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from: Missourian News

City considers cable options

Amid complaints about providers, city looks into running its own system

By EMILY RISTOW

Promoting competition and providing the best cable service possible are among the reasons Mayor Darwin Hindman gave for exploring city-owned cable in Columbia.

The City Council passed a motion at its meeting Tuesday asking the staff to provide a report on the possibility of providing cable as a city utility rather than through franchise agreements with Mediacom and Charter Communications.

“I think that it’s responsible to have all your options out on the table,” said Fifth Ward Councilwoman Laura Nauser, who suggested the idea.

The report was requested after a frustrated council allowed a three-month extension of existing franchise agreements with Mediacom and Charter, a move made necessary by stalled negotiations over new agreements. The council had already granted a one-year extension on Jan. 17, 2006, because the city was reworking ordinances governing cable providers at the time.

A franchise agreement between the city and the cable companies is a federal requirement that allows the cable companies to “occupy the public rights of way, which belong to the city” said Randy Hollis, senior manager of government relations at Mediacom.

Discussion of the franchise extension at the council meeting centered on the council’s frustration over the length of the negotiations and the quality of local cable service.

Nauser said she had not received an overwhelming number of complaints from residents about cable service, but Third Ward Councilman Bob Hutton said he’d received many complaints.

“To me, Mediacom is very expensive and provides very poor service,” Hutton said.

At the council meeting, Hutton mentioned a complaint from a developer who was having difficulty getting Mediacom to install cable in new subdivisions. Nauser discussed her own difficulty in getting Mediacom to install cable at her home, saying she made several fruitless calls but got quick results when she finally identified herself as a council member.

“Complaints about Mediacom are way out of proportion with complaints on other utilities,” Hindman said.

Nauser said she would be interested in adding cable to the utilities the city provides because it would be a local service provided by local people.

“I think it’s very exciting,” Hutton said of the idea. “I wish we’d done it years ago.”

Water and Light Director Dan Dasho said his staff will begin looking at the possibilities soon. City Attorney Fred Boeckmann said the notion of municipal cable service isn’t out of the question.

“I think it’s definitely possible,” Boeckmann said. “But it would take a lot of study to see if it’s really feasible.”

Columbia’s Water and Light Department already does some work with fiber optics for the city, county and school districts, Dasho said.

“The idea would be to put together some of our thoughts about where we are today and to take a look at where we can be with today’s and tomorrow’s technology,” he said.

Eddie Trower, government relations manager at Charter Communications, said that if the city were to begin providing cable, it would not prohibit current cable providers from continuing to do so as well. He added that he was unaware of any situation in Missouri where both a cable company and the city provided the same service.

Regarding the extension of negotiations on the franchise agreements, Hindman said he was “uncomfortable not following standard procedure” but thought the council had to grant the extension because it is unsure what might happen if new agreements don’t come through.

Boeckmann said that current negotiations are primarily with Mediacom, but representatives of Charter Communications have told him the terms of the franchise with Mediacom will likely be acceptable to them as well. If not, Boeckmann said another extension could be anticipated to finish Charter Communication’s new agreement.

Trower said he is comfortable with the city first working with Mediacom because it has a larger presence in Columbia.

Gary Baugh, Mediacom manager in Columbia, said at the Tuesday meeting that nothing in the negotiations was “insurmountable” and that an agreement should be reached within three months.

Hollis echoed these thoughts. “While we’ve made quite a bit of progress, there are a couple of items the city is requesting that have a significant cost. That cost will have an affect on customer bills.”

Boeckmann said he, too, is confident about the prospect of new agreements.