by KYW's John Ostapkovich

Comcast Cable is raising its prices on November 1st, ahead of its usual year-end schedule.

The average increase of 3.5 percent affects all customers except those who have previously locked in a price with bundled services. 

Comcast spokesman Jeff Alexander says the company faces higher costs in a challenging environment. Among those higher costs, he says, is programming, notably high-def:

"We've added about 15, 20 new channels for customers: CNN high definition, Disney Channel high-def, TLC HD, Animal Planet HD, the Big Ten Network, Fox Business, and others."

Alexander says another cost center is fuel prices. For cable?

"We operate the fifth largest vehicle fleet in the United States, so fuel increases have certainly impacted us significantly."

A spokeswoman at Verizon says there are no price increases on the horizon for Fios, cable television's fiber-optic competitor.