N.Y.C. mayor presses Comcast

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has a beef about customer service from cable provider Comcast Corp. and its merger partner, Time Warner Cable Inc. - and unlike most people, he hast a chance to do something about it.

De Blasio asked U.S. regulators last week to demand a commitment for better customer service - including additional staffing for call centers - before blessing the $45.2 billion deal. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also called for service assurances before No. 1 Comcast, a bottom-dweller in consumer rankings, is allowed to absorb the second-largest cable provider.

The issue was highlighted Wednesday by a nationwide Internet service outage for Time Warner Cable customers. The timing adds weight to mayoral pleas from the nation's top two media markets to make customer service a factor for state and federal regulators reviewing the proposed merger.

Time Warner Cable has the highest rate of complaints among cable providers in New York City, and regulators should require measurable improvement in customer service as a condition of the deal, de Blasio wrote in his FCC filing. New York state's Public Service Commission, which has a say in approving Time Warner Cable's transfer of 2.5 million in-state subscribers, already has been advised by staff to require improvements in consumer surveys as a condition of the deal.

Sena Fitzmaurice, a spokeswoman for Comcast, said the company was "open to discussing reasonable conditions which don't unduly burden our business."

Time Warner Cable spokesman Bobby Amirshahi didn't immediately respond to an e-mail asking about possible conditions for merger approval.

The New York company said it had restored service within a few hours to most of the subscribers who lost Internet and on-demand video when a disruption occurred during "routine network maintenance."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo directed the New York State Department of Public Service to investigate the outage as part of its review of Comcast's proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

"The mayor continues to remain concerned about ensuring all New Yorkers have reliable broadband access," said Ishanee Parikh, a spokeswoman for de Blasio.

A history of poor customer service makes cable "an easy punching bag," said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson in New York.

"Ultimately, the thumbs-up or thumbs-down isn't likely to hinge on customer service, but instead on more substantive structural issues," Moffett said.

Kim Hart, a spokeswoman for the FCC, which is reviewing the deal along with the Justice Department, declined to comment on possible conditions regulators may seek.

The FCC has set an informal deadline of early January to complete its review. The agency has asked Comcast to supply documents about consumer satisfaction, and plans to address problems indicated by rankings and surveys.

The agency took comments from the public until Aug. 25, when de Blasio and Garcetti submitted remarks.