Comcast Cable

Comcast Cable Communications Inc. has leased a newly built office building in White Marsh, more than doubling the amount of space in its regional headquarters there, the company and its developer, Nottingham Properties Inc., announced yesterday. Comcast needs the new 75,000-square-foot Class A, or top-tier, building to accommodate growth of the company, which recently expanded its service area. Comcast Corp., Comcast Cable's parent company, announced last month that it had completed a multimillion-dollar acquisition of AT&T cable systems that added 600,000 customers.

Some Comcast customers lost access to cable TV service in the Baltimore area on Thursday morning, as a result of "technical issues related to a piece of equipment," according to spokeswoman Alisha Martin. Video service has been disrupted for some Baltimore area customers since shortly after midnight, Martin said, and customer relations lines have been jammed since 3 a.m. Martin said she did not have a figure for exactly how many customers were affected. She said some customers have had their service restored already, and technicians are working "through the morning to restore service for all remaining customers as quickly as possible.

Comcast Online Communications will sponsor a day of Internet seminars and classes Sunday afternoon to celebrate the launch of its Comcasome Internet service in Howard County.The cable television company also will offer hands-on workshops and demonstrations on how to use the Internet for people of all ages and computer-skill levels. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources will have activities to entertain children."The special day of activities will not only be entertaining, but also educational," said Kirk Holmes, general manager of Comcast Online Communications in the Baltimore area.

Laurel police report felonies, arrests and property crimes. Anne Arundel County police report major crimes. Prince George's County police report violent crimes and property crime. Howard County police report major crimes, break-ins and car thefts. City of Laurel Baltimore Avenue , 14800 block, Nov. 9. Power tools, Nikon camera and eyeglasses stolen from truck. Greenview Drive , 14400 block, Nov. 8. Red 2008 Ford F-450 crew cab truck with Maryland tags stolen.

In Maryland Judiciary committee discusses plan to limit court records access ANNAPOLIS - A committee of the Maryland judiciary met behind closed doors yesterday to consider its draft proposal to limit access to computerized criminal court records. The committee chairwoman declined afterward to provide specifics of the deliberations. The meeting of the six-member Committee on Public Access to Court Information came five days after a public hearing at which the proposal was roundly criticized by private investigators, media representatives and business leaders, who said it would hamper background checks of public officials and prospective employees.

New positions Comcast Cable names four to managerial posts Comcast Cable appointed Bob Preisel director of business operations, Mark Watts director of marketing and Daniel J. Hoffman director of advertising sales at its Chesapeake Bay Group Systems. The multistate cable operator also has named Angela Heffner as its community relations manager for Baltimore County. She is responsible for implementing community plans and corporate philanthropy in the area. Banking and finance Diane Hooker is named Provident assistant VP Provident Bank of Maryland promoted Diane Hooker to assistant vice president in its human resources division.

PHILADELPHIA -- Comcast Cable Communications Inc. said it has asked the Federal Communications Commission to deny a wireless cable license to Atlantic Microsystems Inc., a subsidiary of a company in which Bell Atlantic is acquiring a stake.Comcast said the proposed acquisition would put Bell Atlantic in violation of federal rules barring a single company from owning an interest in both wireline and wireless cable systems serving the same community.Bell Atlantic, which owns the local telephone company serving Maryland, contested the accusations.

It worked with cable thieves in Baltimore County, so now Comcast Cable is taking its amnesty campaign to Howard County.Beginning May 1, cable thieves in Howard County can turn themselves in -- no questions asked -- to Comcast's offspring, Storer/Howard County Cable. The amnesty program will end June 16, when Comcast says it will start prosecuting cable thieves.The company, which has about 42,000 subscribers in the eastern half of the county, is owned by Storer Communications, a subsidiary of Comcast.

Comcast Cablevision plans to complete its Baltimore County system this summer, when cable television service to the Parkton area in northern Baltimore County is expected to be turned on.The addition of Parkton will complete the requirements of Comcast's franchise agreement with the county, which was granted in 1978. That agreement requires Comcast to provide cable services to the county's populated areas.With the addition of Parkton, Comcast said, cable will be available to 98 percent of county residents.

New positions Comcast Cable promotes Kenneth D. Crooks to VP Comcast Cable promoted Kenneth D. Crooks to vice president and general manager of its Baltimore City cable system. He is responsible for daily operations and completion of the system's fiber-optic upgrading. He previously was vice president for operations in the Maryland/Delaware region. Before joining Comcast, he was vice president of affiliate relations for Disney ABC Cable group. He is a member of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing and is active with Port Discovery, the Baltimore Zoo and the Signal 13 Foundation.

