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Comcast, Town Make New Deal on Service

Posted on: Tuesday, 31 August 2004, 06:00 CDT

Details on the contract won't be divulged until the agreement is signed, probably on Wednesday.

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SOMERSET - After some long and difficult negotiations, Comcast Cable Communications and town officials have reached a tentative agreement on cable television service in Somerset.

The pact is expected to be signed when the Board of Selectmen meets Wednesday in the town offices.

However, details of the agreement have not been released and are not scheduled to be disclosed until the ink is dry.

The previous contract, which ran for seven years, expired last winter.

The pact does not control cable rate increases. Those are regulated by the state Department of Telecommunication and Energy.

Last September, the town had accused Comcast of breach of contract over two issues, such as providing hookups to certain town facilities.

The town could have fired Comcast, but the issue probably would have resulted in a protracted fight in federal court.

"By both parties reaching an agreement at this point, it brings to an end the potential for federal litigation and the court coming up with terms that would not be agreeable to either side," said John J. Clorite Jr., chairman of Somerset's Cable Advisory Committee.

Although he would not cite specifics until Wednesday, he said, "the town didn't give up anything we had, and did better in some areas."

Town Administrator John McAuliffe said the negotiating team, which had been actively talking with Comcast for about a year, "bargained harder than any community I'm aware of. The town can be assured we bargained very hard and we got the very best deal that was out there."

Public access service?

In its original proposal, Comcast had told the town it wanted to get out of the business of providing public education and government access services to the town, preferring instead to finance an organization that would provide those services to town subscribers.

The fact that the cable giant wanted to shed its involvement in community programming shows that its commitment "is clearly less than previous owners," said McAuliffe, who characterized that attitude as "unfortunate."

"It is clear that Comcast is only interested in the revenue generation portion of the business," he said.

The background

The old deal was negotiated with TeleCommunication Incorporated. TCI, as part of a swap deal, turned the system over to Cox Communications, which subsequently arranged a swap deal with MediaOne, which was bought out by AT&T Broadband. AT&T sold its cable services to Comcast, the nation's largest cable service provider, which took control on Nov. 18, 2002.

It is not known if town officials got a commitment to keep Comcast's local service center, located at Lees River Avenue and GAR Highway.

To contact Gene Emery, phone (508) 674-8401 or e-mail gemery@projo.com.

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