Brief by Central Staff
Telecommunications – May 2003 – Colorado Central Magazine
Cable TV systems seem to change hands so frequently that it’s difficult to keep track of their names. In Salida, Leadville, Buena Vista, and Alamosa, as well as other rural towns in Colorado, there was TCI, which turned into AT&T Broadband, which became Comcast AT&T — and now the deal is done to make these systems part of Bresnan Communications.
The proposed sale had been announced last year, and was supposed to close at the end of the year, which made us wonder whether it would ever get done. However, it closed on March 20 for $525 million, and Bresnan now owns 197 local cable systems in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado with 314,000 subscribers.
Maureen Huff, corporate communications director, said Bresnan plans to upgrade the systems quickly to digital standards, which means dozens of channels, video on demand, as well as fast internet connections.
Local rumor had it that the crews were already at work in Leadville, but Huff refused to confirm or deny them. “For one thing, I don’t know exactly where our engineers are working,” she said, “and for another, we prefer to make the announcements after we’ve completed the improvements. That way, we’re not making promises that we can’t keep.”