Bill Lewis said he called Comcast Cable a dozen times and even visited in person over the roughly nine months it took to get the cable giant to bury a "temporary" wire strung above ground near his home in Columbia's Oakland Mills, and he's fed up. "I called and called. I made a trip to the Comcast office and lodged a complaint," he said, adding that the clerk seemed to be recording his information, though no noticeable result followed. The wire, which stretched about 200 yards between utility posts that sprout from the ground on his block of Afternoon Lane, "was unsightly," he said.

Bill Lewis said he called Comcast Cable a dozen times and even visited in person over the roughly nine months it took to get the cable giant to bury a "temporary" wire strung above ground near his home in Columbia's Oakland Mills, and he's fed up. "I called and called. I made a trip to the Comcast office and lodged a complaint," he said, adding that the clerk seemed to be recording his information, though no noticeable result followed. The wire, which stretched about 200 yards between utility posts that sprout from the ground on his block of Afternoon Lane, "was unsightly," he said.

1 The problem: A Comcast cable was routed through a Hanover gutter. The backstory: For more than a year, the Comcast cable lines in Nicky Frantz's Hanover neighborhood had been installed in an unexpected way. we_can_help@cable.comcast.com, an e-mail address listed on Comcast's page on the social networking Web site Twitter. A Comcast representative responded by Dec. 17, asking for her address, but it still hadn't been fixed when she returned after the holidays. So Watchdog called Comcast, and on Wednesday, Frantz's husband had good news to report: "He called me [and said]

It's hard to unravel all the wheeling-and-dealing the government says Tommy Bromwell was up to, and those FBI transcripts of him cussing and drinking and bragging are almost too entertaining to shed light. But I think I?m onto his central scheme, and as someone who can?t afford HBO, it thrills me to report it involves Comcast. No, I'm not talking about the part where the former Democratic state senator and current RICO defendant is caught on tape saying that he saved the cable giant $75 million through a late-fees bill, and that "If I run for county executive and lose, I've got a job with Comcast Cable."

Millions of cable customers nationwide, including many in the Baltimore region, are waiting to see if popular Fox shows such as American Idol remain on their cable systems as Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and Comcast Corp. approach tomorrow's deadline to reach a deal on programming costs. Comcast said yesterday that discussions between the two parties remain "productive" and that they are working to reach a "fair agreement that would avoid any interruption in service for our customers."

Comcast Cable has agreed to carry the Orioles-owned Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, ending a 16-month standoff that kept Washington Nationals games unavailable to 1.6 million cable customers in Maryland, Washington and Virginia. MASN, which will also carry Orioles games next year, is expected to be available to those customers at the beginning of September. Over the next two years, Comcast will offer MASN to an additional 600,000 customers in areas farther from the Baltimore-Washington region.

1 The problem: A Comcast cable was routed through a Hanover gutter. The backstory: For more than a year, the Comcast cable lines in Nicky Frantz's Hanover neighborhood had been installed in an unexpected way. we_can_help@cable.comcast.com, an e-mail address listed on Comcast's page on the social networking Web site Twitter. A Comcast representative responded by Dec. 17, asking for her address, but it still hadn't been fixed when she returned after the holidays. So Watchdog called Comcast, and on Wednesday, Frantz's husband had good news to report: "He called me [and said]

City election returns and a live cable television broadcast of a presidential debate in Baltimore fell victim last night to a failure of the Comcast Cable television system affecting many would-be viewers. Comcast customers in two city ZIP codes discovered only 'snow' on their screens if they tried to tune to any Comcast channel - including the debate among Democratic presidential candidates at Morgan State University broadcast by the Fox cable network, and results of the municipal primaries.

THE ISSUE: The County Council voted Thursday to give Verizon permission to negotiate a cable television franchise with the Howard County government. Do you welcome the competition between Verizon and Comcast? Pricing structure draws resentment At best, Comcast's overall service is lackluster although its Internet service is satisfactory. What I do resent is its pricing structure. Many years ago, Howard County was dumb enough to give Comcast a sweetheart deal: a monopoly. Like all monopolies, the company raised its prices each year.

The Verizon utility trucks seen recently from Columbia to North Laurel are early signs of a building rivalry between the giant telecommunications company and Comcast Cable that could change the video-services landscape for Howard County residents. The County Council is to vote this month on a resolution seeking permission for Verizon to begin negotiating a franchise agreement with the county - the first such agreement for which Verizon has applied in Maryland. "This is a big deal," said Councilman Ken Ulman, a west Columbia Democrat.