§ 26-20. Minimum facilities and services.

(a)

The following minimum requirements for facilities and services apply to all franchisees operating a cable system within the county. The county may require in a franchise agreement that a franchisee exceed these minimum requirements where, under circumstances existing at the time of the application, the additional requirements are necessary to meet the county's future cable related needs and interests taking into account the costs thereof.

(1)

Any cable system lawfully providing service to subscribers within the county as of the effective date hereof shall have a minimum channel capacity of 72 channels and 750 MHz no later than two years from the effective date of this chapter.

(2)

No later than the fifth anniversary of the effective date hereof any such franchisee shall reach agreement with the county to upgrade or rebuild its system if necessary to comply with the state of the art as defined in this chapter and the terms and conditions of a franchise agreement. Such upgrade or rebuild shall be completed by the deadline established in such agreement.

(3)

As an alternative to subsection (1) above, any franchisee providing cable service to subscribers within the county as of the effective date hereof may elect to upgrade or rebuild the system to 750 MHz within 18 months of the grant of the franchise and shall reach agreement with the county no later than the fifth anniversary of the completion of the said upgrade or rebuild of the system to upgrade or rebuild the system to comply with state of the art as defined herein, and with the terms and conditions of a franchise agreement.

(b)

A franchisee shall provide access channels, facilities, and other support for public; educational and/or governmental use as required in a franchise agreement and this chapter. A franchisee shall provide access channels dedicated to the use of the county on a shared basis with other units of government and such other support for public, educational and/or governmental use as required in a franchise agreement.

(c)

A cable system shall provide commercial leased channels as required by law.

(d)

A franchisee shall, upon request, provide at least one cable service outlet to each county building or portion of a building leased by the county with the landlord's consent and public school (K—12) which it can serve by a standard installation at no cost to the county or school involved, and shall charge no more than its time and material costs for any additional outlets to such facilities. At a minimum, basic and enhanced basic service and service offered on migrated and new product tiers will be provided to all such free outlets in connected county facilities free of charge.

(e)

A franchisee shall comply with FCC regulations regarding the emergency alert system.

(f)

At a minimum, to the extent not inconsistent with applicable law, the franchisee will provide a free modem and free unlimited cable internet service for one computer to all connected schools within a year after franchisee makes personal computer-based internet access service via cable commercially available to any residential subscribers within the county. At a minimum, basic and enhanced basic service and service offered on migrated and new product tiers will be provided to all connected public and private schools free of charge. The franchisee will provide a free monthly educational program listing to each connected school to the extent such program listing is available. The franchisee will sponsor local workshops on use of the cable modem service.

(g)

As required by FCC regulations, a franchisee shall make available to its subscribers equipment capable of decoding closed circuit captioning information for the hearing impaired. A franchisee may impose a reasonable charge for such equipment.

(h)

A franchisee shall make cable service available to every dwelling within its franchise area not otherwise passed by an existing cable system, unless prohibited by a private property owner from doing so, provided that such dwelling is in an area of density of at least five dwelling units per quarter mile of aerial cable or ten dwelling units per quarter mile of underground cable. A franchisee shall provide a standard installation at the request of a subscriber within its franchise area. Standard installation shall consist of a drop, not exceeding 125 feet from the cable plant to the nearest entry point of a subscriber's residence or commercial building. A franchisee may charge for subscriber drops in excess of 125 feet according to the franchisee's rate schedule.

(i)

At the request of the county, a franchisee shall interconnect its cable system with adjacent cable systems operating within the county pursuant to a county franchise as necessary to allow subscribers throughout the county to view public, educational, and government access programming, and, to the extent required by law, with other providers of video programming (i) through independent interconnection or (ii) through connection to a central facility designated by the county. Said interconnection shall be completed and activated no later than three months after the date of receipt of notice by the county unless the county has extended the deadline or waived this obligation upon a showing by a franchisee of nonfeasibility. Any application for an initial franchise or a franchise renewal that has not interconnected with other cable systems shall include a proposal for interconnection. The cost of such interconnection shall be equitably distributed among the franchisees that interconnect their systems based on the benefits received by each affected franchisee and its subscribers. If the franchisees are unable to agree on the distribution of expenses for interconnection, they shall notify the county and the county shall then determine the amount of expense to be borne by each franchisee. The franchisees shall pay to the county equally the costs incurred by the county in making such a determination, and such payments shall not be deducted from taxes or franchise fees otherwise paid by the franchisees.

(j)

Institutional network.

(1)

A franchisee shall construct, install, operate and maintain an institutional network interconnecting county facilities, educational institutions, and/or other public facilities as may be included in a franchise agreement.

(2)

The county will determine the technical specifications of the I-NET.

(3)

To the extent required in a franchise agreement, the I-NET will have the capability of transmitting voice, video and data signals between county institutions connected to the I-NET.

(k)

A franchise agreement may specify the construction schedule that will apply to any required construction, upgrade or rebuild. The schedule shall provide for prompt completion of the project, considering the amount and type of construction required, as well as for liquidated damages if the schedule is not met.

(l)

The county may fine a franchisee for violation of this section $500.00 per violation with each day a violation continues constituting a separate violation. Notice of violation prior to citation shall be provided pursuant to F.S. § 125.69. This remedy shall be in addition to any other remedy the county may have under applicable law.

(Ord. No. 02-18, § 2, 7-30-02)