Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, January 17, 1995 TAG: 9501170147
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KIMBERLY N. MARTIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A study by a county consultant of the cable system's services from September 1993 to May 1994 found that Tele-Media was charging residents $2.66 a month too much for its "lifeline" service, which consists of channels 3 through 13. Based on those findings, Tele-Media owes Botetourt residents a total of more than $93,000.
Despite the fact that the study was based on Federal Communications Commission guidelines, Tele-Media doesn't agree with the county's findings.
"The consultant's recommendation has holes in it," said Tele-Media senior vice president Frank Vicente. "There are about 1,000 pages in the FCC rules and regulations. There's a lot of room for argument."
Today's Board of Supervisors' public hearing will be his forum. Vicente and other Tele-Media representatives will be on hand to argue Tele-Media's case. However, Vicente refused to disclose specific objections to the rate order before the hearing.
The board also will hear from the county's consultant and from the public, some of whom are disgruntled with Tele-Media's service.
In 1993, there were charges that the company was unresponsive and had violated its franchise agreement with the county by failing to expand fast enough into subdivisions that wanted cable.
These charges drew the county into the fray and the regulating business.
"We owed it to the residents to exercise whatever right we have to look out for their interest," County Administrator Gerald Burgess said.
So the county applied for and received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to regulate Tele-Media's lifeline service. Then, the county spent about $13,000 to hire a consultant.
But since its January 1994 application to the FCC, the number of service complaints the county has received has waned, Burgess said.
That may be owing to Tele-Media's hiring of another customer service representative, which brings its Daleville customer-service staff to four, and an investment in new equipment in the area.
"We've rectified the problems that we saw that we had, and we've met our expansion requirements," Vicente said.
But those service adjustments were too late to reverse the county's decision to get involved.
If the board accepts the rate order today, Tele-Media will be ordered to refund county residents the $2.66 they were found to be overcharged on a monthly basis, which adds up to $21.28 each - about two months of lifeline service per county subscriber.
Then the ball would be back in Tele-Media's court. It could either comply with the order and credit subscribers' accounts with the amount they were overcharged or appeal the decision to the FCC, Burgess said.
Vicente said if the order passes, company officials have no choice but to appeal.
"We can't let that rate order pass. I don't see how we could continue to meet our franchise agreement if it passes. That's a 26 percent decrease in our primary service rate. That's a walloping reduction," Vicente said.
In fact, if the board decides to roll back the rates for that eight-month period from the current $10.19 to the proposed $7.53, that would be less than the $7.75 lifeline rate the county approved when cable service was established in 1982, Vicente said.
Regardless of what the board decides, current rates will not change. Only the FCC can make permanent rate changes now.
Also on today's board agenda is selection of contractors for the $13.6million renovation of Botetourt Intermediate School and construction of a middle school in Cloverdale.
by CNB