Wednesday, November 29, 2000
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Wednesday, November 29, 2000 |
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Cable upgrades stalled until Jan.
By DAVE HAMRICK
AT&T Broadband officials hope to get back to work on upgrading Fayette County's service in January, a spokesman said this week. With the upgrade 70 percent complete, a dispute between the company and the Georgia Department of Transportation halted work in October, but company spokesman Cindy Kicklighter said officials hope to have a resolution to that conflict within two weeks. Officials are working with the state attorney general's office to solve the impasse, she said, adding, "We expect to begin the permitting process in early December, and there's a two-week waiting period, so we're hoping to get back to work in early January." Fayette is one of the last areas of metro Atlanta to receive state-of-the-art fiber optic cable service, which will provide the new broadband capability, increasing the number of channels available and improving picture quality and reliability. Eventually, the company also expects to offer telephone service and Internet access through the cable lines as well, but plans are to complete the transition to broadband cable first, then add the other services over a few months. Residents have long complained of poor service and frequent interruptions to service due to the 30-year-old equipment serving the county now, and as construction crews have worked this year, complaints have skyrocketed, according to Fayette County officials. Under an agreement with Fayette County, AT&T was supposed to have finished its upgrade this month, and also had agreed to a series of changes designed to address poor response to customer complaints, said acting County Administrator Chris Cofty. But DOT stopped issuing permits to allow the company to install its lines on state highways after a dispute over fees erupted. DOT has demanded that AT&T pay a telephone use fee before the agency will issue permits. "It took everybody by surprise," said company spokesman Reg Griffin. "They have never asked before that we pay this anywhere that we provide service," said Michael Grover, an attorney for AT&T Broadband. While upgrade of the cable system does eventually allow the company to offer phone service in areas where it provides cable service, "telephone is down the road," said Griffin. "We feel like that [telephone use fee] doesn't apply." Meanwhile, said Fayette administrator Cofty, local officials are still waiting for a meeting with AT&T officials to discuss plans to improve customer service. Complaints have been reduced dramatically in recent weeks, since the company and the county agreed on a plan to address them, Cofty said, but it's hard to tell if that's due to an improvement in service or simply because there's no construction going on, he added. "We're still trying to schedule the follow-up meeting they promised," he said. A meeting was set for Nov. 13, he said, but company representatives cancelled, promising to reschedule. "We want to go over specific issues and be sure they've responded to those, and we want a definitive plan on how they are going to address customer service issues," he said, adding that county officials are expecting the company to reschedule. "The ball's in their court," he said. Most Fayette neighborhoods have new cable in place, but the fiber optic trunk lines that supply broadband service remain to be installed. Once the main lines are finished, all local customers will get the new service at the same time.
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