Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Whats happening to Comet?

The pioneer pay television provider in the country seems to have vanished into thin air after they ceased transmissions a few months back. The subscribers who purchased these connections have been left with the old antenna and the decoder. According to rumors Comet is expecting the arrival of the new management (they have been doing so for several months now) and they are expected to carry on the analog transmission for some time until they go digital once the new management takes over. This information has not been confirmed and at the moment seems like a fairy tale.

Therefore it seems that Comet will not be relaunching in digital mode. None of the subscribers have been compensated for the loss and not even one of the major media organisations are highlighting the plight of these subscribers who have been victims of a well publicized day light robbery.

We hope Comet subscribers will come together to fight for their investment and we are willing to help using this blog but it is upto the subscribers to get together.

46 comments:

Unknown said...

It seems that no comet subscriber is intrested of fighting it out.

kayhaytha said...

None of the telephone numbers at Multivision is working. Is it due to the non-payment of bills or is Multivision trying to avoid it's customers ? Who knows, they may have even shifted the Office from Anderson Road.
Has any Comet subscriber managed to get the Antenna removed ? I heard that some Company was doing it for Rs 4,000.

CN said...

A tip I could suggest for those looking to 'remove' their dead comet antenna's...

> Coming from Colombo on Highlevel road, pass Nugegoda junc go approx 1km, just adjacent to the Jambugasmulla Road turning on your left, you will see an upstair joint that advertises antenna fixing, tv repairing, etc. They were "outsourced antenna installers" for Comet (they are the ones who installed & did wind-repair on my antenna years ago when I was with Comet. I thought they were comet staff, but having a tech chat with the technician revealed they are outsourced service providers only). If they are still in business, they may take down your antenna for a 'fee'.

Try it out, though I take no responsibility if this joint refuses or is now closed down. I got rid of my comet connection over 2 years ago :)

darrel said...

we should ask for a compensation for the 25,000 payment i made for their connection. why must u remove yr antenna- instaed make use of that- fix yr local antenna on that.
how cud we get about in demanding a refund for the equipment which is of no use to any one of us.

darrel from negombo

PSH said...

SLT IPTV Official Website Launched

Sajjad said...

I got comet cable withing the first month of it's launch. I've watch so many Movies, Sports and load's more, it had given me hundred's of hours of entertainment,I got u disconnected just in time not because u were hopeless but cause I didn't have enough time to watch TV any way i'm really gonna miss u COMET. BYE BYE COMET.. & RIP

sithma said...

Hi guys
why dont u ask commet to discuss with slt and handover the customer base to SLT and arrange to offer you a discount from SLT

AI said...

ya just like that they will agree.. just curious why comet went all the trouble to secure the jiac space they have rented to keep the dishes in tackt till another 10 yrs. anyway don't have clue what comet is up to. anyway i have given up on comet. if they come on air good if not will move to something better. i am just not ready to invest more money on another cable operator will wait and see whats going to happen in the market.

Sudhar said...

Many thinks watching IPTV is something to do with ADSL package and download speed.

IPTV just need ASDL service, not the package you choose. Moreover, watching IPTV will not add any byte to your ADSL quota. IPTV totally in different spectrum within the ADSL connection. It will use the full bandwidth of the wire apart from Internet and voice service.

IPTV is third entity in the SLT telephone wire.

LKDOOD said...

UTStarcom wins SLT IPTV contract

LINK


-------------------------------------
Sri Lanka In Focus-NEWS BLOG

sithma said...

Dear friends Ready for IPTV
Here are some some value added features of SLTIPTV where you donot get in DTV
TSTV
You dont miss your favourite programmes in future. you decide what you want to seeand at what time not the Tv Station
Ex. If you miss 8 o'clock news due to traffic jam but you can rewine live channel back to 8 oclock news and view it.
Grid of all the channels that you want to see
You can see any no of channels(Max no=channel avalable in SLTIPTV) live on your screen by divided vertually (Advanced feature to Picture in Picture fuction)
Wait for more exiting fetures .SLTIPTV will be on commercial ....Wait and see. !!!!!

sithma said...

Hi there is a reoumer that Commet is going on digital in dec with New Magt Sat media
Admn any news !!

AI said...

3 guys in van has visited ma house and try to take down the comet antenna. as for them they are contracted by comet to take down the antennas and they are to leave them with us until comet resume there broadcast. when they ver asked to provide any documents they had left . did anyone else experience this ?? i would liek to take it down as one of cable holding the antenna has broken. not sure when it will falling to some one house roof.

looks like comet is on the run..

kayhaytha said...

