Edward T. Holleran, Jr.
With 287,000 subscribers, Cox Communications has long enjoyed its 96 percent share of the 300,000 homes with cable television in the Ocean State. Times could change in 2001, when Boston-based cable and telecommunications company American Broadband comes to town.
“We hope to offer service to our first subscriber in a year or less from this time,” said Donna Garofano, vice president, government and public affairs for American Broadband.
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In cooperation with Boston investment firm Great Hill Partners, American Broadband Inc. (ABI) plans to bring cable television, high speed Internet access, and local and long distance telephone service to close to 80 percent of Rhode Island’s households.
“We think Rhode Island is under served in terms of competition,” said Garofano, citing improved customer service and stabilized pricing as the fruits of a more competitive market.
“Everyone benefits in terms of value and how you are treated as a consumer,” she said.
“We welcome competition,” said John Wolfe, Cox Com-munication’s vice president of government and public affairs for New England. “We expect competition across all telecommunications products and services.”
Cox was among the first cable companies in the country to offer broadband services. According to Wolfe, 90 percent of Rhode Island homes and businesses have high speed Internet access available to them because of Cox.
“Cox has made a $300 million investment in the telecommunications future here,” he said.
COX STILL corners the market.
ABI is seeking the necessary approvals from the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to construct its broadband network in the state. Phase one of the company’s application process was begun last week, with the issue of a compliance order certificate.
According to Eric A. Palazzo, associate administrator, cable television at the PUC, this was the first of three public hearings “to assess whether a company is fit, willing and able to perform the services they are applying to perform.”
The next step is the certificate of construction. Once the technological architecture for the system is created and the network has been evaluated, a certificate of operation can be issued. ABI will have 270 days to complete this process, but it can be finalized earlier.
“It depends on how quickly and readily they provide information,” Palazzo said.
Once the network is in place, “we are going to offer a system that has enormous capacity,” Garofano said. “It will be a very fiber-rich system so we can offer more than 200 cable channels.”
In addition to cable television, subscribers will also have the option of adding Internet and telephone service.
“It is going to be great,” Garofano said.
Rhode Island will be the first market served by American Broadband, which was founded in October 1999, but the company is managed by a group of veterans.
“We have an extremely seasoned management team,” Garofano said. “We’ve all been doing this since the early ’80s when cable first took off.”Garofano estimated that 100 temporary and permanent positions will be created by American Broadband, for the design and construction of the network’s infrastructure and in the customer service division.
ABI also has a pending application for service in Baltimore County, Maryland.
