AT&T installing cabinets for video services
CHAMPAIGN – AT&T plans to install 100 utility cabinets throughout the city to bring video services to many residents.
The telephone giant has already obtained city permits to install 33 of the cabinets, which will link new fiber optic cable with traditional copper telephone wire to provide video services similar to those of cable television.
“I think they’re doing installation right now,” said Deputy City Attorney Trisha Crowley. She was unable to say when AT&T would begin offering video services.
The cabinets will be installed on the city right of way, on public utility easements and on private AT&T easements.
The cabinets have caused controversy in recent years in some Chicago suburbs. But Crowley said the proposed cabinets are smaller than they were just a few years ago, and would stand 4 feet high and wide, and just over 2 feet deep.
AT&T spokesman Andrew Ross confirmed that the company is working closely with the city “in the process of upgrading our network.” But he declined to give any timetable for when the cabinets would be installed or when video services would be available, except to say it would be a “phased rollout.” He cited competitive pressures for declining to give timetables.
Ross said AT&T’s video services are called U-verse and said the Internet television service would include 48 high-definition channels and the ability to record four programs at once.
Crowley also said AT&T plans to install the new cabinets next to existing boxes AT&T owns. Assistant City Engineer Tony Vandeventer said AT&T has indicated it can set up its new cabinets as far as 300 feet from an existing box and will try and work with the city in selecting appropriate locations.
Under a 2007 law, AT&T is able to provide video services under a statewide franchise issued by the Illinois Commerce Commission and is not required to obtain a local franchise agreement.
Under the new law, the city cannot prevent AT&T from installing a cabinet in most instances, Crowley said.
The city council, meeting in study session Tuesday night, instructed city staff to put an ordinance on a regular city council agenda that would allow the city to install landscape screening for “sites of public interest,” and would give private homeowners the same option if a cabinet is installed near their home. Funding for landscaping would come from a $1,500 per cabinet fee that AT&T has agreed to pay to the city. Maintenance of the landscaping would be the responsibility of the homeowner, or the city if it decided to install landscaping on its own.