Dear PoPville – Cable/Internet Question

Photo by PoPville flickr user Mr. T in DC

“Dear PoPville,

I recently moved into a row house in the Bloomingdale area and have encountered a problem that I’ve never faced before: a lack of internet service options. The owner of the home, from whom we’re renting, had a DirecTV/Verizon DSL combo package that we have determined does not suit our needs. We looked into switching to Comcast (yes, I know), only to discover that the blocks to the north and to the south are “wired for Comcast cable internet,” but ours isn’t.

Neighbors clearly have Comcast cable TV, so it seems like a simple equipment installation at a Comcast hub or something. They’ve offered to come out to see if we can be connected, but in the meantime we have discovered that we are also outside the service area for RCN and, as expected, FiOS. Have any other readers encountered this before? It seems fairly odd, given the prevalence of Comcast in this city and the degree to which various providers are competing for limited consumer pool. (I should note that we’re much more interested in internet service than TV, so this isn’t so much an issue of “who has the best/cheapest service.”) Any help/information would be greatly appreciated.”