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The new cable and Internet rates will take effect at the first of the year. The upgrades will provide access to high-speed Internet connections.
By JENNIFER GOLDBLATT
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 2, 2001
If you're one of Time Warner Cable's 77,000 customers in west Pasco County, you're about to see another rate increase.
The change will take effect Jan. 1, one year after the company's last increase. It is being driven by rising costs of programming, employee training and maintenance services, said Linda Chambers, a spokeswoman for Time Warner Cable Tampa Bay.
Time Warner also is upgrading Pasco's network to provide access to Road Runner, AOL and Earthlink's high-speed Internet service. Those services promise to be 40 times faster than dial-up Internet service.
Time Warner started the upgrade in Holiday and is working its way north neighborhood by neighborhood. The company is aiming to complete the upgrade early next year.
If you're a Time Warner customer, this is what it all means for you:
Limited Basic Cable, which offers channels 2 through 22, will cost $11.95 per month, up from $10.95.
Extended Basic Cable (now called the Preferred Value Package), which includes 52 channels, will cost $34.35, up from $32.50. Once your area is upgraded, you'll get 15 more channels, and it will cost more, $38.50. Your channel lineup also will change.
High-speed online service will cost $44.95 per month.
The rates for a converter box, premium movie channels and pay-per-view movies will not change.
Shaw Communications, which has about 22,000 customers in Land O'Lakes, Zephyrhills, Dade City and Wesley Chapel, hopes to have high-speed Internet access available to customers early next year.
Time Warner is raising rates for all of its 900,000 customers in the Tampa Bay area.
-- Jennifer Goldblatt covers business in Pasco County. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6229, or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6229. Her e-mail address is