Towns in the Lakes Region are following in the footsteps of many Maine communities who want seats at the bargaining table when Time Warner Cable completes its acquisition of Adelphia Communications, expected in late May.

Last fall, about 60 Maine towns affected by the deal signed resolutions requesting that services currently provided to Time Warner customers in Greater Portland be extended into their communities.

These services, in addition to broadband Internet and cable television, include video-on demand, digital phone and extension of cable to areas currently not served by Adelphia.

Time Warner Cable says it will honor all existing contracts with Adelphia and will look at the towns’ individual resolutions after the franchise transfer is complete. And the corporation says it aims to provide the same services to its new customers as it does to its Greater Portland customers.

“Our goal is to offer as many services as possible,” says Melinda Poore, vice president of government and public affairs for Time Warner Cable of New England. “It may take some time to get there, but we’ll move as quickly and aggressively as we can.”

Transfer timeline

The corporate transfer is expected to take place on May 31 when Adelphia will sell its franchise to Time Warner Cable and Comcast Communications for roughly $12 billion dollars.

In Maine, Time Warner Cable currently serves 115,000 customers in York, Cumberland and Aroostook County. With the addition of 221 communities in Maine, the transfer will nearly triple Time Warner’s business. Time Warner is also looking to expand their call center and hire 150 more employees to better serve its new customers.

While Time Warner Cable plans to put money toward building its infrastructure in the former Adelphia communities, changes won’t happen overnight, Poore warns.

A month before the transfer, Time Warner Cable will be mailing notices to inform customers of the changes.

All e-mail addresses currently under Adelphia will change from johndoe@adelphia.net to johndoe@rr.com, and e-mails sent to the old Adelphia addresses will be forwarded to the new addresses.

There will be no price hikes as a result of the sale. And customers who buy into Time Warner’s bundled packages may see “deeper discounts,” Poore said.

However, Time Warner Cable has reached a legal snag in bringing its digital phone service to the Lakes Region (see accompanying story by Peggy Roberts) and is now working out a business agreement with Fairpoint New England to resolve this issue.

Naples

Naples Town Manager Derik Goodine and the Naples Board of Selectmen signed a resolution with the other communities wary that Naples and other rural towns would be left as “second-class” Time Warner customers after the deal goes through.

Under the Naples’ resolution, the town requests that Time Warner deliver its full breadth of services to areas with a minimum density of eight homes per square mile, as opposed to the current 15 homes per square mile.

“Supposedly we still have the rights under the resolution,” Goodine said. “I’d like to see total town coverage so everybody has the right to broadband Internet and cable.”

Windham

Windham hopes to work out some outstanding issues with their Adelphia contract when Time Warner takes over. Time Warner already services a small number of residences near Forest Lake. But these residences are unable to receive live broadcasts of Town Council, School Board and Planning Board meetings because most of the town is on the Adelphia network.

This split between the franchises has left some residents “disenfranchised,” says Town Manager Anthony Plante.

Once the deal goes through, Time Warner Cable will be able to broadcast the public access channel, Channel 7, to all areas of Windham under one franchise.

Raymond

Raymond, one of the first towns to hook into Road Runner broadband Internet through Time Warner, has been with the franchise since 1987.

Town Manager Don Willard has been pleased by negotiations with Time Warner Cable in the past and is excited about the prospect of turning its public broadcast studio from “stone age” to “state of the art.”

Raymond received a $48,000 grant from Time Warner Cable to help build a digital broadcast studio for live broadcast of town public meetings. Until this summer, public meeting tapes were delivered to the Casco Town Offices and broadcast there until a mold problem forced the offices to relocate.

Time Warner Cable is poised to take over Adelphia in May. How this affects rural areas is not yet known, as negotiating between the towns and the company are ongoing.

Copy the Story Link