2004 Year in Review

Mediacom spoke at business luncheon

How can the cable Internet help businesses in Morrison? Morrison Chamber of Commerce invited local businesspersons to their first business seminar. The seminar, held at Northside Country Inn, was a chance for local businesses to meet and learn ways to improve their businesses. Curt Diehm from Mediacom introduced their cable Internet services to over 25 local business owners and employees at the luncheon.

Mediacom is the 8th largest cable company in the U.S. and their focus has been rural areas and small towns. They have 1.6 million basic subscribers in 2.7 million homes but they are exclusive to 23 states. Local businesses, including Wells Fargo, Central Bank in Fulton, and The City Rebar, are currently using their service and feel it has been beneficially to their growth.

Benefits to having Mediacom, according to Diehm, include quicker downloads, more email accounts, and space for Web pages. He spoke of a trucker in Iowa that called him with “the dial-up blues”. Most of his customers are frustrated with dial-up and want cable installed immediately.

Mediacom offers 1-monthly fee and provides 24 hrs per day coverage with no extra phone line or usage fees. Adding extra workstations can be done with no additional cost. Prices for business start at $69.95 per month plus installation but they have five levels for businesses that include priority routing and static IP’s.

Diehm explained static IP’s to pulling into a parking lot and having a reserved parking spot while with dynamic IP’s, your computer has to look for an IP and that would be like looking for the first available parking spot. Routing was compared to driving onto the interstate and having to wait to merge but with priority routing you go to the beginning of the line. Those services are available with the high-end contracts.

Business accounts have a separate technical support center, explained Diehm, available 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Mediacom also offers a 30-day money back guarantee if for some reason the business does not like cable Internet.

More business seminars are being planned by the Chamber of Commerce for the future.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
May 7, 2004