Comcast Rolls Back Into South Florida

Cable World,  March 10, 2003  

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"We are fortunate that the previous company did not establish a culture at all," Lopez says. "We are building a new culture based on a common mission, clearly defined goals and a common set of values."

Part of this culture change is the switch to being a locally focused, decentralized operation.

"We've been very aggressively working on decentralizing management in south Florida," Autry says. In Autry's service area, which covers Dade County and part of Monroe County, Comcast created an independent operation for the metro Miami area, as well as stand-alone operations for northern Dade County, Hialeah, Kendall and the Keys.

"We become much more nimble in our response," Autry says. For example, in the Keys, the company has technicians and service personnel in three locations, eliminating the great distance trucks would have to roll if there were only one location in the upper Keys. The model also calls for local teams in almost every area of the business, from marketing to HR to construction and technical areas.

There's more to the local angle than just service and upgrade issues. Poor customer service and a perception that AT&T Broadband disregarded community concerns created friction between the operator and regulators. By the time Comcast took over AT&T, the operator had been fined by at least one community in south Florida and had been sued by residents in Broward County, who alleged AT&T had redlined poorer areas for high-speed data service.

During the year Comcast sought approval from regulators to buy AT&T, its government-relations team crisscrossed the country gearing up for franchise transfers. Autry and Snedeker have made it clear they will be available to answer any concerns.

"The most important thing for us is to be local and to have our people visible to those community leaders," Snedeker says. "So they know they can go and talk to any one of my staff members, or they can call me and they know I'm going to be able to visit with them."

Although Lopez, Snedeker and Autry stressed that they are focusing on the future, Comcast, even with its stellar reputation, will have to prove itself.

"People have given them a honeymoon to see how they implement their business plan," says Matt Leibowitz, an attorney representing Florida local franchise authorities in transfer and renewal talks. "But the clock is ticking." Leibowitz did say the new team seems bright and responsive.

During the approval process, Leibowitz went over each franchise on a city-by-city basis with the Comcast team and worked out solutions to avoid the old scenario, he says. For example, Comcast actually pushed AT&T to complete its upgrade in Miami before it took over the system.

The cities in south Florida also have more enforcement power under the new franchise agreements.

"The cities have the authority in the event of a failure of the company to give notice to the company, and if the company doesn't respond, to fine them," Leibowitz says. "And the fines can rack up to substantial numbers, which puts tremendous pressure to fix the problems."