A Comcast plan to charge $2 a month for a device it had long provided for free has created confusion and controversy among Twin Cities customers and municipal officials.
The digital terminal adapter, or DTA, is designed for viewers who plug TVs directly into Comcast wall ports instead of using full-featured cable-TV boxes. These users typically receive only basic channels, those also available for free through a rooftop or TV-top antenna.
Comcast has been charging most existing DTA users the $2 fee since January, and is telling other customers they should start paying for DTAs by March or April.
And while two bucks might not seem like a lot, some city officials question whether certain customers are being told they need the device when they do not, and whether Comcast legally can charge the fee in the first place.
The issue came up at an Eagan City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19. The matter got on the agenda after residents raised concerns about it, said city communications director Tom Garrison.
Other suburban officials, meanwhile, have hired an attorney to explore whether Comcast subscribers are entitled to immediate refunds.
Use of DTAs is commonplace. For some Comcast customers, this is the only kind of cable service in their homes. For others, the adapter device is added to extra TVs to complement premium-cable setups found elsewhere in these residences.
Whether the device is needed depends on the type of TV one owns. Older, tube-style TVs plugged directly into the wall receive no Comcast signal without a DTA. But modern HDTVs typically don’t need DTAs to obtain the same limited slate of cable channels.
The DTAs became an issue when a majority of Comcast users were told they would be charged $2 per device per month. Those without DTAs received a recent mailing from Comcast: Get the box or lose your channels. As the brochure put it, “Digital equipment is needed on all your TVs.”
But that’s not true, and Comcast’s Nyberg acknowledged as much.
Many who plug modern flat-panel TVs into their wall ports without DTAs will not lose capability to watch basic channels for the foreseeable future, Nyberg said. TVs that have a “QAM tuner” don’t need DTAs. Most modern TVs have this.
Nyberg acknowledged the mailing was poorly written. While aimed at the majority of customers who need DTAs, he said, it should have mentioned a minority don’t need the device.
“This was a miss on our part,” said Nyberg.
Still, DTAs have an advantage even for those who don’t need them, Nyberg said. Installing them provides access to 14 additional cable channels at no extra cost and without the need for a full-featured cable box.
He also made clear that a small percentage of customers, those with the simplest tier of service called Basic Cable, are exempt from paying the fee. Instead, they get up to three DTAs at no cost, and pay only 50 cents per month for each additional DTA.
Basic Cable uses are the likeliest to have older TVs and the most at risk of losing access to their limited slate of channels.
Comcast retains the right to someday make its basic channels inaccessible to those who don’t use DTAs, and said it will do so eventually. The federal government prohibited such a move for years but has lifted the ban.
Whether Comcast can legally charge anyone that $2 monthly fee for a DTA is another matter being explored by municipalities.
Attorney Mike Bradley said a group of suburban cable commissions has hired him to get to the bottom of this.
The question is whether the $2 charge is a service fee or an equipment fee.
Comcast classifies it as an “additional-outlet service fee,” rather than an equipment fee. But Bradley said this might be an attempt to charge an unregulated service fee instead of a regulated equipment charge.
If the fee were classified as an equipment fee, Comcast would charge 50 cents per DTA based on rate forms filed with the cable commissions, Bradley said.
Comcast said in a statement: “We have and will continue to respond to all local regulatory questions regarding DTAs. … We have thoroughly reviewed the matter and believe we’re within all (federal) parameters in establishing this pricing.”
WHO PAYS THE $2?
A majority of Comcast subscribers who use DTAs will have to pay $2 a month for each device, but a small percentage will remain exempt for the foreseeable future.
Who doesn’t pay: Customers with the simplest tier of cable service, which Comcast calls Basic Cable. These subscribers get up to three DTAs for free, and pay only 50 cents a month for additional devices.
Who does pay: All other Comcast subscribers, starting with those who have the Digital Starter tier. Comcast has been charging existing DTA users the $2 fee since January, and is telling other customers they should start using (and paying for) DTAs by March or April.
WHO NEEDS A DTA?
DTAs are meant for those who plug their TVs directly into cable-TV wall ports instead of using full-featured cable boxes. This yields only a basic slate of channels but is cheaper.
Not all who plug their TVs directly into the wall need DTAs, however. It depends on what kind of TV they have.
Who needs one: Those with older, tube-style TVs will get no channels through a wall port without a DTA, period. It doesn’t matter what tier of cable service they have.
Who doesn’t need one: Those with modern TVs, in many cases, do not need a DTA. Such TVs have the right kind of tuner, called a QAM tuner, to get the channels through a wall port without a DTA. So do certain computers. Even Basic Cable users can do this if their TVs are up-to-date.
Everyone will need one someday: Those with QAM-equipped TVs can get channels because they are unencrypted, but Comcast intends to encrypt these eventually. When that happens, all who plug directly into wall ports will need DTAs regardless of TV type.
Source: Comcast
