workarounds for the workarounds

Comcast sucks. Again. Only, this time, the suckage is a little more significant.
Our twelve months of promo-ness came up this month, and our cable/internet bill jumped about 30% overnight – to be expected, after all, that is the contract we agreed to. I tried calling up Comcast twice now to see if there are any other specials or promotional plans we could piggyback on, but to say that the customer service representatives have been dismissive would be a significant understatement.
So, in the interests of not forking over three digits’ worth of cash for basic cable and one-step-up-from-basic internet, Better Half and I started researching other options. DirecTV and Dish Network are both viable options, except both require a clear view of the southern skies (gotta love the cheaper physics of putting satellites in orbit around the equator), and given that our apartment faces north well enough to kill off most of the patio garden we have, something tells me we are not going to get a solid signal. So we moved on to hardwire options. Cox? Nope. Knology (a local ISP)? Nada. Time Warner? Nyet. Verizon? Not even their DSL. Sure, we could get AT&T DSL, but that leaves us in the lurch for television, given that their “Uverse” stuff is not provided to our area.
In a fit of frustration, I called up our apartment complex to see who else might be servicing our buildings. “Oh, we have an exclusive contract with Comcast. They are the only ones who provide cable.”
I said, “Oh, ok,” (while quietly adding a few, choice words in my mind) went through the standard pleasantries, and hung up, but then the gears started turning…
A few years back now, the Federal Communications Commission ruled to ban exclusive deals between cable operators and landlords of multiple dwelling units were banned… just like the supposed contract I was just told my apartment complex has with Comcast. A little more digging revealed that the DC Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld the ban on exclusive contracts between cable providers and MDUs, even going so far as to say that the FCC rules could actually be used against standing agreements already in place.
Interesting…
I called up my complex again, pointed out that the FCC ruling prevented these kinds of things, and was told that the complex did not really have an exclusive contract, but rather Comcast wired up the complex when it was constructed, so no one else can physically connect to the wires to provide cable or internet.
Great argument, except the FCC rule-change was specifically designed to ban/prevent/overturn those kinds of situations – otherwise, you end up with these “not-really-exclusive contracts” like my apartment’s, where it probably is not spelled out as being exclusive, but it is the only game in town.
To be certain, the FCC rules do not require my complex to seek out service or contracts from other complexes, so if they choose not to, it is my ass for choosing to live in that particular complex. However, Comcast still sucks – my apartment complex was built before the rule changes, but tryingt o continue to hold the complex to the “not-really-exclusive contract” (and from my conversations with the complex staff, the entity in control does appear to be Comcast, though that control may be partially due to the ignorance of the staff) is demonstrably against those rules.
So how do I get another cable/internet provider interested in hooking up to our complex? Does anyone have any experience with getting cable companies interested in expanding their customer base? My apartment complex management is pretty damned near clueless, so I will need to present them with a, “This is who we want to connect to, this is how it will happen, and this is how much it will cost you (ideally, nothing),” plan before they probably even twitch their toes, and even then, I can probably count on some resistance.
*sigh* In other news, we really need a house…