Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
VI. <br />The Changes Proposed By Alert Will Give <br />It An Unfair Competitive Advantage <br />The proposals currently before the Board for considera- <br />tion would definitely give Alert Cable an unfair advantage. <br />One major discrepancy that has already been discussed is <br />that Alert does not propose to build a two -way active <br />system in the county. Recognizing the enormous unfairness <br />of requiring Carolina Cable to continue to operate and <br />expand its existing two -way system while allowing Alert to <br />build and operate a lower cost system, it has been suggested <br />that this problem can be solved by dropping the two -way <br />requirement for both companies. <br />As explained earlier, we think eliminating two -way <br />facilities would be a fundamental mistake in terms of <br />reduction of service and quality to subscribers. In <br />addition, that simple solution does not come close to <br />putting the two companies on an equal footing as far as <br />investment and expense is concerned. There is, of course, <br />no way to recover the hundreds of thousands of dollars <br />already invested in the existing two -way plant. The <br />additional cost of having maintained a two -way system in <br />operation until now will also be unrecoverable. There <br />will be additional problems for Carolina Cable as well. <br />The "upstream" or return channel equipment would simply <br />have to be abandoned in place -- left to deteriorate <br />beyond hope of repair and taking with it the future <br />- 12 - <br />