WANTED: INVESTORS IN SYSTEM; CITY TARGETED FOR WIRLESS CABLE TV

A Las Vegas-based company is soliciting investors in the Cape Girardeau area for "wireless cable TV" systems.

Telephone marketing representatives for American Microtel Co. have targeted Cape Girardeau residents, hoping to procure investors in their company. But it's unclear whether the company is seeking money to open the door for a microwave-type "cable TV" system in Cape Girardeau.

Jeff Jolcover, American Microtel's controller, said the company only helps its clients secure frequency allotments as they're made available by the Federal Communication Commission.

After that, it's up to the clients themselves whether they choose to build a microwave TV system to compete with local cable TV.

He said his company consults clients as to the best way to secure the FCC frequency allotments, which are granted on a first-come, first-served basis. Jolcover said that 24 hours after an application for a frequency is filed, the "application window" is closed by the FCC.

"Our clients are basically from all over the country and the markets are all over the country," he said. "There was a market in southern Missouri that was filed on back in May or June of last year.

"There have been several filings in the southern Missouri area on different markets."

Jolcover said that the wireless cable TV industry is so new that few of the frequency allotments now are used for such systems.

"There are, nationwide, about 350,000 subscribers to wireless systems, compared with somewhere between 54 (million) and 56 million cable TV subscribers," he said. "So we've got a long way to go."

But Jolcover said that with technology for wireless cable TV now available, the industry likely will expand as Congress continues to seek ways to foster competition for large cable TV companies.

"It's a real hot topic in Congress right now," he said. "A few years ago, it was difficult to get some of the programming, but now it's much more available as well as price-wise. Wireless cable TV is very competitive."

Jolcover said wireless systems currently are the only reasonable alternative to monopoly cable TV systems in communities.

"It also provides programming similar to cable in areas that don't have cable," he said. "It's done via microwave systems, with a small antenna at the home site and a down converter, much like you have with cable TV.

"It's much less expensive for initial set up and maintenance, and the reliability is greater. It's usually priced in the markets somewhere between 10 to 25 percent cheaper than cable TV."

Jim Dufek, a member of Cape Girardeau's Citizens Cable TV Committee, said he was told by an American Microtel salesman that the company is seeking 66 people in this area to invest $6,950 each to cover costs needed to secure a frequency allotment.

One employee of American Microtel's Anaheim, Calif., office, said she believed the investments would be for a local wireless system.

"Our company has acquired the FCC filing location for Cape Girardeau," said the employee, Carolyn Quinn. "We don't know when the license is going to be issued.

"After it's issued, it takes about four months to build the station, then the management team is put in to advertise the services of the station."

But Jolcover said he wasn't certain who had the rights to the frequency allotments in southern Missouri. He also said that securing a frequency doesn't necessarily mean a microwave system will be established immediately.

Jolcover said that although the FCC requires that a system be developed within a year of FCC approval, adherence apparently isn't rigidly enforced.

"A lot of people have been sitting on frequencies for years, even though by definition they're essentially required to operate a system within a year of FCC approval," he said.

Jolcover also said that once a system is established, it must be operated for a year before it can be sold, and that cable TV companies aren't allowed to own wireless systems.

Dufek has advocated the need for greater competition in the cable TV industry. The Cable TV Citizens Committee currently is reviewing the city's franchise agreement with TCI-Cablevision of Missouri.

He said another company, Rural Vision, reportedly is advertising that it plans to offer wireless cable TV to a prospective 30,000 homes in Southeast Missouri.

City Attorney Warren Wells said he didn't know what implications a microwave TV system would have for the city, or whether such a system would be subject to a local franchise.