The grantee shall maintain throughout the term of the franchise
the number of channels specified in its proposal to be initially activated
in the franchise agreement. The grantee shall also activate additional
channel capacity as required by public access or institutional users.
The grantee shall continually upgrade the system's facilities,
equipment, and service pursuant to the terms and conditions of the
franchise agreement.
A.
The system shall produce a picture upon each subscriber's television
screen in black and white or color, depending upon whether color is
being telecast and provided the subscriber's television set is
capable of producing a color picture, which is undistorted and free
from ghost images, without material degradation of color fidelity.
The system shall produce a sound which is undistorted on a properly
operating standard receiver of a subscriber.
B.
The system shall transmit or distribute signals to all television
and radio receivers of all subscribers without causing cross-modulation
in the cables or interfering with other electrical or electronic systems
or the reception of other television or radio receivers.
C.
The system shall at all times meet not less than minimum FCC technical
standards.
D.
The system shall be designed for and operated on a twenty-four-hour-a-day
continuous operation basis.
E.
A grantee's RFP response shall specify the procedure for initially
and subsequently testing the technical capacity of the system. Representatives
of the Township may be present during testing. The tests may be done
annually at such times as may be determined by the Township, with
notice to the grantee. All expenses for all such tests shall be paid
by the grantee.
A.
The grantee shall provide and maintain an operational two-way system
(audio, video and data impulse).
B.
The grantee will not install or permit the installation of any equipment
that will permit transmission of two-way services utilizing audio,
video or digital signals without first obtaining written permission
of the subscriber. This provision is not intended to prohibit the
transmission of signals useful only for the control or measurement
of the system performance, or utility meter reading.
A grantee's proposal shall describe, in detail, the location
of its head end, hubs, distribution system, studios, equipment and
other facilities and a plan for implementing the construction, utilization
and maintenance of those facilities including plans for accommodating
future growth and changing needs and desires of the community as determined
by the Township.
A.
A grantee shall carry broadcast stations in accordance with FCC rules
as from time to time revised.
B.
A grantee's proposal shall describe, in detail, the utilization
of converters or other special equipment which subscribers are to
receive and any charges for them.
C.
A grantee shall designate an emergency channel to be operated by
the Township.
D.
A grantee shall provide adequate channels for public access. All
residential subscribers who receive all or any part of the total services
offered on the system shall also receive all public access channels
at no additional charge. These channels shall be activated upon system
activation and thereafter maintained as needed. A grantee shall establish
rules and regulations for the use of community access channels which
shall be approved by the Township before implementation and thereafter
shall not be altered or amended without approval of the Township.
In preparing such rules:
(1)
A grantee shall provide an equal opportunity for use of access services.
(2)
A grantee shall present a needs assessment of the community to be
served and provide a plan to meet those needs.
(3)
A grantee shall develop a plan to allocate to the Township a reasonable
use and fair schedule of channel time and use of equipment and facilities
so that the Township can send and receive programming fitted to its
needs. Such plan shall be approved by the Township before implementation
and thereafter shall not be altered or amended without approval of
the Township.
(4)
A grantee shall describe all equipment and facilities and any charges
for their use.
(5)
A grantee shall comply, at a minimum with the requirements of the
Township now or hereafter adopted or determined regarding access channels.
E.
The grantee's proposals shall describe in detail all other channel
offerings and charges for the same.
A grantee's proposal shall designate all publicly owned
buildings in the Township (Township Hall, Police Department, Fire
Department, schools, library, etc.) and any buildings owned or leased
for governmental use by any state, federal or local government in
the Township to which the grantee intends to provide service. The
provisions for such service shall be described in detail and shall
be provided without charge. A grantee's proposal shall include
in such designation plans for existing as well as future publicly
owned buildings.
A.
Required. The grantee shall interconnect origination and access channels
of the cable system with any or all other systems in adjacent areas,
pursuant to the terms and conditions of the franchise agreement. Interconnection
of systems may be done by direct cable connection microwave link,
satellite, or other appropriate method.
B.
Procedure. Upon receiving the directive of the Township to interconnect,
a grantee shall immediately initiate negotiations with the other affected
system or systems in order that costs may be shared equitably for
both construction and operation of the interconnection link.
C.
Relief. The grantee may be granted reasonable extensions of time
to interconnect or the Township may rescind its order to interconnect
upon petition by the grantee to the Township. The Township shall grant
said request if it finds that the grantee has negotiated in good faith
and has failed to obtain an approval from the system or systems of
the proposed interconnection, or that the cost of the interconnection
would cause an unreasonable or unacceptable increase in subscriber
rates.
D.
Cooperation required. The grantee shall cooperate with any interconnection
corporation, regional interconnection authority or Township, county,
state and federal regulatory agency which may be hereafter established
for the purpose of regulating, financing, or otherwise providing for
the interconnection of cable systems beyond the boundaries of the
Township.
A grantee's proposal shall describe the means and manner
of providing community specific cablecasting over the system and the
time of activation and points of delivery.
A grantee shall design and construct a system so that A and
B cables (serving residential and institutional users) accommodate
interactive data communications and so that the total network transmission
time is less than 1/10 of a second. Further, the system shall accommodate
interactive communications of point-to-point, point-to-multipoint,
and multipoint-to-multipoint communications between subscribers or
potential subscribers.
In case of any emergency or disaster, the grantee shall make
its entire system available, without charge, to the Township or to
any other governmental or civil defense agency that the Township may
designate. The system shall be engineered to provide an audio alert
system to allow authorized officials to override automatically the
audio signals on all channels and to transmit and report emergency
information. The system shall also have the capability for visual
transmission of emergency messages.
