People Are Asking

Residents spoke out about the "Smart City" Town Hall Meeting:

You need to clean out City Hall now, and in particular get rid of the City Administrator.

He has got to go.

$110/mo for basic internet??? That strikes me as double the going rate. What would Comcast charge? And that Hotwire bill can go to more than double if you need high speeds. That is nuts.

The answer should NFW. Is he getting a 10% kickback?

Name Withheld
Key Colony Beach

Wow thats just wrong Communist KCB.

I use Starlink for internet.

Oreo Sanchez
Key Colony Beach

The overreach in KCB is out of control. Stop figuring ways to extract money from homeowners. Stay out of our business, taxes increased by 30% for me. Pirates are alive and well in KCB.

Not Smart City, Grifter City.

With respect,

Michael Sniscak
Key Colony Beach

I have a completely wireless internet provider (Verizon) which gives me great speed and dependable service for $25 a month. I pick and choose my own streaming services.

Smart City should begin in city hall!

What a joke we have become.

Tom Tucker
Key Colony Beach

I can get those services far far cheaper then $125 a month. Sounds way too expensive.

Stephen Buckeridge
Key Colony Beach

Went to meeting. Please look up reputation of hotwire internet.
Not good...

Read the reviews about Hotwire Communications.

Name Withheld
Key Colony Beach

I was in the cable television business most of my adult life. Hotwire made a pitch to our condo association, (Casa Clara) -- I asked the rep directly if they were going to deploy their own fiber optic cables or lease "dark fiber" from Comcast.

The response was that they would run fiber cables independent of Comcast. I asked if they had obtained a franchise from KCB for use of our public right of ways. They had no idea what I was talking about. The cable operator is required to have a franchise with the hosting community and pay them 5% of their gross revenues as a fee for use of the public rights of way.

I recently noticed new fiber cables on the Comcast strand terminating at the new condos on East Ocean. I asked a Comcast technician if they were leasing dark fiber to Hotwire. He said they were. This is not permitted under the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Look it up.

Roy
Key Colony Beach

What does your Spidey-sense think is going on here.... that the Turnips are somehow getting 4% laundered to themselves to turn a blind eye to what Comcast and Hotwire are doing?

How much IS that 4% in actual annual USD?

Name Withheld
Key Colony Beach

There's plenty of anecdotal evidence of corruption. General Cable paid bribes to officials in multiple countries in a scheme that involved a high-level executive of the company and resulted in profits of more than $50 million worldwide, but they paid only a $20 million fine and it appears no one went to jail. Comcast hired contractors at 10x usual rate to win Philly councilman Bobby Henon's support for reupping their franchise in Philly. It was a convoluted story but Comcast was right in the middle of it. (Vets for Justice claims Comcast bribes both political parties, and every Federal Agency that is supposted to oversee them. The "bribes" are, of course, "political donations.")

Multiple Dwelling Unit (MDU) Bulk Service Agreements are called "the seedy underbelly of the anti-competitive cable and telco-TV world." In 2007, FCC declared that exclusive contracts between cable companies and property owners were "null and void" although companies like Hotwire still use a similar concept for their business model. I found a number of instances where cable companies now pay kickbacks to landlords and HOAs.

Does Hotwire follow what seems to be the industry model of a corrupt industry? We don't know but they do want KCB to sign an exclusive, 20-year contract.

Hard to tell how much that 4% is exactly. The base rate is $130/monhth for ~1,358 properties means about a $2.2 million contract. 4% of that is $88K. The contract doubles the bill over 20 years. Hotwire is a cable company so they're even better than car dealers at pumping the final bill so my guess is they would double the bill or more in the first year with add on "services." 4% is probably actually north of $200K and rising.

Why do we think it's "only" 4%? Why not 25% or 50% as a one-time "contribution"?

I am not in favor of this plan, for many reasons:

  • Loss of our freedom to choose (Constitutional Amendment)
  • I pay next to nothing for my internet and phone
  • I have chosen not to watch cable TV
  • You have heard the saying, "To Good to be True" think twice
  • There is no transparency with this company, "just add it to your taxes" really? How fast would you get an appointment for a service call? What if Hotwire changes their lineup and you don't agree with the changes? Every one will be paying the same amount whether you use their services or not for the next 20 years!
  • I like to choose who gets my hard earned funds, which is the opposite of "this is what you get" philosophy of this plan.
  • We, hopefully, have learned our lesson here.
  • We hire our representatives(commissioners), every time we vote. Let them know how you feel.

Name Withheld
Key Colony Beach

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