CAPE OFFICIALS QUESTION TCI's FUTURE IN CITY; MAYOR SAYS THE CABLE TELEVISION COMPANY CAN LIVE WITH CONTRACT

Meetings with TCI Cablevision representatives have some city officials wondering about the company's future in Cape Girardeau.

In October 1995, the Cape Girardeau City Council agreed to a 10-year contract with TCI. The document specified franchise fees and other obligations.

Among the most expensive was a promise to replace about 200 miles of old cable with fiber optic cable. The Cable Television Citizens Committee, a group assembled in 1989 to help advise the council, insisted the new lines would mean more capacity for signals and better service.

Under the contract, TCI has until April 1998 to get fiber optic cable in the ground.

Michael Maguire, Cape Girardeau attorney and chairman of the Cable Committee, said he is concerned that TCI hasn't taken the first step toward installing the new lines. He met with company officials to talk about it.

According to Maguire, the TCI representatives, including director of governmental affairs Tomas Cantrell, said TCI may ask to modify the city contract. What its wants modified is still a mystery.

The reason for possible changes is the Telecommunications Act signed in February. It deregulated the cable industry, opening TCI to competition from telephone carriers and other communication businesses.

So far Cape Girardeau isn't a highly competitive market. Other cities are.

"The indication is that TCI will not make us as high a priority because we're a smaller market," Maguire said. "Our response is that they knew this was coming when they signed the agreement with the city of Cape Girardeau."

Roger Harms, manager of the local cable system, said Monday the contract modifications TCI mentioned may have nothing to do with fiber optic cable.

However, improvements cost money, he said, and the company doesn't want to price itself out of business.

Some competition already is coming from several direct broadcast companies. These businesses install small satellite dishes on the sides of people's homes, allowing the residents to receive channels similar to cable's offerings.

The direct broadcast companies don't pay franchise fees to the city, Harms said. TCI also employs about 40 local workers.

That's not enough incentive to get the city to renegotiate the company's contract, Mayor Al Spradling III said. While he couldn't speak for the entire City Council, Spradling said he thinks the city wouldn't have a problem finding another company interested in TCI's territory.

"We spent long, arduous, painstaking hours with TCI trying to get an agreement," he said. "In my book, at this point, they can live with it. We've been fighting with them for a long time."

TCI representatives said they would come back with specifics about proposed contract changes by the end of August. If they claim financial problems will keep TCI from installing fiber optic cable, the Cable Committee will advise the city to demand to see TCI's records, Maguire said.

That may or may not be possible.

"A lot of stuff is privileged information," said Harms. "It depends on what the council wants. But we will work with the city in any way we can."