By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer

The rift continues to widen between Fayette County and its largest cable television franchise holder, MediaOne.

Currently at issue is whether the county can hold up approval of a transfer of ownership from MediaOne to AT&T until the company provides answers to the county's questions about quality of service and maintenance of facilities.

AT&T has acquired MediaOne and is awaiting Federal Communications Commission approval of the merger. Meanwhile, FCC rules give franchise authorities like Fayette County 120 days to approve transfer of their franchise agreements, or the transfer is considered automatically approved.

But Chris Cofty, assistant county manager, wrote to MediaOne early this month to notify the company that it is in violation of its franchise agreement with the county, and to request information on the company's maintenance and customer service practices.

Cofty contends that the 120-day approval time clock stops until MediaOne provides the requested information, but media one vice president for legal and governmental affairs Dennis Lopach doesn't agree.

“While franchising authorities are permitted to request reasonable additional information, such requests for additional information will not toll or extend the 120-day period,” Lopach wrote to Cofty in a response letter Aug. 16.

But Lopach also promised to address Cofty's concerns. “We are compiling information to address the specific issues that you raise and will share that information as soon as possible,” he said.

He also said he believes that a rash of recent complaints about customer service from the company were due to bad weather earlier this summer. “I believe it is fair to treat these months as an aberration,” he wrote.

Calling the letter “a plain vanilla response,” Cofty said this week that he disagrees strongly with the company's contention that customer service complaints have been weather related. “On the day I received their letter, I had six complaints that came in that same afternoon,” Cofty told The Citizen.

“Fayette County citizens deserve better than this,” Cofty wrote in response to Lopach's letter. “Fayette County would like to see an aggressive plan for corrective actions and no longer desires to hear that MediaOne is going to research or look into it,” he added.

“MediaOne promised Fayette County that it would address these issues over a year ago, and, based on current citizen complaints, Fayette County feels these issues have not been addressed,” he added.

Fayette residents who use the company's cable service regularly complain of lost service and poor response by the company when residents call its customer service department, Cofty said.

Company officials point out that the county's cable system, which MediaOne inherited from a previous franchise holder, is old and outdated, and the company plans to replace it by this time next year.

“If these problems are associated with an inadequate cable plant and a system rebuild is the only way to correct it, then it should be started now and not later,” Cofty said in his latest letter.

But much of the problem is due to failure to maintain the current system properly, Cofty told The Citizen.