Television service competition heats up in the Fort Smith area

Non-satellite competition for television access has arrived in the Fort Smith area with the rollout of AT&T’s U-verse.

Competition for cable/television service has been a sensitive subject with city officials, especially Fort Smith Mayor Ray Baker, after Cox Communications changed its channel lineup.

News of the alternate choice for television service was discussed briefly at Tuesday’s (Jan. 6) Fort Smith Board of Directors meeting. Either through fiber optic cable or AT&T’s arrangement with Dish Network, the service is available in Fort Smith. Ricky Cross, external affairs manager for AT&T in Fort Smith, said DirectTV will soon be the satellite provider used by AT&T.

“The city approved a franchise with AT&T in February 2007 for AT&T to provide IP enabled video services. AT&T has been constructing a fiber-optic system in many parts of Fort Smith since then, and is now ready to begin offering the services to the public,” Fort Smith Assistant City Administrator Ray Gosack explained.

Channel package prices start at $45. Information at prices, service access and other details can be found at this link.

Also, the city continues to wrangle with Cox Communications over a franchise agreement. Cox officials want to delete language in the previous agreement that required them to maintain a local office. They argue that other similar providers are not bound by the same language.

“This will likely be reviewed by the board at an upcoming study session when we have all of the other franchise language issues settled with Cox. I expect that study session review will be in late January or early February,” Gosack said.