The

rift continues to widen between Fayette County

and its largest cable television franchise

holder, MediaOne.

Currently

at issue is whether the county can hold up

approval of a transfer of ownership from MediaOne

to AT&T until the company provides answers to

the county's questions about quality of service

and maintenance of facilities.

AT&T

has acquired MediaOne and is awaiting Federal

Communications Commission approval of the merger.

Meanwhile, FCC rules give franchise authorities

like Fayette County 120 days to approve transfer

of their franchise agreements, or the transfer is

considered automatically approved.

But

Chris Cofty, assistant county manager, wrote to

MediaOne early this month to notify the company

that it is in violation of its franchise

agreement with the county, and to request

information on the company's maintenance and

customer service practices.

Cofty

contends that the 120-day approval time clock

stops until MediaOne provides the requested

information, but media one vice president for

legal and governmental affairs Dennis Lopach

doesn't agree.

"While

franchising authorities are permitted to request

reasonable additional information, such requests

for additional information will not toll or

extend the 120-day period," Lopach wrote to

Cofty in a response letter Aug. 16.

But

Lopach also promised to address Cofty's concerns.

"We are compiling information to address the

specific issues that you raise and will share

that information as soon as possible," he

said.

He

also said he believes that a rash of recent

complaints about customer service from the

company were due to bad weather earlier this

summer. "I believe it is fair to treat these

months as an aberration," he wrote.

Calling

the letter "a plain vanilla response,"

Cofty said this week that he disagrees strongly

with the company's contention that customer

service complaints have been weather related.

"On the day I received their letter, I had

six complaints that came in that same

afternoon," Cofty told The Citizen.

"Fayette

County citizens deserve better than this,"

Cofty wrote in response to Lopach's letter.

"Fayette County would like to see an

aggressive plan for corrective actions and no

longer desires to hear that MediaOne is going to

research or look into it," he added.

"MediaOne

promised Fayette County that it would address

these issues over a year ago, and, based on

current citizen complaints, Fayette County feels

these issues have not been addressed," he

added.

Fayette

residents who use the company's cable service

regularly complain of lost service and poor

response by the company when residents call its

customer service department, Cofty said.

Company

officials point out that the county's cable

system, which MediaOne inherited from a previous

franchise holder, is old and outdated, and the

company plans to replace it by this time next

year.

"If

these problems are associated with an inadequate

cable plant and a system rebuild is the only way

to correct it, then it should be started now and

not later," Cofty said in his latest letter.

But

much of the problem is due to failure to maintain

the current system properly, Cofty told The

Citizen.

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