Cable panel OKs TV franchise for

New Ulm Telecom

By KREMENA TODOROVA

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM - With three out of five members present, the New Ulm Cable TV Advisory Commission on Wednesday unanimously recommended that the City Council considers granting a cable TV franchise to New Ulm Telecom.

A franchise currently held by New Ulm's only cable TV provider, Time Warner Cable, is non-exclusive, and sets no limit on the number of cable TV providers that can operate in the city.

New Ulm Telecom is seeking to use its existing communications system to bring what it calls "video services" to businesses and homes.

According to New Ulm Telecom President Bill Otis and company engineers, the new TV service would use new "high-bandwidth," "bidirectional" technology. Roughly, this technology allows "a digital data stream" -- including voice (or telephone), digital video (or TV), and high-speed Internet data signals -- o flow along the same fiber optic lines.

The system already has "an activated two-way capacity" as it is currently providing voice and Internet data services, say company engineers. That means that from the moment customers subscribe to the video service, they would be technologically able to both send and receive information.

In essence, the digital signal would be transported via fiber optic cable from the company's headend (located in Hutchinson) to New Ulm, the company says.

It would then run through a switch device and, via fiber optic links, to "optical nodes," each serving a cluster of homes and businesses.

From the nodes, the digital signal would be transmitted over copper wires to the home and ultimately to a "set-top box", which would split the video (or TV) signal from other signals.

As a result, the signal would not degrade with distance, say company engineers.

A typical set-top box (requiring a new remote control device) can support three TV sets.

In its franchise application, the company tentatively commits to providing 60 channels upon the system's activation, scheduled for March 1, 2001. In contrast, existing provider Time Warner Cable has committed to upgrades that would increase its system's capacity to 77 channels by Dec. 31, 2000.

New Ulm Telecom also says that 70 percent of the upgrades that make the new TV service possible, are already in place. The remaining upgrades will be completed by the end of July.

While urging the City Council to continue the franchise process, members of the New Ulm Cable TV Advisory Commission stress that a franchise mirroring Time Warner's may fail to address a radically new technological situation.

In one example, commissioners said that the new technology makes it possible to monitor which channels are watched in a home, and this capability treads unchartered waters in terms of privacy.

"Do we need someone on the outside to tell us what other issues we should be concerned about?" asked commissioner Clark Tuttle.