Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
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City council approves cable rate increase By Jana Seshadri If Sunnyvale residents have not noticed another increased monthly charge already, they will soon. Effective July 1, AT&T Broadband rates for its basic service tier increased 4.2 percent—from $12.56 to $13.09. The rate increase excludes franchise fees and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulatory fee, with no planned program changes for the basic service tier throughout the projected period of June 1, 2002 to May 31, 2003. After much debate and a public hearing, the Sunnyvale City Council on June 25 unanimously approved the AT&T rate increase and in a separate motion also approved the transfer of control of the current cable television franchise from AT&T Corporation to AT&T Comcast Corporation. Displeased with the rate increase, several residents decried AT&T's poor quality and service. "I've never seen any effort on the part of AT&T to improve their service," one member of the public said. "I don't see their quality or services going up—only their prices." Longtime Sunnyvale resident Werner Gans also mentioned the rate increase and wondered why AT&T's rates are increasing more than the rate of inflation. "Rates are based on a formula computed by the FCC, which takes into account several different factors," explained Eddie Garcia, director of government affairs for AT&T. "The rate is computed city by city." Garcia stated that even with the new rate of $13.09, the rate is below the maximum permitted rate of $13.48 determined by the FCC. Customers have been given the 30-day notice, as required, he added. "Why didn't you raise the rate to the maximum permitted rate?" Councilman Jack Walker asked. Garcia responded that AT&T had kept the increase as small as possible in order to offer competitive rates to customers. The quality and service issues that residents have complaints about would also be looked into, Garcia said. Shawn Hernandez, Sunnyvale's director of information technology, said that the current franchise with AT&T expires in 2005, after which the city will either renegotiate with the same company or award the franchise to someone else. According to Marilyn Crane, information technology services manager for Sunnyvale, the city will look into all the "relevant issues and concerns" before awarding the contract in 2005. With the control transferred from AT&T Corporation to AT&T Comcast Corporation, customers may have to deal with a slight change in the way they make their payments, as far as who they make out their checks to. "AT&T Comcast meets all the requirements," Crane said. "We will resolve all issues within the next 90-day period." Some of the issues between the city of Sunnyvale and AT&T include calculation of franchise fees and city code violations, Crane added. |
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