A win-win, but not for
the People
September 7, 2008

At Monday's Novi City Council Meeting, city administration will request Council's approval to spend nearly $50,000 in direct costs, plus staff
time, to connect the city's public access
programming to AT&T's new cable TV service.

We believe this is an unwise decision, a waste of taxpayer money, a win-win for AT&T at the expense of the People, and a project that does not make sense from a technical perspective.

Substantially all of the proposed cost is a three-year agreement to install two data communication lines; AT&T lines that the city would pay to have installed and maintained. This means the People would pay AT&T to not only deliver the content through their monthly charges, but also pay through their taxes to allow AT&T to pull the content from the city to deliver it. And of course, the People are already paying for the content to be created in the first place. This is a true win-win, but only for AT&T.

Half the proposed cost is to install a dedicated line at SWOCC Studios. However, for just a little more money per month, technology could be installed to service three-times more content. Therefore, other cities could join in, and our cost would go down substantially. (Editor's Note: After publication of this article we were informed that the other cities have opted out of such an arrangement).

The proposal includes two high-speed lines for broadcasting the city's programming. This means two programs could be shown at once. But today, we have only one public channel on cable. This also does not make sense to us. Costs could be reduced by 50% if the city dropped one of the proposed lines - if it was even necessary in the first place.

Most AT&T U-verse customers use AT&T's high-speed Internet service. The City of Novi already provides live and on-demand programming over the Internet. Therefore, the AT&T customers can already get that programming and have through their taxes already paid to have it delivered. The city's proposal would deliver the same content to the same people in a different manner.

AT&T customers pay fees that go to the city, and these fees in total are reportedly more than the proposed additional expenses here. Regardless, the city is already paying to produce the programs in question and paying to deliver these programs over the Internet. It's just not necessary to deliver the same content in another format.

AT&T's new service is highly regarded by many, and local cable TV competition is a good thing. By most accounts, AT&T has done a great job implementing this new service and providing the People of Novi an alternative to Bright House. For that we are pleased. However, that does not mean the city should have to pay AT&T to make an unnecessary delivery.

It is incumbent upon the city to provide reasonable access to public programming for all. That does not mean providing such access in every possible format. We believe this proposal crosses that line.

We the People are pleased the City of Novi has become so open in recent years, and now uses technology to make it easy for the People to keep up with what's going on. However, we are disappointed that this particular proposal is even in front of  Council. It's not only unnecessary, but is in our opinion a frivolous waste of taxpayer money.

We are confident Council will do the right thing and send this proposal right back where it came from, or at the very least delay a decision and demand an investigation in to lower-cost alternatives.

The new welcome to Novi signs currently being installed are a past-due but welcome relief to the old, worn down signs.