@ai
Some time ago my antenna pole appeared to be tilting to aside rather dangerously and had it fallen would have caused immense damage to my roof and that of my neighbours. Since Multivision could not be contacted, I located the name and phone number of one of the Technicians who had once attended to a fault in the antenna and asked him if he could remove the antenna for me. He came the very next day with another guy, removed the antenna and happily took the pole away at my request. He left the antenna and decoder with me saying that 'someday' Comet may collect these items. Apparently the value of the GI Pipe is quite high these days. That is the reason why the guys may have come to your house to try and remove it.
If your pipe is in any danger of falling, I suggest you remove it. It is very heavy and could cause a lot of damage.

Unknown said...

Commet to resume transmission next month (august 2008). and its going to be digital. testing is in progress and successful.
Free de-coders and packages are unbelieveably cheap. keep your fingers crossed.

AI said...

Stop day dreaming.. :D

kayhaytha said...

Read today's Daily Mirror (p4). Sixty employees of Multivision have lodged a complaint with the Bamba Police regarding non-payment of salaries. One Director (Anton Alwis)has been released on personal bail by the Mt. Lavinia Magistrate. The other Directors TB Beddewela, Deepal Perera, Christopher Aloysius and Gunapala Jayasinghe have been ordered to be present in the Court on 10th of August.

Any rumours of recommencement of transmission by Comet - analog or digital - is absolute bull-shit !

AI said...

feel sorry for the employees. but you guys should feel this. you guys helped them to lie to customers. what goose around comes around

666 said...

1.MR.CHANDITH PALAWINNA
2.MR.DAVID CHARLES
3.MR.DAMITH WITHANAGE
4.MR.CHAMINDA WICKRAMANAYAKE
5.MR.MANOJ ABEYWARDENA
6.MR.SUJEEWA PERERA

These list of the members are work at MULTIVISION pvt(ltd).these buggers are always trying to bankrupt the company.some of them r still trying to make finsh the company.

777 said...

Well Done guys!! keep it up!

777 said...

R they working for Dialog?

appuhami said...

Ea bola 666 mayi no! mun tikata puluwanda company wahanna.. oun tika dan koy ekeda inne? matath thiyenawa ounta kiyala wadak karawa ganna.. habai putho boru kiyala ehema balagenai!! mun mara wada karayo tikak neee!! mage santhoooo! ARa madawi hikanala munge gode nadda? kawru unth one shot paradai!!

appuhami said...

ane 666 kollo ane mata call eke deepan!! thawa eun uba dannawa athine eun ganath kiyapan ko...!!

appuhami said...

kohoma uanth Thoru Moru happenakota,, podi podi halmasso uda panninawa ban...

AI said...

@666

is the company still there to close???

so that's the list of people responsible for this mess.. funny none of these names came up when i inquri from customer care those days

777 said...

@666

Pls explain, Those 6 are Directors?

Very funny?!!

DnT said...

give u a clue! there is and will be up coming new cable tv! also they will be using same band of frequncies! new company will be lunch in near future. and most of comet ppl will be work there!! Soo.....!! anyone can say that will be a heads of company...!!

AI said...

@ dnt

same technology.. Same people .. SAME MESS ??

if i am the investor never will hire same set who messed up comet.

DnT said...

Same Band doesnt mean same technology!
I think staff not responsible for this mess..! Top ppl were responsible for this.!
You know dear "ai" Dtv was caught with the comet released messy ppl..!any how we need our connection again.. if you willing to takeover, all the best ai..! hope we can watch our Hbo asia again..!!

DnT said...

@AI
i came to know from my friend who is currently working for MV, that mentioned (666s message) 6 persons are working under MV(staff).
2nd clue... ! u know ai! all other companies are hunger for MVs frqies (valuable assetes)!

appuhami said...

me 666 kollo ! anolda szwinchi witzn , thamai meke director kenek ban.. uba eka danne nadda?

appuhami said...

1010101001101110 11101 01110 110 1011 011111 011 100001 0111 011 01111 11111 0111 011 01 01 0 1 011 11 1 0 1111 0 1 1 0 1 1 1111 01 0 1 0 1 11 1011 0 111 0 111 0111 0111111 01111 0000 10 1 0 1 0 1111 0 1111 0111100000 10 10 1 0 111 0111 01111 00000 1 0 10 1 01 0 111

trazy hari thamie !! me thiyenne digitaaal!!

AI said...

@dnt

yes your correct i want my connection back to. but if you have to agree staff has big role to play on company success or downfall.

no way i want to take over MV. its big mess place with old technology. if i am investor i will talk to SDA cos they hold the licenses and put a new base station with new technology. technically investor dont wont MV staff or technology.

DnT said...

