Rocky switchover doesn’t rattle Patriot Media

Internet service temporarily lost as RCN era ends.

By: George Frey
   Some cable-Internet users got acquainted with the new owners of the central New Jersey RCN cable system, Patriot Media and Communications, for all the wrong reasons earlier this month when many temporarily lost Internet service in the transfer of services.
   Steve Simmons, the president of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm, said the problems that some people ran into were due mostly to the switchover of the companies’ technologies and the changing of about 18,000 domain names from RCN.com to patmedia.net. Service was restored and Mr. Simmons called the problems "a one-time challenge."
   Patriot, he added, is gearing up to provide many new services to subscribers.
   "We’re very excited about serving Princeton and making it among the best cable systems in America," Mr. Simmons said. "By the end of the summer we’ll rebuild the plant (infrastructure) and will offer over 200 digital-cable channels. Among those, there will be about 50 multiplexed premium channels. There’ll be not one HBO or Showtime, but several. It’s a whole new day in programming and Internet access in Princeton."
   The entire central New Jersey upgrade is costing Patriot about $40 million, but RCN contributed a portion to that upgrade before the sale of the system, Mr. Simmons said.
   Customers will also contribute their fair share; Mr. Simmons expects the company will introduce a minor rate hike when the upgrades are complete.
   "We’re going to use the existing plant of RCN and replace a lot of strand and coaxial cable," Mr. Simmons said about the company’s ongoing upgrade work. Strand is the wire that supports the aerial coaxial cable on poles. In the Princeton system, Mr. Simmons said the company has already hung 100 miles of strand and about 30 miles of cable and plans to do work on another 140 miles of cable; some will be upgraded, some will be rebuilt, he said.
   As a result of the upgrades, the outdated A and B cable system, which required some customers to switch back and forth to access certain channels, will be run on only one cable, Mr. Simmons said.
   Patriot will also be building and staffing a call center in Franklin Township in Somerset and will localize other functions of the company. "We’re going to have local dispatch operators to talk to the trucks and where they have to go," he said. "We’re going to create new efficiency in services. In the past the (RCN) cable operations have been in several locations."
   Additionally, Mr. Simmons indicated that Patriot will build more studio space and beef up local broadcasting.
   Some Princeton residents have indicated high expectations for Patriot Media, partly due to Mr. Simmons’ past record at running cable companies. In 1982, he formed Simmons Communications, also in Connecticut. The company grew to serve about 350,000 subscribers in 20 states.
   He was also regarded as a turnaround expert by his cable industry peers for buying a cable system in Long Beach, Cal., in 1985 and adding more than 20,000 subscribers by the time he sold it less than eight years later.
   Mr. Simmons served on the National Cable Television Association’s Board of Directors, and co-founded the Cable Entrepreneur’s Club. Prior to his involvement with the cable industry, Mr. Simmons was an assistant and then an associate director of the Domestic Policy Staff at the White House during the Carter administration. He was appointed by George W. Bush to serve as a governor on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe.