Comcast extends summer hours at Shore service centers

Summer's here - or just about - and Comcast Corp. is looking to make cable-TV viewing easier at the Shore.

The cable giant says that its 10 Shore service centers will be open on Sunday and Monday for the first time on this Memorial Day Weekend. Those centers, several of which were enlarged, are located in Absecon, Avalon, Brick, Eatontown, Long Beach Island, Manahawkin, Northfield, Ocean City, Toms River and Wildwood.

Hours for most of the stores will be 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The centers also will be open this Saturday and most Saturdays through the summer, though with varying hours.

Comcast, the biggest cable-TV and Internet provider at the Jersey Shore, has upgraded about 500 miles of cable network infrastructure and wired boardwalk locations for public WiFi. Among those locations are Jilly's Arcade in Ocean City, Doo Wop Diner in Wildwood, Soprano's Pizza & Grille in Sea Isle and Steel's Fudge in Atlantic City.

The company has a sizable population of Philadelphia-area subscribers with second homes, and its franchise area stretches roughly from Seaside to Cape May.

In many Shore areas, Comcast faces no competition from Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS TV and Internet services.

The company says that many DirecTV subscribers switched to Comcast's Xfinity service after Hurricane Sandy in October 2012. Comcast upgraded 144 miles of network equipment immediately after the hurricane.

Frank Purcell, a senior director of sales and marketing at Comcast's Philadelphia-area region, said on Thursday that the company over the years has attempted to make it easier for people to open their Shore homes, noting that Comcast is the only cable-TV company that serves such a large urban and second-home customer base. "We want to eliminate the friction points," he said.

Comcast also mails cable-TV and Internet self-install kits to subscriber homes in the Philadelphia area so those subscribers can take the equipment to their Shore homes.