@ai

you are correct staff can play big role. but i think Mv case staff is harmless.
And you are also correct investor dosent need staff or tech. but if invstor has money and willing to invest.But The Managment need staff and new technology to smoothly run the company. but investor has a idea of staff and tech. otherwise end of the day he or she has to hang. Anyhow if u get the freq. u r the winner. B'cos dtv loose @ still.

and u know ai, SDA isnt issueing freq.licenses. if u want the frequncies apply to the TRC. before take the pay tv licenses from media ministry(4 media license).

Good Luck ai !! trying to do the good thing for the poor customers.

appuhami said...

mama eeye giya cabol ekata ara arun tika hoyagena.. ane apaw ban loku goyaay kollo tikayai Gini thapinawa....!!

appuhami said...

ayo me yakku nisa podi unta wena deee!! ane masa thunaka padith nahalu...!! ane mun ekka eka ta kade yanwa kollo!! munta dtv eken gewanawada danna neda macho? !!

DnT said...

@ai

Any good new for your new pay tv deal?

Rupert said...

Give me 7 more days to give all u bloggers the true picture. you all will get a shock of yr life when i unfold the facts!!!! Being a customer who has paid Rs.23,000/(Rs.1,725 monthly) hard earned money I didn't want to let it go. I did a research on comet.
I shall post all facts by Friday the latest.So my dear friends do not jump into any conclusions!!

Unknown said...

Hi guys whats happen to comet cable?I hadn't connection but my one of the friend had connection i s not working at the moment what shall we do?another thing, 666 said 6 of the members are must took the responsible of it .Is it true? what are they doing to the company please explain someone to me(777,appuhami or dnt or rupert).bye to all of them.Have a nice day.GOD BLESS U. my mail- anarkalliaakarsha@gmail.com

Unknown said...

5 5
5 5
5 5
5 5
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1 1 22222 3 3 444444
1 1 2 3 3 4
11 2 3 3 444444
1 1 2 3 3 4
1 1 22222 333333 4

kayhaytha said...

Guys, the article below appeared in the CDN of 04th Sept. It is fairly long. Please read it, digest it and let us wait to hear what rupert has to tell us in 7 days time
==================================

Questions and Answers
Ruhuna 2001 Multivision (Pvt) Ltd - Comet Cable

Question: I am one, among approximately 10,000 subscribers to the above Cable TV provider which gave me value for the money invested way back in 1999. The sum invested was Rs. 16,000 + with a monthly rental of Rs. 1725. Sometime towards the latter quarter of 2007, a few channels were discontinued and on enquiring from Comet Cable I was told that broadcasting rights were terminated due to the non-payment of fees to the Parent company.

This trend continued till the end of 2007 by which time most channels were not being transmitted, getting through to CC on their mobile phones/land liens were not possible. The last invoice was dated 12/12/2007, for Rs. 1174 (1725 less 550.63 credit given for sports channels) which was paid, no invoice have been received since.
The 60 foot high antennae, secured to two trees and the roof by means of “Guide Wires” are now rusty and could collapse causing severe damage to my roof/neighbours property. When I called a senior Executive of the company he indicated that the company was not in operation, wages have not been paid for quite some time and services provided to customers, discontinued.
I’m positive that there are many others too are in the same predicament, in which case whom do we seek redress from? I would appreciate very much if you could indicate the address of the CAA.
Wasanthakumar Perera - Ja-Ela

Answer: We contacted the TRC (Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka) as they only deal with policy matters they are unable to help. However, they said that since they have allocated the frequency originally given to Comet Cable TV to a new party called Sky-TV, to contact them and that they have agreed to take over all liabilities of Comet Cable TV.
We contacted Sky-TV licence holder and they say that they have not started on any work yet. You can write to the CAA addressing your complaint to the “Director General-Consumer Affairs Authority P.O. Box 1581, Colombo. The CAA office is situated on the 1st and 2nd Floor of the CWE Secretariat Building, Vauxhall Street, Colombo

2. We contacted the CAA as well and they requested you to write to them and that they will forward it to the TRC. Our advice to you is to get the antenna removed yourself as your own safety and that of your neighbours.

ILHAM - The Boss said...

This thread should be closed.. Comet is no more.

Rupert said...

Dear Comet Cable Bloggers/Customers,

These are the facts I gathered from various sources about Comet Cable.
Comet Cable started its operation of Pay TV in 1997 with share holders from Australia, Canada & Sri Lanka Govt. (90% Chalmway & 10% SL Govt. owned SDA)Within about 2 years the company ran into financial problems mainly due to embezzlement of funds by the then management. Then shareholders invited the Hettiarachchi Group to invest US $ 500,000/ to bail out the company. In return they were promised the management & shares. Although the management was given they were not given the promised shares. However Hettiarachchi group without informing the share holders issued themselves shares & got into trouble. In 2004 the owning company in Australia, Chalmway filed action against the Hettiarachchi group in Commercial High Court in Sri Lanka. After a bitter battle in courts, Chalmway got the ruling in their favor. They moved into Comet somewhere in July 2005.But since Hettiarachchi group appealed the judgment, the Registrar of Companies refused to validate the Chalmway nominated directors.

