Cablevision to Hopatcong: We're Not Changing Rates

Hopatcong's council had a few questions for Cablevision when its representative showed up to address the borough at Wednesday's meeting at .

Councilwoman Madeline McManus said she's seen the cable company offering lower rates to new customers and asked Director of Government Affairs Don Viapree if Cablevision considering adjusting it prices.

Viapree said he wasn't aware of any planned rate changes.

"Not given the new programming," he said. "I mean, not giving the programming contracts we have in place and the programming services. So I have no knowledge of any adjustment at this time."

Councilman Mike Francis said he wanted to speak with Cablevision about expanding its wireless services to Hopatcong buildings, such as borough hall, the and the building.

Francis said wireless Internet would be a "valuable tool" to the buildings.

"There are many buildings that have that capability," he said. "I would like ours to be one of them. It would kind of take us out of the dark ages."

Vaipree said the cable company would consider it.

"Location is everything, as you know, as they'd say in any other matter," he said. "So we'd look into that."
Vaipree started his talk with Mayor Sylvia Petillo and the council championing Cablevision's improvements since the last time he attended a Hopatcong council meeting in around 2001.

"The advanced digital services have been delivered to our customers," he said. "The advanced services of cable TV, Internet and voice services. We have also allowed of customers to utilize WiFi services that are available in various parks and other public places.

"We have also allowed customers, free of charge, to use any iPad or mobile services that they have in order to view their services free of charge. We also have been adding to our digital cable TV lineup numerous programming services—sometimes every week. We have also introduced high-definition programming services and are one of the companies to do so without charging our customers for those high-definition programming services."

Councilman Richard Bunce asked Vaipree if the cable company planned to keep the free-of-charge services that way entering its next contract. Vaipree said the company would.