After months of delays, all Charter Communication customers in
Gilroy will soon have access to many of the same services Morgan
Hill customers have had since fall 2000.
After months of delays, all Charter Communication customers in Gilroy will soon have access to many of the same services Morgan Hill customers have had since fall 2000.
But some are still frustrated over the lack of progress – or at least a general lack of candor – from the city’s cable provider, Charter Communications, which missed a Dec. 31 extended deadline to rebuild the city’s cable and Internet system.
Although Charter and the city nearly came to legal blows earlier last year during a months-long dispute over the terms of the rebuild agreement, so far it doesn’t appear that the situation will re-enter that arena – yet.
With most of the rebuild work apparently done, many areas receiving service and the rest supposedly just a month or so away, the city is not yet pursuing fines or other punitive action.
“At this point, the city is working with Charter to complete the project as soon as possible,” said Joe Kline, the city’s public information officer. “For all practical purposes, it is about 95 percent completed and should be completed soon.”
Morgan Hill received its cable upgrade so much earlier because it backed out of the consortium of cities negotiating with Charter, according to Tony Eulo, assistant to the Morgan Hill city manager. By negotiating separately and by asking for less in terms of public access support – undergrounding was not an issue – the city and Charter were able to come to terms faster.
The rebuild is expected to provide Gilroyans with options for expanded service over the 29-channel basic cable package, including 78 digital-quality channels, broadband Internet service and premium movie packages.
Charter Interim General Manager John Adams could not be reached for comment before press time. But the last the city had heard, the company had completed 21 of 26 service areas or “nodes” in Gilroy, Kline said, and had begun offering the expanded services.
Of the five still unfinished – which lie mostly in the city’s Northwest Quad area – physical construction work is mostly complete, and splicing and testing work is now underway. Based on the city’s experience with the other nodes, the work should be completed by the end of the month, Kline said.
The company also is building a so-called “I-net” or municipal high-speed voice, data and video network. While the part of the network linking Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista that enables the CMAP service is complete, work on Gilroy’s internal network – which will link sites such as schools, libraries and government buildings – is still underway, Kline said.
Under the contract with Charter, the city has the ability to pursue damages or fines against the cable provider, but is holding off so far because the rebuild is expected to be done shortly, and pursuing penalties could be a lengthy and expensive process, Kline said.
Councilman Craig Gartman, who lives in the Northwest Quad, said he was excited that enough work is done to launch the CMAP service. Gartman has taken classes on television production in the past and wants to get involved in the new channels.
