More cable-bilities

In today's tech-driven world, it's all about the upgrades.

On April 18, Midwest cable provider WideOpenWest Internet, Cable and Phone (WOW!) announced a merger deal to acquire the West Point, Ga.-based cable company Knology, Inc.

The Auburn City Council approved the FCC Form 394 application requesting the transfer of the non-exclusive cable franchise agreement from Knology to WOW! at the City Council meeting on May 15.

On the surface, the merger will not bring much change to residents who are already customers of Knology, according to Knology Vice President of Sales and Marketing Royce Ard.

"The most important thing at this point in time is that it's business as usual for our customers, and we're going to continue to provide the same great service that we've been providing in the Auburn market," Ard said.

The changes that are made, however, will only be for the better, according to Ard.

"We're very proud of the customer service experience that Knology provides, but at the same time, WOW! would tell you that they offer best in class customer service, and they have a lot of trophies to prove it," Ard said.

While Knology has less national recognition, WOW! is renowned for its customer service, earning 14 J.D. Power and Associates awards for customer satisfaction since 2005 and being ranked the top triple service provider in the nation by Consumer Reports in 2011.

WOW!'s reputation combined with more advanced technologies looks to help keep Knology's current customers and attract new ones.

"The WOW! company is extremely focused on customer service and employees," said Knology President Todd Holt. "I think it's a 'one plus one equals three' type (of) scenario where WOW! is a great company, Knology is a great company, and we'll be even better with more resources."

For example, WOW! offers up to 50 megabytes per second Internet speed compared to 30 MBps by Knology.

According to Ard, WOW!'s effort in its "TV-everywhere" feature, which allows its customers to watch television on their mobile devices, will be made available to Knology customers after the merger.

"WOW!'s ahead of us in 'TV-everywhere' offerings. For instance they have HBO Go, which we've been working on getting a contract with HBO to provide," Ard said. "They are on the forefront as far as programming goes, and I think that's something the customers will see in the near term."

And yet the merger does hold a mutual attraction.

While WOW! offers Knology a recognized name and advances in services, the sale of Knology allows WOW! to expand and break into the southeastern markets of the country, according to Ard.

"WOW! would love to expand their footprint and be a larger company, and at Knology we would like to see our business grow as well, and it's just a good fit for both of us," Ard said.

As of now, WOW! offers services in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

In acquiring Knology, WOW! will gain control of markets in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kansas and South Dakota, with Auburn being one of its four Alabamian markets.

Ard said with the expansion of the customer base, quality customer service will be even more important than it is now.

"You have to decide what kind of company you want to be, and if you want to be a large company that's going to cover wide swatches of the population, and that typically has not been Knology's plan, nor has it been WOW!'s plan," Ard said.

"We like to ... be very careful in picking the market, because once we do we invest not only a lot of money, but a lot of time and resources in developing those markets and giving back to the communities."

By combining their resources, Holt believes that WOW! can challenge and supercede larger cable companies such as Charter Communications while maintaining the support and attention provided by a smaller business.

"The cultures of the two companies are very consistent ... they both go in and compete with the incumbent cable and telephone companies and play the David v. Goliath type of business model," Holt said.

"We don't cover the same number of homes as Charter, so (Charter) is always going to be a very large player, but I think we compete very well with Charter and we take our share of the customer base for sure," Ard said.

Auburn University student Mark Tesney, a junior in sociology and Charter customer, said that large cable companies' response times and lack of immediacy in solving problems is a major factor in whether or not he continues his subscription.

"I use Charter and my parents use Cox (Communications), and they both take forever with fixing problems," Tesney said. "My internet goes out at least once a week and this has been going on since last fall so I might be switching to someone else when I move out."

To Ard, this merger represents the best of both worlds: big city consumers intertwined with small-town hospitality.

"I think we take two great customer service providers and push them together, and with those added resources it becomes a bigger player in the industry," he said. "We're much, much more ingrained in those individual communities because we've hand selected those."

In a community as close-knit as Auburn, this personal touch may help attract residents unhappy with their current service.

The decision on whether or not Knology will keep its name or take on the WOW! moniker is completely up to WOW!, although Ard said he expects no change in the first few months as WOW! eases the transition to a new ownership.

The deal is not yet finalized, but WOW! is paying cash for all of Knology's outstanding shares at $19.75 per share, according to WOW!'s press release.

Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Kuo declined comment until the deal is done.

The entire deal is valued at approximately $1.5 billion.

WOW! representatives refused any further comment until the deal is finalized.

According to the FCC application, the two companies intend to finish the transaction no later than July 31.