The Colonie Town Board voted unanimously Thursday, March 24, to accept the contract to bring Verizon FiOS service to the town.
Supervisor Paula Mahan said this would bring much-needed competition to Colonie as it joins many of the surrounding municipalities in Albany County that have the service available. Time Warner Cable has been the only cable service in Colonie for several years.
Some residents shared their excitement with the new service, saying they had problems with Time Warner in the past.
I’d like to urge the approval of this, said Colonie resident Bill Pollock. `I rarely see where a monopoly is a good thing. I’m dissatisfied with Time Warner. I contracted to get Direct TV installed even though I don’t want a satellite on my new home. During that time, Verizon said it was extending its service, so I cancelled.`
John Fogerty, an attorney for Time Warner, criticized some of the provisions in the contract regarding the contributions for the Public, Educational and Governmental regulations. He said contributions should be based on a per subscriber basis because of the possibility of the number of Verizon’s customers changing in five years. Currently, the contract states Verizon will only have to contribute 25 percent of what Time Warner pays.
`It will be 25 percent no matter what, which is discriminatory,` he said. `Our view would be if it’s a flat grant, then that’s not subscriber-sensitive. Leveling the playing field would be the same amount.`
He continued to say that Guilderland had a similar provision in its deal with Verizon where that was struck from the contract by the Public Service Commission.
Pamela Goldstein, an attorney for Verizon FiOS, said that while it could happen in this case, it doesn’t mean the PSC can’t change its mind.
`We just abide by what the PSC says, and that’s what we’d do here,` she said.
Rich Hillstrom, franchise manager for Verizon, said that the company stands by the provision and said that the price of the equipment is opinion-based.
`We still believe that’s an appropriate provision,` he said.
The contract Time Warner currently has with the town regarding PEG contributions, which began in 1994, expired 10 years ago, and Town Attorney Michael Magguilli said the town has tried to negotiate a deal but to no avail.
`We’ve been trying to negotiate with Time Warner for three years, and there has been no success,` he said. `Time Warner has not come to the table.`
Fogerty said proposals had been made, but the negotiation process for these issues can be lengthy.
`We haven’t come to an agreement,` he said, `but those things happen sometimes.`
William K. Sanford Library Director Richard Naylor said he is not pleased with the deal because it will not allow for the library to broadcast Town Hall meetings. He said he realized, though, that the agreement with Verizon would be the best the town could get.
`The town was getting calls with people upset with their Time Warner bill,` he said. `They [Verizon] had too many other advantages, including time. They could be working on the village and other places. I think if we had held out forever, we probably would get it.`
Verizon and Time Warner will be contributing $36,000 each to the library. Naylor said with PSC supervising the battle between Verizon and Time Warner, it leaves Colonie without much power. But he said the most important thing is whether it benefitted the taxpayers.
`We want to get the best deal for the town, and we have the public telling us the biggest concern is their bill. Who are we to say that’s wrong,` he said. `Now, I just hope people do end up getting a better rate and hope that the competition helps.` “