Selectmen approve negotiations with Verizon
By Ken Powers Community Reporter

Northborough - In this day and age of monopolies and conglomerates, some old-fashioned competition could be returning to town.

Kathy Dalgliesh, director of Northborough Cable Access Television, updated the Board of Selectmen at its Jan. 14 meeting about her ongoing eff orts to get Verizon to provide cable television service to Northborough. The communications giant, which already provides telephone and high-speed Internet service in town, initially inquired about bringing cable television service into Northborough in August 2006. Early in 2007, Verizon noti- fied the town that it was not one of the communities it would be looking to expand into, only to file a proposal for a cable television license with the town Oct. 29, 2007. Verizon said in its Oct. 29, 2007, letter to the town that accompanied the proposal that it hoped to provide cable television service to town residents within six to 12 months of that date. Dalgliesh explained to the board that Northborough has until Friday Feb. 1 to respond to Verizon's proposal, and the board voted unanimously to ask the company to submit an amended proposal for service. The town wants several Northborough-specific specifications in that proposal, Dalgliesh explained, including free monthly service to public buildings and schools and funds to support the budgets of the town's public, educational and governmental access programming. Dalgliesh said the town wants to enter into a 15-year contract with Verizon. "This is pretty much the standard stuff that's requested in these negotiations," Dalgliesh said. "We have additional meetings scheduled and have further questions and are continuing to compile information and data regarding the negotiations, but at this point things seem to be progressing pretty well." "This is exciting news," Selectman Fran Bakstran said. "I get e-mails every week asking what the holdup is in getting Verizon into town." Dalgliesh asked Bakstran and the other selectmen to forward her those e-mails so that she can respond to the residents and update them on the process. Northborough's negotiations with Verizon coincide with negotiations the town is having with Charter Communications, whose 10-year contract with Northborough is scheduled for renewal in October. At the meeting, the selectmen also unanimously approved sending a preliminary document to Charter outlining specifications that will be necessary for renewal. Charter is currently the sole provider of cable television services in Northborough; it entered into its current contract with the town in 1998. The preliminary document to Charter, Dalgliesh said, will ask that the company's renewal proposal include the discounts that the current contract allows. Northborough is also seeking funding for equipment and operational needs for the local public, educational and governmental access programs. One of the critical components in the negotiations of both Verizon's initial contract and Charter's renewal is making sure the specifics of both documents are as close to the same as possible. "It's called a level playing field," Dalgliesh said. "But the Charter renewal coming at the same time is what makes this situation unique. We don't want to install level playing field components in the Verizon contract that match with a Charter contract that's 9 years old."