Cable deal nets fees, but not FiOS

Babylon Village trustees approved a contract with Cablevision that will provide cable television, Internet and phone service to village residents -- and cash to village coffers.

The village negotiated a new nonexclusive 10-year contract with Cablevision that will earn it a one-time $20,000 fee, said village treasurer Valerie Fronzo, plus a 5 percent share of revenue that could net the village thousands more.

The previous contract, which expired Feb. 1, did not include a one-time fee. The board voted to approve the new contract last week.

The fiber-optic service FiOS, from Verizon, a Cablevision competitor, is still not available in the village, and authorities fault Verizon.

A post on the village website notes Verizon has decided not to install FiOS in the village, one of three villages in Babylon Town, "even though 95 percent of the town is receiving this service."

"We're just a small little village of about 6,000 homes and it seems ridiculous they would do . . . the town and not do us," Mayor Ralph Scordino said.

FiOS service is available in about 75 municipalities across Long Island, where it often competes with service offered by Cablevision, which owns Newsday.

Babylon trustees met with Verizon officials a year ago, Scordino said, but made little progress toward an agreement.

In New York, municipalities negotiate cable television franchises with service providers, who share revenue in exchange for use of municipal streets and rights of way. Verizon spokesman John Bonomo said a contract could add tens of thousands of dollars to Babylon Village coffers annually. But Bonomo said the company is busy completing current contracts that call for "build-out," or service availability for the entire municipality within a specified time, usually five years.