The mild winter has certainly helped the company's installation efforts. "We're starting to pick up steam," Osterbur said. "Weather permitting, we're going to do it in a phased manner. We'll be able to bring up sections of town at different times."
The infrastructure, including conduit to hold the fiber optic network, has been installed from Champaign to Paxton. "We will use that for our connection to the Internet, to voice services and video services," Osterbur said.
"We've been moving forward on executing our business model. Getting the content delivery in place is a big part of that such as the Internet."
Subscribers will be able to get a variety of offerings from one cable running to their home or business - from many-tiered cable television to high-speed data service/Internet to telephone service.
And several of the cable television tiers will be available without the use of an on-set box. When Paxton's current cable provider, Mediacom, upgraded its system last year, many premium channel subscribers were upset because it meant a return to the box.
That doesn't mean all Conxxus customers will escape the black box.
Osterbur earlier said Conxxus will not initially require set-top boxes for premium channels for its analog system.
"An all-fiber ... network is capable of meeting and exceeding the requirements of future service offerings such as IP video, video streaming, video on demand, interactive gaming and high definition television as well as incredible bandwidth to the public Internet."
The city council approved a 10-year franchise agreement for Conxxus.
Osterbur said there have been significant inquiries about the new system.
"There certainly has been a fair amount of interest in the project and different service offerings we're going to have," he said.
In addition to what Conxxus officials feel will be a higher quality product, they believe there are other advantage.
Last fall, Osterbur said Conxxus subscribers will also have the advantage of local technicians and a customer support and payment office.
After-hours inquiries and service outages will be handled by the company's support service. Service technicians will be on call around the clock to respond to critical system calls. Routine calls will be handled the next day.
Preliminary design of the Conxxus system featured about 22 miles of underground construction that will pass about 2000 commercial and residential properties.
Cable offerings will include a 12-channel basic tier service and a 54-channel expanded basic service.
The company's application package outlined a $11.95 monthly fee for the 12-channel basic package and a $29.95 monthly fee for the 54-channel expanded basic service. It included an additional $10 per month for premium services.
Conxxus parent IlliCom serves more than 1500 dial-up Internet and wireless Internet customers and 125 premium services.
Easton Group, owned by Gary Cooper of Ogden, who is also a primary owner of Conxxus, has been installing the fiber optic system.
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