Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

Oceanic
raising cable rate
about 5%

Monthly rental for the
company's cable boxes will
increase by 79 cents

The numbers

---

By Rob Perez
Star-Bulletin

Oceanic Cable, Oahu's largest cable television company, will increase the price for its standard package of channels by about 5 percent beginning Jan. 1.

Most of Oceanic's roughly 248,000 Oahu customers will be affected by the increase, which boosts the 54-channel standard package to $31.99 monthly, up from $30.47.

A small number of customers with only basic service -- the $9.90-a-month package of network and public-service channels -- will not be affected, said Oceanic spokesman Kit Beuret.

This will be the fourth time in the past four years that Oceanic has raised rates roughly 5 percent in January.

Although Oahu's inflation rate during that period has never climbed above 2 percent, the company typically has cited the cost of service and programming improvements to justify the increases.

The January increases are the only ones Oceanic implements each year, Beuret said. The upcoming one covers such things as an expansion of more than 20 people to the company's customer service office and a rise in programming costs, he added.

Oceanic also will add 79 cents to the $2.91 monthly rental for cable boxes, which allow customers to get HBO, pay-per-view movies and digital music stations.

Oceanic's Maui and Big Island customers, who pay rates different from Oahu, will see an increase of no more than 5 percent, Beuret said.

 | | |

GOING UP AGAIN Oceanic Cable is raising its rate for standard cable television service by about 5 percent beginning Jan. 1. The company has increased rates roughly 5 percent each of the past several years. Jan. 2001 $31.99 Jan. 2000 $30.47 Jan. 1999 $28.88 Jan. 1998 $27.53