The news of IlliCom's plans comes at a time when Mediacom is coming under fire for price increases and the return for boxes needed for premium channel cable services.
Kevin Osterbur, IlliCom business manager, said Tuesday morning the company is "pretty early in the project" but hopes to begin local construction in the fall, pending an easement agreement with the City of Paxton.
Some services could be offered this year, said Osterbur. Weather and other factors would play a role in the timetable.
Easement needed
IlliCom is seeking to use the easement the city secured to lay the new water line for its utilities behind IlliCom's building on Ottawa Road and under the railroad tracks to U.S. 45.
The Paxton City Council discussed the company's proposal Monday night. A license, permit and zoning committee meeting was called for 7 p.m. Aug. 20 to further discuss the IlliCom proposal and the wording of Paxton's cable television franchise agreement.
Paxton can't offer an exclusive franchise agreement with one company. City Attorney Bob Martensen said the city must offer the same terms for whichever company reaches an agreement with the city.
At a meeting last month, Osterbur said IlliCom could offer free Internet service to City Hall, the police department and the Emergency Response Service building in exchange for the easement.
IlliCom's system, operating as the newly formed Conxxus subsidiary, "will be much more extensive" than what Mediacom has, said Osterbur. "We're building an entirely new network, not using any existing infrastructure. We're proposing an all-fiber network, which will be within 100 - 150 feet of every home and business in the community."
"That's a pretty extensive network," the IlliCom official said.
IlliCom is also extending fiber optics to Champaign and points beyond. "We're definitely interested in expanding in the future," he said.
Osterbur said all of the fiber optic cable will be placed in conduit in the ground.
Video is just one of the services the company will provide. The fiber optic will be a broad band system, meaning one cable can offer many services.
State of the art system
"We're putting together a new generation of infrastructure," said Osterbur. "We're putting fiber to the home that is state of the art."
Traditional voice (telephone) services for commercial and residential users, including caller i.d. and voice mail, will be included.
High-speed Internet access that needs no modems, only a network card is another.
Video service will include a range of offerings from basic cable TV to digital tiers that offer premium and pay-per-view services.
Those services will continue to grow as the company expands.
"We're definitely going to be competitive (price-wise)", he said.
Video and Internet services are nothing new to IlliCom.
The company offerings include SkyQuest DirecTV (dish service), dial-up Internet since 1998, wireless Internet service and a soon-to-be launched two-way satellite Internet service.
"It's a large project. We really need the support of the communities," Osterbur said of the overbuild.
The city council's frustration with Mediacom and its willingness to work with a local company would seem to make support viable in Paxton.
Mayor James Kingston told the city council, "If you folks have been receiving phone calls as I have ...(on the cable TV situation), there's an urgency here."
Kingston held up a list of rates Paxton subscribers are charged for premium channels and said compared to some other communities, "I think we're getting gouged."
Mediacom's 10 -year franchise agreement with Paxton recently expired. It is operating in its second three-month temporary agreement, and Martensen said Mediacom officials have not exactly been beating down the doors to get a new agreement.
Mediacom was supposed to give notice to Paxton three years prior to the expiration of the old agreement indicating it wanted to renew.
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