2002-04-22 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Session 1837 April 22, 2002 a fiberoptic feed into 500 node pockets. Reliability and outages will be reduced significantly. 43 nodes will be placed into the University City area. They promise to door tag each customer at least 48 hours before they have to bury any cable. Responding to Mr. Lieberman, Mr. Gentry said that basically they would be making upgrades to be able to utilize high speed access without phone lines for the internet. The fiberoptic cable will come up to a node and then be distributed to homes connected to the node. Mr. Lieberman asked what this was going to cost the citizens. Mr. Bordeaux stated that by Federal law, they can not pass the cost of the upgrade along to the subscribers, so it is an investment on the part of Charter, so they can offer more services and updated quality of services that are currently being offered. Mr. Sharpe was interested in finding out what the timeline was for this project. Mr. Gentry said that he would like to get started in University City by May and have it completed by the end of this August. Mr. Wagner stated that the City has seen some fee increases from Charter already. He asked if we were to expect more fee increases and if yes, when we would be expecting them. Mr. Bordeaux said that the recent rate increases were related to additional channels being added to the existing line up. Charter pays a license fee to the networks to get access to those channels to show to the subscribers. When the networks raise their fees, then Charter is allowed by federal law to pass those fees onto the subscriber. These types of increases always have a strong possibility of occurring, but in reference to the plant upgrades that have been spoken about this evening, that fee will not be passed on to the subscribers. Mr. Wagner said that this is fine, but his constituents complain that they are being made to pay the upgrades for new channels that they do not want. He asked if the payments to the network providers could be segmented in a way that would allow some subscribers not to have to pay for the channels that they did not want. Mr. Bordeaux said that constituents have a choice of a basic, expanded basic and a digital service and within the digital service, there are different packages available for the subscriber to choose from with a variety of prices. In response to Mr. Sharpe, Mr. Bordeaux said that what had happened with the new boxes was that Charter changed from an analog platform from a digital platform. Subscribers already receiving premium analog services had to receive a digital box in order to continue receiving premium services, albeit on a digital system. Mr. Lieberman stated that much of the resident's objections were because Charter required that they rent the digital box and pay more for the very same services they were getting a month prior. Mr. Bordeaux said that he understands the frustration, yet the migration was necessary in order get the necessary room to add the extra services. Cathey Allen, 14979 Green Circle, said that she has worked for the City for nineteen years as a police officer and is a sergeant working the street. She is representing the 7