Windham County customers of the locally owned Southern Vermont Cable are protesting a plan to sell the micro company’s assets to the multinational media conglomerate Comcast.
The four-employee provider of television, telephone and internet service to 2,500 customers in the towns of Dummerston, Jamaica, Newfane, Putney and Townshend is seeking permission from the Vermont Public Utility Commission to merge with Comcast’s nearly 30 million residential subscribers in 39 states and the District of Columbia.
Southern Vermont Cable owner Ernie Scialabba, who began the company as a part-time job 32 years ago, wants to retire and believes the sale is the best way to retain service for his rural base.
“A fair number of small start-ups are looking to buy, but a lot of them want to get in and out and make a quick buck,” Scialabba said. “The technology is changing so fast and everything is so much more expensive. In another 10 years, a lot of companies will be going away. Comcast is the safest option because it isn’t going anywhere.”
But dozens of customers, while appreciating Scialabba’s wish to retire, are asking the state to block the merger.
“To think that we in Vermont, who pride ourselves on judging quality of character, are being asked to roll over without protest to such a proposal is deeply disappointing,” writes Newfane mystery novelist Archer Mayor, one of more than 20 people who’ve sent letters of protest.
“If this goes through,” Mayor continued, “we will have segued in a single step from a family-run local operation where the president of the firm (or his brother) often came by for service calls, to a gigantic international corporation who will pay us as much heed and respect as a bug caught under a shoe.”
Vermont is served by 11 cable companies, with the two largest — Comcast and Charter — making up more than 90% of the market.
Southern Vermont Cable has reached out over the years to connect many of the 35% of Vermonters without the right wiring running by their homes, leading people to applaud Scialabba upon his arrival at a recent public hearing on the sale at Putney’s Landmark College.
“The only person who came up to bat was Ernie and his company,” Putney resident John Field told the state at the hearing.
Customer after customer testifying in person or on paper haven’t begrudged Scialabba for wanting to sell but simply questioned why Comcast has to be the buyer.
“One of the reasons we chose to move to Vermont was that it wasn’t owned by the multinationals,” Dummerston resident Kathleen Fleischmann says.
Others fear Comcast will be comparatively unaffordable and unresponsive to the service they’re used to.
“This will not be an improvement,” Dummerston resident Susan Daigler says. “I understand the owner’s desire to retire, but please find another small company to merge with.”
In response, Scialabba says he considered several offers but determined Comcast’s was the only sound one.
“It’s not like buying a store — it’s a 24 hour, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, very technical business,” he says. “I talked to a couple of small companies and wasn’t comfortable the state was going to see them as viable. Everyone wants more speed, but that’s expensive. You’re going to need a big company.”
Scialabba recalls when Verizon sold its residential phone business a decade ago to FairPoint, only to have the new owner file for bankruptcy 18 months later because it wasn’t equipped to handle the customer base.
“I don’t think people realize what it takes to keep these networks running,” he says. “You can’t just pull people off the street and make them technicians.”
Scialabba is one of three employees who manages wiring along roads and inside homes, with a fourth staffer answering the office phone. He wants to find new operators while he’s able.
“You never know how long you have, and you start thinking what if something happens to me?” he says. “That would throw the whole thing into chaos. I thought this was the best thing for customers. A lot of them don’t agree, but they don’t understand everything involved.”
Comcast — with 100,000 Green Mountain State customers — is promoting its size and experience in its pitch to the state.
“Having consistently invented, developed, deployed and improved a wide range of new technologies and services, Comcast has established a reputation as an industry leader in communications, technology, financial performance and operational efficiency,” Daniel Glanville, vice president of government/regulatory affairs and community impact, has written the Public Utility Commission.
For all the criticism, Comcast has its local defenders.
“I don’t know if Comcast is quite the big ogre everyone is saying they are,” Dummerston resident Allan Seymour said at the public hearing. “I’m not sure they’re being represented fairly.”
The Public Utility Commission is expected to rule on the proposed sale by spring. State Rep. Michael Mrowicki of Putney has asked that approval be tied to a “high standard of service” with defined benchmarks and continued expansion into areas without coverage.
“The reality that Ernie is getting out of the business,” Mrowicki says, “and there aren’t other options.”