Salem invites public input on Comcast franchise agreement

The Salem City Council is poised to approve a 10-year agreement with the cable provider.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

The last time Salem residents were invited to speak their minds on cable television provider Comcast, some 300 showed up to rail about the company’s service.

Since then, Comcast has upgraded both its cable television and Internet services in the city, and the Salem City Council is poised to approve a new 10-year franchise agreement with the company.

So a similar volume of complaints isn’t expected for a public comment session on the agreement Monday night. But just in case, the council meeting is being held in the Salem High School auditorium.

The council could vote to approve the agreement during that 7:30 p.m. meeting, Salem City Manager Kevin Boggess said, or if they hear significant concerns from citizens, they could postpone the vote.

The agreement will replace one that expired in 2011 and was not renewed after fruitless negotiations between the cable TV giant and officials from Salem and Roanoke County, where the company serves about 3,000 customers.

Government officials walked away from the talks because Comcast wouldn’t budge on demands to upgrade the cable system from 550 to 750 megahertz and to commit to keeping a local customer service office in Salem.

Comcast continued to provide service — to a dwindling customer base, as indicated by independent market research and franchise fees — and in early 2012 announced it would upgrade its system after all.

That upgrade re-started negotiations toward a new franchise agreement, which was essentially finished a year ago, but Salem council members wanted to wait to approve the agreement until the upgrade was complete. The council wanted confirmation that the new system was performing as promised and that service was really better.

The company also has promised to keep an office in Salem until its current lease expires, and to make an effort to keep an office in the city or nearby after that, Boggess said. That commitment is not part of the franchise agreement, but Boggess believes Comcast sees value in the keeping an office here anyway.

Monday, August 12, 2013