October 27, 2008

Muni Mutiny

When 3 Northern MN communities about a year ago decided not to continue operating their municipal cable system, they asked Mediacom to step in. The outdated systems, which have about 500 subs in Taconite, Marble and Calumet, were given to Mediacom in the hopes it could modernize them. Munis collapsing is nothing new, but here's the nice bit. Michael Troumbly from the Taconite City Council recently wrote CEO Rocco Commisso to thank him for Mediacom's intervention. "After 48 years of [providing] video service on a municipal basis, the City could no longer provide the needed capital to maintain and expand services," he wrote, noting that the only Internet option was a dial-up connection of about 26kbps. He said the trio had approached other providers to no avail. Mediacom cut over the 1st customers to its broadband network in mid October. "With the upgrade and interconnect construction complete, our residents and business now have options for many levels of video programming, high speed data and even telephone services," he wrote. And Mediacom tell us it thinks it should be able to grow subs with its triple-play offer.