Cable deal depends on city approval

Springfield's City Council has until May 1 to decide whether to get into the cable television business, according to Larry Welbern, chairman of the Cable Television Advisory Commission.

Although AT&T signed a contract with Mediacom March 1, the city reserved the right to approve any sale of the franchise or to buy it for the same $179 million price that Mediacom has agreed to pay, Welbern said. Mediacom is based in Middleton, N.Y.

A hearing on the appropriateness of the sale will be held at 7 p.m. April 11 in council chambers, and the public may comment. Welbern said he hopes citizens show up because there are significant factors to be discussed.

When the city oversaw the sale from the previous owner, TCI, to AT&T, it wrote into the franchise agreement key provisions to allow the city to approve or deny the sale, or to make conditions to the sale, Welbern said. It also could buy the franchise and allow City Utilities to run it, something that Robert Roundtree, CU general manager, said the utility's board would consider if the city came to the utility. Roundtree stressed that the utility is not actively seeking the cable franchise.

"There's not a lot of time to hold hearings and have a lot of controversy because of the time frame we're facing," Welbern said. "They want everything said and done by June 1."

He believes the Communication Workers of America will show up in force at the hearing because it just signed a contract March 14 with AT&T. Mediacom has agreed to buy assets only, Welbern said, not contracts. So if the sale is approved, then the CWA loses its contract.

"AT&T failed to reach a contract agreement with CWA for a year. But on March 1 it agreed to sell the franchise to Mediacom (which is non-union). Fourteen days later (AT&T) signed a contract with CWA."

He said the commission could consider the loss of the union contract and the ramifications of that to the local community when it decides what to recommend to the city. "If there's enough controversy against Mediacom, then there's a chance we would write the opinion not to transfer the franchise. But I don't know what's going to happen at the hearing."

Other areas of concern to the commission are how customer service is handled and whether rates will go up. Locally, Willard is served by Mediacom, so Willard customers will be approached for their opinions, Welbern said. Carl Junction also has Mediacom as its cable service.

"No one knows anything about Mediacom," Welbern said.

Mediacom plans to double its size with cable station purchases in Missouri, Iowa and Georgia, borrowing all the $2.115 billion it needs to do so, according to the 394 FCC filing, Welbern said.