Below are some key provisions of the franchise agreement.
The new agreement has a 10-year term, with a 15 home-per-mile minimum density for build-out, as well as a detailed cost sharing formula for extending service in areas falling below the new density requirements.
The agreement increases the length of a standard installation from 125 feet to 300 feet per home, provides greater clarity regarding system maintenance, and includes explicit reporting requirements and customer services standards.
The county's public access channel (channel 6) will convert to high-definition (HD) format under the agreement.
Up to 73 government, library and school facilities will receive free cable services.
The agreement includes a five percent franchise fee on gross revenues to be paid by Comcast to the county for use of the public right-of-way and establishes a 72 cent Public/Education/Government (PEG) fee to support local access programming.
Comcast commits to test, repair and maintain the cable system and agrees to review deficiencies found during an inspection of cable infrastructure conducted in preparation for the franchise update.
The agreement includes a comprehensive customer service program covering:
Acceptable on-hold times for phone calls
The maximum wait period for standard installations
Requirements for subscriber notices related to rate, programming or channel position changes
A detailed complaint procedure
Time requirements for responding to service interruptions under normal circumstances
Requirement to provide credits for customer-reported outages lasting six or more hours
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