Fayette County residents may

not get access to new and improved cable television service for some time

yet.

A dispute with the Georgia

Department of Transportation continues to hold AT&T Broadband's upgrade

here in limbo.

On the bright side, the company

has improved its response to the local county government's concerns. During

a recent meeting with county officials, representatives of AT&T Broadband

addressed several long-standing problems the county has had with the upgrade

process, according to County Administrator Chris Cofty.

Cofty said the meeting was

cordial.

"They had addressed the

issues we had made them aware of in our last meeting," Cofty said,

adding that all of the problems have been cleared up except one street

that the company must still patch. Previously, the company had frequently

done construction work in county rights of way without getting the proper

permits, Cofty said, sometimes resulting in damage to county roads and

other utilities.

A revised agreement for addressing

future concerns is expected soon, he said, adding that company officials

expressed hope that their dispute with the state DOT may be resolved by

the end of the month.

"I was fairly encouraged,"

he said.

But Michael Grover, an attorney

heading up the company's negotiations with DOT, said this week he can't

be certain when the dispute will be over with.

"I would like for it to

be resolved as quickly as possible," he said, "but I can't predict

when the two parties will reach a meeting of the minds."

DOT is withholding permits

on state rights of way in Fayette pending resolution of its claim that

the cable company should pay additional fees because its new fiber optic

cable allows for telephone service as well as cable service.

Those additional fees could

mount into the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars over

time, according to Grover.

All of the construction work

in Fayette that doesn't involve DOT right of way has been completed, he

said, but in order to connect the new cable, DOT permits must be obtained.

"The shame of this is

that clearly the work we're doing in Fayette County is related to our

cable plant and our effort to bring enhanced service to Fayette County

customers, not telecommunications activity," he said. "But they

are withholding permits in order to extract our agreement regarding telecommunications

in other parts of the state."

For now, Fayette customers

will have to be content with fewer channels and less reliable service

than the upgrade would supply.