County ponders
MediaOne, AT&T transfer Thursday By DAVE HAMRICK
Staff Writer
Fayette's
lead cable franchise negotiator is hopeful that
the takeover of MediaOne by AT&T
Communications will bring relief to beleaguered
local customers.
A
discussion of transferring the cable franchise to
the new owner is on the County Commission agenda
Thursday night, and assistant county manager
Chris Cofty said he is recommending that the
commission approve the transfer.
Local
customers have complained of frequent and
prolonged lapses in service, and reactions that
range from indifference to downright rudeness on
the part of MediaOne customer service
representatives when they call to report the
outages. Customers say they often have to wait on
hold for 30 minutes or longer when they call
customer service.
I
have met with AT&T officials to make them
cognizant of the ongoing problems we've had with
MediaOne, said Cofty, adding that he has
forwarded copies of his large file of customer
complaints to AT&T vice president for law and
governmental affairs Sylvia Anderson, and to
company CEO C. Michael Armstrong.
They
have written a letter back saying that they are
aware of the ongoing problems, said Cofty.
They can't fully address them because they
don't own the company yet... but they have let us
know that they have tremendous resources in cable
operations management available to them, he
added.
Transfer
of the county's franchise agreement from MediaOne
to AT&T is, in a way, a formality,
recognizing the pending merger of the two
companies. But Fayette officials had at one time
discussed holding up the transfer to put more
pressure on MediaOne to clear up customer service
problems in the county.
But,
It's really two separate issues,
Cofty said this week. The transfer should be
based on AT&T's fitness to serve the county,
not past problems with MediaOne, he said.
I've
looked at the financial and operational services
in the cable industry, and they more than exceed
the qualifications to operate a cable
system, he said of AT&T.
And
now that he is sure the company is aware of past
problems, Cofty said he can recommend the
transfer without reservation. They won't
have acquired something and then say, `We didn't
realize there was this magnitude of complaints.'
They have indicated they will address those
issues.
They
can't fix everything overnight, he said,
but they are committed to rebuild the cable
system in the county.
AT&T
has promised to replace Fayette's aging system
with new, state-of-the-art technology by November
2000, one month earlier than MediaOne had
promised the upgrade.
Also
on the County Commission agenda Thursday will be
further discussion of he fate of the Dorsey
house, a historic home that is in the path of the
county's planned jail/courthouse construction
project.
Commissioners
gave city of Fayetteville officials 30 days to
come up with a plan for saving the house from the
wrecking ball, and that time is up. Fayetteville
city manager Mike Brant said the city and
historical organizations will ask for more time.
In
other business, the commission will:
” Discuss appointment of a
Planning Commission member and a Zoning Board of
Appeals member.
Fred
Bowen's term on the Planning Commission has
expired, and David Bartosh's term on the Zoning
Board of Appeals has expired. Both men have
offered to serve another term if the commission
so desires.
” Consider public works
director Lee Hearn's recommendation that the
county buy a Cat 963 track loader from Yancey
Brothers for $182,547. The purchase is included
in the department's budget.
” Conduct public hearings on
two rezoning requests, both involving changes
from subdivision categories to A-R
(agricultural-residential).
|