Comcast Comcast "improved service" deprives us of service and cost money. Ann Arbor, Michigan

Those of us in Ann Arbor, MI who subscribe to Comcast recently received a notice that they are enhancing [their] digital services in [our] area and that they would be improving those services. For this reason their transmission would be changing and, as a consequence, we, the subscribers, would have to obtain for each television we have a device called a Digital Transport Adapter. The notice stated that we would need this DTA device to continue receiving a considerable number of the channels previously available to us. The required change was represented as free, as Comcast would provide up to three DTAs per household without charge.

What followed in my case was a development that made this Comcast innovation anything but an improvement and anything but free. I picked up two DTAs from the Comcast office, one for our bedroom TV and the other for our relatively new Sony 42 flat screen TV on our main floor. To understand the negative impact of Comcasts move to the DTA, you must know that we never tapped Comcast services using one of their boxes, but instead tuned the channels we watched using the built in tuner in our televisions. Using that approach we were able to get all the Comcast channels we could have gotten with a Comcast box, and furthermore, we could tune in hi-definition transmittals from the four networks (Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS) and one PBS channel.

Much to my surprise and dismay, when I connected and activated the DTA connected to our Sony, I discovered that we could no longer tune in any of those hi-definition channels we previously received. When I called Comcast, and ended up speaking to no less than three representatives, I was advised that I perceived the matter correctly and that the only way I could receive the 5 hi-definition transmissions from the networks and PBS transmissions that I previously received without additional payment would be to rent (for over $8.00 a month) a Comcast box.

So much for the benefits of free Comcast improved services.