DavidsonNews.net

The newly-formed board of MI-Connection has begun meeting, choosing personnel and planning for transfer of the local cable television and internet system to public ownership at year’s end. In recent weeks, the board has elected officers and the system has hired cable industry veteran James R. Miller Jr. as general manager.

The board also has begun meeting with Time Warner Cable, which has been operating the system while the towns decided whether to exercise an option to buy it. The cable equipment and lines serving Davidson, Mooresville, Cornelius and parts of Mecklenburg County must be carved off as a separate cable system.

If all goes as planned, the towns will close their purchase of the system in mid-December, Davidson town board member Evan Webster said Thursday.

Mr. Webster, who has been elected chair of the MI-Connection board (an unpaid volunteer position), said at the Aug. 28 town board work session that after initial meetings with Time Warner, it appears the transition is on track.

“We want to identify the issues that we needed to address in the transition,” Mr. Webster (photo at right) told fellow town board members. “Both Time Warner and MI-Connection have (transition) plans. … We compared the two, discussed them, and I think that’s where we’re going to head. Nothing came up to indicate that we’re not going to have a smooth transition.”

Mr. Webster said in an interview Thursday that the towns’ request to borrow $75 million to buy and upgrade the system appears on track at the N.C. Local Government Commission. The commission reviews and approves local bond issues. The borrowing plan recently won a recommendation of the commission staff, and Mr. Webster said the commission typically approves issues that get staff recommendations.

Also ahead for the MI-Connection board is a trip to Virginia to learn more about the system’s cable and internet technology, the operating environment and the market outlook, Mr. Webster said.

TOWNS BUY SYSTEM

Town boards from Davidson, Mooresville and Cornelius voted Aug. 13 to purchase the former Adelphia system for about $40 million after years of legal wrangling and federal court rulings. The system became available after the 2002 bankruptcy of Pennsylvania-based Adelphia.

Davidson and Mooresville have formed MI-Connection to own the system. Cornelius opted out of ownership, but is transferring former Adelphia customers in town to the system. Altogether, the system currently has about 10,500 customers, including some in unincorporated areas of Mecklenburg County previously served by Adelphia.

MI-Connection has hired a third-party cable and internet management company, Bristol Virginia Utilities, or BVU, to operate the system. BVU has set up a new unit called BVU Focus to serve the local system, Mr. Webster said. Mr. Miller, general manager, is a BVU Focus employee, he said.

BOARD ELECTS OFFICERS

The MI-Connection board has begun meeting, and recently elected Mr. Webster as chair. Kenneth Essex, a Davidson resident and lawyer, was chosen as the board’s secretary and Joe Cullen of Mooresville was named treasurer.

Davidson and Mooresville each have two voting members on the board, plus one voting member that alternates between the two towns. Cornelius has a non-voting seat on the board. Besides Mr. Webster and Mr. Essex, Davidson is also represented by Ron Steen.

Mooresville will borrow $75 million to pay both for the purchase and technology upgrades over the next few years. Davidson would owe about $40 million of the total. The towns’ business plan expects the debt to be repaid entirely through revenues from the system, which officials say remains highly profitable.

MILLER’S BACKGROUND

Mr. Miller, the new general manager, has had a long career managing cable and other telecommunications systems, including installing and upgrading lines and equipment – tasks he’ll face right off the bat as MI-Connection begins a badly-needed system upgrade.

Before joining MI-Connection, Mr. Miller was operations/project manager at Edwards Telecommunications Inc. based in Columbia, S.C. He said he was assigned to projects in Virginia. He also is a former technical/operations manager and plant manager with cable TV giant Charter Communications.

Mr. Miller is a native of Spartanburg, S.C., and with wife Meleia has two teenaged children.

“I welcome the opportunity to serve the people in this area,” Mr. Miller said in a phone interview Thursday.

His first task, once the system is separated from Time Warner’s other operations, will be a major upgrade in capacity, adding equipment and cable that should result in improved service.

“Currently we’re just going to increase the bandwidth and decrease the size of the areas served by the fiber optics to allow for more reliable and improved service,” he said. For internet customers, that should translate into faster speeds. Cable TV customers should see improved picture quality, he said.

New channels are also in the works, he said. And later, the system plans to introduce telephone-over-cable service.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

More information is available on the MI-Connection website, www.MI-Connection.com

Announcement of James Miller’s appointment as general manager.

Previous coverage on DavidsonNews.net at keyword “cable-TV”

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