX, a newish HD network featuring movies from Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer STudios and Lionsgate. Cox plans to offer the channel as a movie tier to customers nationwide beginning in April 2010.

Cox customers in Orange County should get the channel at the same time as the rest of the nation, according to the local Cox folks.

A few EPIX movies coming in April include Star Trek, GI Joe, Paranormal Activity and the Tyler Perry film franchise.

EPIX launched in 2008 and signed up its first customer, Verizon FiOS, in July 2009. FiOS TV customers began receiving the channel in the fall. The three studios launched EPIX in early 2008 after pulling its movies from CBS-owned Showtime. Showtime wanted to cut the fees it paid to broadcast their movies.

Terms of the Cox deal were not disclosed.

Update, Jan. 14, 2010: EPIX also signs cable provider Mediacom (Paid Content)

Latest news on Cox:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 3 Comments »

Psssst: Digital cable TV is cheaper than analog cable

December 17th, 2009, 9:22 am by

Time Warner Cable signHere’s a little known fact about cable TV service from Time Warner Cable: Digital cable is cheaper than analog.

In Orange County, Time Warner’s digital cable package includes 200 channels, on-demand video and one special tier of channels (movies, variety, sports, etc.) for $50.95. This is the published rate, not a special promotion. You will need to rent a digital cable box for $6/month.

Basic analog cable, which is $55.50 to $58 per month depending on what city you live in, offers much less. That number shrunk this week as Time Warner moved some of these analog channels (ABC Family, The Weather Channel, TruTV) to digital to make room for more digital services for the majority of its customers. Time Warner has said that 80 percent of its Southern California customers are digital subscribers. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • | 48 Comments »

Cox Cable: No price hikes planned for 2010 yet

December 16th, 2009, 2:54 pm by

Cox Cable logoCox Communications customers in Orange County can hang on to their money for just a bit longer. The Rancho Santa Margarita cable TV provider said that no cable price increases are planned for 2010. At least not yet.

“As far as rates, at this point Cox has nothing set in stone regarding rate increases in 2010,” said spokeswoman Lana Ong in response to my query about 2010 price increases.

December and January tend to be prime time to notify customers of upcoming rate hikes. During these months a year ago, Time Warner, AT&T U-verse and Cox all told customers monthly bills were going up.

So far, for 2010, Time Warner has notified customers that some will see their monthly bills increase a few dollars in January. See the earlier story: “Time Warner 2010 price hikes mostly affect those who order the least.”

More on 2010 price increases:

Of course, this doesn’t mean Cox won’t raise its rates in 2010. This year, the company upped rates in March. Last year, rates also went up in March. The official word today, however, is no increases are planned.

Cable providers are losing subscribers and not making as much money as they used to. A big reason for annual price increases is because the TV networks they offer are asking for more money themselves.

The nation’s largest cable company, Comcast Corp., took steps this month to offset some of those rising costs by buying a TV network. The deal, valued at $30 billion, will make Comcast the owner of NBC, which includes the channels such as USA, Bravo, SyFy, CNBC, MSNBC and Universal.

Currently, Time Warner is negotiating with News Corp. (Fox TV) and Scripps Networks Interactive (Food Network, HGTV). In an effort to publicize what it considers unfair price hikes for the channels, Time Warner launched a marketing campaign asking customers whether it should cave to the increases or get tough, even if it means losing the channel. While the campaign is obviously a marketing tactic, it attracted 400,000 consumers who told Time Warner to get tough.

Cox, meanwhile, just let go of the Travel Channel, selling most of it to Scripps Networks. Cox kept a 35 percent ownership.

For their part, both Orange County cable providers have added several new channels this year. Most recently, Cox customers should have seen 15 new HD channels show up this week. See the earlier story, “Cox adding 15 HD channels in December.”

Related stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • | 13 Comments »

Cox picks Orange County to launch mobile phone service

December 8th, 2009, 12:00 pm by

Cox Cable picks Orange County to launch mobile serviceIf you hate your cell phone service, a new player is coming to Orange County: Cox Cable.

The cable TV provider has been working on wireless service for a while but today it announced that Orange County residents will be one of the first three areas nationwide to get the service.

Very few details are available. Because of competitive reasons, Cox said it is unable to reveal pricing, launch date or types of phones that will be offered. While some local customers are getting the chance to play with mobile service as part of a test group, the full service will launch in 2010 to residents. Cox plans to offer the service to business users in the future.

“Right now, if Cox customers in Orange County are interested in Cox Wireless service they shouldn’t renew their wireless contract because it won’t be long before Cox introduces a better wireless experience in Orange County,” said Lana Ong, a spokesperson with Cox in Orange County.

Previously, the company said it plans to use Sprint’s mobile network to launch the first products. The company is also working on its own 3G wireless and 4G wireless networks. For the next generation of mobile service, or 4G, Cox has joined the Long Term Evolution crowd, which is also the technology of choice for AT&T and Verizon Wireless. See last year’s story on this, at “Cox Cable adding… mobile phone service?” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Cell phones • Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • • | 34 Comments »

Cox working on restoring Internet outage

December 7th, 2009, 12:57 pm by

Cox CableInternet still on the fritz? Cox Communications in Orange County knows about it but you can still call if you’re experiencing Internet issues.

Most customers are already back online and the company is restoring service to the rest, said Lana Ong, a Cox spokeswoman.

“Last night, a software upgrade in our network, which is part of our routine maintenance, caused an unexpected outage for some Internet customers,” she said. “Engineers at both local and national levels began troubleshooting the event immediately.”

Reports of the outage began at 10:23 a.m., according to Cox. The company rebooted the system at 10:45, which restored service to most customers. Cox won’t disclose how many customers were affected.

“The duration of the outage lasted approximately 22 minutes and most customers were back online within 20 minutes. We are working as quickly as possible to restore services to the remainder our customers,” Ong said.

If you know a local Cox customer still experiencing Internet issues (since, presumably, they are unable to read this online report), you should call customer service at (949) 546-5955. Online help is also available through live chat or e-mail. Contact info is on this page.

Visit the Gadgetress’ special page for Cox customers at gadgetress.freedomblogging.com/cox.

Recent Cox Cable stories:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Japanese TV free this week for Cox customers

December 3rd, 2009, 4:43 pm by

TV JapanCox customers in Orange County are getting a free preview of  TV Japan starting today.

The channel, usually $24.99 per month, offers live news programs mostly in Japanese with English subtitles. There’s also some anime, cooking and lifestyle and entertainment shows.

Cox’s free preview is only for digital subscribers.  The five-day freebie ends on Monday, Dec. 7. TV Japan is on channel 422.

Sorry, no free previews for everyone else. All the other TV providers here charge about $25 per month. Time Warner offers the TV Japan on channel 607, Dish Network has it on channel 641, AT&T U-verse on channel 3680, and Verizon FiOS on channel 1770.

Related Cox cable news:

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

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