CHAPTER 117

TELEPHONE, CABLE TV AND INTERNET
SERVICE POLICIES

117.01 Service Characteristics
117.02 Service Availability
117.03 Types of Service
117.04 Engineering Practices
117.05 Ownership of Inside Wiring and Plant Installed in
Customer’s Facilities
117.06 Right to Own Equipment
117.07 Prohibition Against Rebroadcast or Retransmitted Signals
117.08 Digital Cable Television Services

117.01 SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS. The Communications Utility includes a 750-Megahertz broadband communications system that uses a hybrid fiber optic and coaxial cable distribution plant to provide fully interactive communications services.

117.02 SERVICE AVAILABILITY. These services will be made available to all prospective customers within the exchange boundaries and corporate limits of the City, subject to the provisions governing line extension costs as noted in Chapter 112. Within the corporate limits of the City, the Utility will construct, own and maintain all facilities up to the delivery point at the subscriber’s property, which is the RSU. Telecommunications services provided to customers located outside of the City limits, but within the Hawarden telephone exchange boundaries, will be done so through a resale agreement with Hickory Tech, d/b/a Heartland Telecommunications. In areas in which service is provided through the resale agreement, all questions regarding service outages, service prices, account status, payment history, and all other service-related issues will be directed to HITEC. Special Telecommunications Services will only be available at locations that meet operational criteria deemed appropriate by HITEC.

117.03 TYPES OF SERVICES.

1. Telecommunications Services. Telecommunications Services include basic and long distance telephone services for residential and business customers, as well as calling features and other miscellaneous services. Calling features include, but are not limited to, call forwarding, call forwarding – no answer, call forwarding – busy, call waiting, cancel call waiting, selective call rejection, speed calling, caller ID, call name and number block, 3-way calling, serial hunt, and voice mail. Miscellaneous services include, but are not limited to, non-published listing, additional directory listing, and telephone number change.
2. Cable Television Services. Cable Television services include basic and local analog service, digital base service, premium analog and digital channels, digital pay per-view, commercial, and bulk analog and digital services.
3. E-Data Services/High Speed Internet. The policies set forth in this document are meant not to apply to E-Data. E-Data services are offered through an agreement with ACS Networks. HITEC is responsible only for the portion of installation occurring outside of the customer’s home or business. Questions regarding initiation of service, quality of service, billing, account status, pricing, and all other E-Data or personal computer-related information should be directed to ACS Networks.
4. Special Telecommunications Services. Special Telecommunications Services include, but are not limited to, T1 point-to-point, Ethernet private point-to-point, private point-to-multi-point, public point-to-multi-point, point-to-point via fiber, and other serial interfaces for dedicated voice, video and data services. Prices for special telecommunications services are established by the Council, and the latest edition of approved price schedules are considered part of this document.

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117.04 ENGINEERING PRACTICES. Facilities of HITEC shall be constructed, installed, maintained and operated in accordance with accepted good engineering practices in the telecommunications industry to assure, as far as reasonably possible, continuity of service, uniformity in the quality of service furnished, and the safety of persons and property. However, HITEC shall not be held liable in actions arising from interruptions or fluctuations in service. Also, HITEC shall not be held liable for damage to any customer or third party equipment resulting from use of its service or from the presence of HITEC equipment on customer’s premises.

117.05 OWNERSHIP OF INSIDE WIRING AND PLANT INSTALLED IN CUSTOMER’S FACILITIES. All inside wiring is the property of the customer or property owner, regardless of who may have installed it. Customer or property owner will be responsible for the repair and maintenance of the inside wiring. All equipment including fiber optic cable, termination cabinets and all other equipment installed by the Utility in providing special telecommunication services shall remain the property of the Utility.

117.06 RIGHT TO OWN EQUIPMENT. Per Iowa law, customers have the right to provide and own terminal equipment and new inside station wiring; however, the service rate is the same whether or not terminal equipment is provided by the customer.

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117.07 PROHIBITION AGAINST REBROADCAST OR RETRANSMITTED SIGNALS. Cable television services (including all pay-per-view services) shall not be rebroadcast or retransmitted, nor shall admission be charged for viewing without written consent, in advance, from the Utility and the programming supplier. This consent may be withheld at the sole discretion of either the Utility or the programming supplier.

117.08 DIGITAL CABLE TELEVISION SERVICES.

1. Digital cable television services include a digital base pack, as well as premium and Pay-Per-View services. All digital cable television customers will be required to first subscribe to an analog cable television package before receiving digital service. Those customers wanting to subscribe to the Spanish base package will need to subscribe to a minimum of the Local cable television package as their analog package. All other digital customers will be required to subscribe to the Basic analog cable television package. Should a subscriber to the Spanish digital base package and the Local analog package wish to subscribe to an additional digital base package or change the basic package subscribed to, subscriber will be required to upgrade his/her analog package to the Basic analog package.
2. Premium digital cable television services will be available to all digital service customers on an a la carte basis. Digital cable television subscribers must first subscribe to the digital base pack prior to subscribing to any digital premium services.
3. Pay-Per-View services will be available to all digital cable television customers. These services may only be ordered through the use of the remote control. Customers may order individual movies and/or events or subscribe to “season” sports packages. By ordering a movie/event or subscribing to a “season” sports package, customer acknowledges and agrees to pay the applicable charge which is in addition to the basic monthly charge for digital, analog, and premium cable television services.
4. Digital cable television customers will be subject to a $100.00 credit limit on Pay-Per-View orders. When this limit is reached, Pay-Per-View access will be discontinued and the customer will be notified of the amount of orders on his or her account. Customer will be required to pay the full amount of all Pay-Per-View orders (including all taxes and applicable fees) on the account before his or her Pay-Per-View access will be restored.
5. All digital cable television customers must rent one digital set top box for each television on which he or she wishes to receive digital services.
6. All digital cable television customers must enter into an agreement with the Utility obligating the customer to maintain a subscription to at least one digital base package and rental of at least one digital set top box for an initial period of six months. The agreement will also obligate the customer to pay specified replacement costs for his or her set top box(es) and remote control(s) should irreparable damage be caused to the equipment while in the customer’s possession.

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Editor’s Note:

For definitions of terms used in this chapter, see Chapter 110.
For Customer Service Policies, see Chapter 111.
For additional General Service Policies, see Chapter 112.
For Service Rates, see Chapter 113.