April 25, 2008
Q: I was curious why my Americable bill increased an additional $5 a month when there has been no noticeable increase in channels or service? They have added one cartoon network for Tier 2 but nothing for Tier 1.

A: Thank you for expressing your concerns over our upcoming rate increase; Americable does appreciate the feedback and sincerely values our customers’ opinions. We don’t make these decisions without a great deal of thought and analysis. In fact, our last cable television rate increase was nearly 3 years ago and since that time we have made numerous changes to improve our service. In June 2006, we determined that establishing a local 24/ 7 Tech Support Center in Yokosuka that could monitor the channels and quickly repair issues with the DVD recorded channels as well as walk customers through basic computer and connection problems would be a vast customer service improvement versus the stateside contractor that previously handled our support calls. Michelle Stewart Kimberly Thomas Tim Shannon Tetaun Moffett Keiichi Adachi Yuhji Kawabe Kazuyuki Takagi Sean Dath Fumiyo Sato Dan Bowen Jeff Doepp Hideo Kaihatsu Tomomi Hirano Keiko Kishi Public Affairs Officer Lead Public Affairs Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Photojournalist Seahawk Editor Seahawk/Umitaka Editor Account Executive Account Executive This upgrade coupled with normal salary increases resulted in our payroll going up over 25 percent since the last rate increase. Furthermore, even though the programmers have raised their rates to us every year, we have added new programming like Fox Japan, Fox Crime, & Boomerang in an effort to bring our subscribers even more of the stateside programming they have become so accustomed to receiving. This has resulted in our programming costs rising 17 percent since the last rate increase. We understand that our subscribers often expect the same number of channels for the same pricing they received in the states; however, this simply isn’t possible.