Scar Struck

Competition for the local cable television market has turned ugly.

As it completes a massive cable television construction project, telecommunications giant GTE has come under fire from homeowners and officials in this city of neatly kept neighborhoods who argue that it has left behind corporate graffiti: scarred streets, damaged yards and dangling wires.

One outraged homeowner has written to the city, charging that remnants of installing the cutting-edge cable television system may lower property values.

“The streets look shoddy,” said Ron Ruef, president of the 352-member Oakridge Estates Community Assn., a Newbury Park homeowners group. “In essence, we have graffiti in our streets.”

Ventura County is one of two markets nationwide chosen by GTE as launching points for its $250-million cable television venture. It eventually hopes to expand to 66 U.S. markets, including parts of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties.

GTE started its construction project in Thousand Oaks about a year ago, after reform of federal telecommunications laws freed telephone companies to compete for cable subscriptions.

The company has won franchise agreements in Thousand Oaks, Camarillo and several unincorporated areas of the county, while negotiations are underway with Oxnard officials.

GTE’s americast system, which boasts an on-screen guide that allows viewers to sort program choices with their remote control, debuts this week in Camarillo, where construction has been ongoing for several months.

Diane Graves, head of GTE’s video services, said only a small number of residents have complained about construction and installation.

Still, realizing how important success in Ventura County will be to GTE’s nationwide cable goals, she said company officials are trying to appease the disgruntled residents.

“They take extreme pride in how their neighborhoods look, and also how we deal with them,” she said. “They expect us to be professional . . . and they’re probably far less forgiving than other municipalities might be. They’re holding us to a high standard, making us hone our skills before we move on.”

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In his letter to Thousand Oaks officials, Ruef complains that construction of GTE’s underground cable network has turned local roads into an unsightly patchwork of old and new asphalt.

He also contends that in some areas, workers have not cleaned up paint, leaving the appearance that vandals have struck.

“How could the city allow GTE to do this to our streets?” Ruef asked.

City officials say that their contract with GTE does not obligate the company to repave or reseal roads. Nevertheless, they have appealed to the company’s sense of community responsibility.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Judy Lazar has asked GTE to share the cost of a multimillion dollar street resealing project.

“The visual appearance of our streets has and continues to generate more comments by city residents than any other subject currently before the city,” Lazar wrote to GTE officials. “I recognize that GTE does not have a legal or contractual responsibility to slurry streets to return them to their prior condition. . . . However, I believe that the benefits to GTE in terms of community ‘good will’ would be enormous.”

The city’s media services manager, Shirley Cobb, also has sent a letter to GTE, asking that exposed cable wires left outside some homes be covered.

“Competition for the delivery of cable television service is one of the many advantages this community offers its residents and we do not want it to be viewed as a mixed blessing,” Cobb wrote.

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Graves said GTE’s legal department is looking into the issue of exposed cable wires, and company officials are considering the city’s request to share street resealing costs. Meanwhile, customers can request that a plastic covering be placed over outdoor cable wires, Graves said.

Dale Pike, who is overseeing GTE’s construction project, said the company closely monitors about 600 workers involved in construction and installation. Lucent Technologies is the primary contractor for street construction, while several contractors have been hired for home installation, he said.

When homeowners sign up for GTE’s cable system, utility companies come to the curbside and mark underground equipment locations with paint, so that cable workers can map out installation routes.

In some parts of Thousand Oaks, Pike said, crews have had trouble removing oil-based paint marks left by utility workers. In most cases, he said, chalk-based paint has been used, and workers have easily blasted those marks away with high-powered water hoses.

Pike said construction workers have honed their skills on the rocky terrain of Thousand Oaks and are having an easier time with the gentler soil in Camarillo.

“For this type of project, it’s been a very minute number of complaints,” Pike said. “And most of the complaints we’ve been able to solve in a day or two.”

Camarillo Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said his city has received only about a dozen complaints regarding GTE construction over the past five months.

“We’re very pleased with what they’ve done,” he said.

Despite the complaints in Thousand Oaks, demand for americast in that city “has exceeded our wildest expectations,” said GTE’s Graves.

Its primary local competitor is Tele-Communications Inc., the nation’s largest cable company, which has about 32,000 subscribers in Thousand Oaks. As of the end of February, GTE had reported 2,833 subscribers in Thousand Oaks, where americast was unveiled last September.

Citing the competitive environment, GTE officials refused to provide updated subscription numbers.

But as home installation increases, Graves said crews are being more careful to plot out installation routes to avoid problems such as damaged lawns. The ivy on one customer’s lawn died after installation crews dug through the ground to lay cable, Graves said.

“We’ve been running so fast and furious, we haven’t had the time to ask, ‘Did we really fix the ivy?’ ” she said.

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And in an effort to minimize the project’s visual impact, GTE is covering outdoor amplifier units with fiberglass artificial rocks.

The company also has had to answer questions about tactics used by some members of its sales force.

Gerald Fry, a member of the Thousand Oaks citizens cable committee, said he was told by GTE salespeople that fiber-optic cable would be placed in his home, bringing crystal-clear resolution to his 50-inch television screen.

In fact, the company has laid fiber-optic cable through much of its underground infrastructure--but less advanced coaxial cable is placed inside homes.

“It’s not the fiber-optic cable you’re led to believe in the sales pitch,” said Fry, who recently switched from TCI.

To address questions about its sales force, GTE has agreed to send the city a script it gives to salespeople before they go out in the field.

“Yes, we have had some renegade sales people,” Graves said. “And we’ve corrected it whenever we’ve found it.”