Comet was running smoothly till the year 2007 June. James Scobie as CEO was running the company with the help of another Aussie citizen, Gerry Junkeer (Sri Lankan). Also on the directorate was Christopher Rodrigo known as Chris apparently he is also a model & a pimp (who supplies girls to top guys) appears in Dettol TV advert. Suresh Edirisinghe of Auto Court, Chaminda Perera, CEO, Swedish Trading Company, Anton de Alwis, Thilak Baddewela Retd.SSP. Gamini Gunawardena ex-banker.

In June 2007 they sold the company with the licenses to an Indian company called United Telecom Ltd (UTL) for US$ 1.9mil. Then the troubles began.
• Chalmway couldn’t transfer shares because of ongoing cases.(Also they didn’t want to transfer after taking the money)
• Junkeer & Scobie fell out over money. Junkeer has filed cases in Aussie against Scobie’s company. Now they are fighting for their own pound of flesh.
• Indians couldn’t file a case because they had brought in this money illegally to Sri Lanka(They hadn’t declared this money in India)
• Then walks in a man by the name of Rohan Wijetunge, owner of Zanzibar night club, claiming that he has very close connection to the first family, was promised US$ 500,000/ by Scobie & Junkeer to silence Govt owned SDA & other Govt bodies & he has done the job & was not paid. So he is the new owner!!
By this time the management wanted to get rid of some, staff who were not willing to toe the line. First one was to stop the posting on this forum about going digital etc;
In the mean time the company was sinking. All Programmers were not paid. They started to disconnect channels…. one by one. By end December 2007 most of the channels had gone off the air. At this time also Scobie & cronies were trying to sell this company again!!
By then some of the staff got together & started writing appeals to SDA, Labour Dept to intervene but nothing happened. One day this Rohan W. has come into office in a Jeep which belongs to President’s security threatened the staff with death. The staff instead of making an entry, they wrote to the President about this. Immediately the President has taken action. He has never sighted the place after that. But very much in the scene

By Feb/March Hilton Residence (JAIC) cut off the transmission for non payment of their bills. There was hardly any money in the company to pay this amount to Hilton (app Rs.3 mil). Then the staff has found that moneys have been siphoned out by Scobie and his cronies. According to a very well informed source that the amount is close to a staggering Rs.100 mil!. They have got the proof as well. (In fact they have reported this to the CID & collecting more info) The staff hadn’t got their salaries since May this year. Can you’ll believe it. There is 75 staff still!! They have complained to Labour Dept. & they are supposed to be dragging this issue because the staff believe that Rodrigo & Wijetunge have influenced the famous Mervin as he is the Labour Minister !

By end of May things have got really worse. The electricity was cut off as a result no phone lines! (There its Rs.1 mil.). The mobiles were cut off. That’s why we couldn’t contact them. So now the staff comes in small numbers & taking turns. There are few members of the staff who had helped this daylight robbery to take place. I saw a post above; a few names were given with them the HR (Devika) & Accountant (Harshini) & another person by the name of Prasanna are supposed to be involved. This director Rodrigo with Wijetunge have withdrawn moneys that were kept for staff salaries & gratuity (Rs.9.4mil.) They supposed to have forged other directors’ signatures to withdraw money from two banks. Inquiries are on
Same time the staff collectively made a complaint to Bambalpitiya Police regarding electricity, water & other facilities. They only wanted the directors to address their grievances & give solutions. Some came to the Police Station but the main guy Christopher Rodrigo never sighted. Then the Police have reported to Mt.Lavinia Courts.
First day only one director had been present. He was released on a personal bail. On 10th Sept. other directors were present. Rodrigo was not present on this day too. He was warranted. Guys’ next hearing will be on 8th Oct.
I think I must take this opportunity to tell the staff that being a customer for a very long time a very BIG THANK YOU for the services given. All of you’ll are not responsible for this mess. So don’t worry. We are with you guys.

There’s some good news as well. The Hettiarachchi Group has got TV frequencies from TRC & Media license from Media Ministry. They will be launching very soon. Some workers of Comet will get into it as well.


If there's some more news I shall post it.

AI said...

what a mess.... time to take down the antenna my self...

Unknown said...

Seems comet cable has let all of us down.

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