You’ve heard I’m sure of Condo association battles. Well, I came out on the loosing side, the details I’m not going to go into here. I can speak of the aftermath and tell you the Oakhurst board dumped Xfinity/Comcast and went with a fly by night company called Opticaltel which you have probably never heard of. 

Aside from the Opticaltel technical Issues, nobody stopped two realize, the homeowners association in choosing Opticaltel was actually mandating each condo owner must have, and pay for, a cable company (Opticaltel).

With Comcast as an individual option, we could choose to not have their service at all, or more importantly subscribe to internet only and thus the streaming channels of our choice.

The board at the time, really gave us a shafting.


Opticaltel is located in Coral Gables and market themselves as a cable company for condos and developments. Their chief marketing pitch is 1) their service is via Fiberoptic cables to your house or unit and thus better than standard Coax. You get internet and a bunch of channels - more or less the same as Comcast. 2) They promised all new fibre optic underground rewiring. The other big plus is 3) your basic bill would be paid through the homeowners association quarterly dues. Only the extras like a phone or movie channels you’d pay separately to Opticaltel. And for all this it would be cheaper than Comcast. These features alone were enough to win the hearts of the elderly majority that voted but only half received ballots to vote on the issue. 


So how does Opticaltel work and what’s the real deal. The bulk of the “Cable” channels are already 'out there'. In our case, there is a wholesale fibre optic cable running down Bee Ridge Rd. All Opticaltel had to do was negotiate with its owner and connect. But not all channels ware included so an ANTENNA had to be erected at our unoccupied guard booth. Inside the guard booth Opticaltel installed the Electronics used in mixing the Fiber Optic channels and the over the air channels for the Oakhurst fiber network. Using the guard house and mounting and antenna were never discussed. They might even be questionable in our condo docs.


Understand we could have kept Comcast, but the lack of methodical negotiation of a new contract addressing the fiber optic issue with Comcast was not forthcoming. Also there was an in-with-new, out with-the-old attitude, prevented that. At my suggestion we should have seen a functioning system of theirs which was also never done. The only thing we ever saw was their remote control and their in-unit equipment. The whole thing seemed like a railroaded job to me.


Opticaltel Features (none)


So lets begin with their remote. It’s an off the counter multi purpose remote you can buy in Best Buy or Amazon. It has 50 buttons to cover any possibility of needs for any device. And for that reason it makes it one of the most complicated remotes you've ever used. The Comcast remote has only 36 buttons and is custom tailored for comcast.


Ironically, Opticaltel comes around every so often to give lessons on the use of the remote. One would think a "Cable Company" would have and instruction video on you tube like so many others - but no.


Any movement on a comcast remote lights the buttons so you can see them in the dark. Not so with Optical’s remote.


Oh, Comcast’s remote has a mic so you can request a channel or a show. And if your show ins’t on, it will ask if you want to record it. I should mention it works by subject matter like cowboy movies of football etc etc. And it does a lot more.


One very cool feature of Comcast is it lets you skip commercials with one push of a button on playback of recorded network shows. (I just learned you can say skip.)


None of the above features will Opticaltel do*.


Understand I dont use Opticaltel, but I have it because it is included with our quarterly maintenance.  Just switching  my input button I can switch between the two services but, I would then have to use the overly confusing Opticaltel remote, so I never have once used Opticaltel.  That also works with WiFi allowing me to easily switch between both.


As a customer of Opticaltel, I get an e-mail of planned service interruptions, and I get plenty. (See below).  I can say not once have we lost comcast service since Opticaltel was installed. And yes I am in effect paying twice the cable fee. With few still remaining on Comcast it eliminates many problems. Still the Comcast benefits out way Opticaltel. Comcast moves forward technologically.  Opticaltel, is stuck in the mud for the life of its  10 year contract.


If Opticaltel was installed only for internet, at a fraction of the price, allowing us to choose one of the many streaming services, that would have been great. It wasn’t even an option.

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*Back in the summer of 2019, before covid and at a meeting at our clubhouse put on by Opticaltel, I asked if their remote would have a mic feature. She said they would in October. Of course this was BS.  Blame it on Covid  or even Trump as it was fashionable back then.