GTE Cable to Explain Project to Residents

As GTE brings fiber optic television to Oxnard, company officials are hoping to quell concerns about its construction project with a community outreach program.

Company officials announced at this week’s City Council meeting that they will launch an advertising campaign in local publications next month to explain installation of the system.

They will also provide residents with brochures explaining why workers are digging up streets and installing above-ground cable lines. Moreover, the company has contacted members of Oxnard’s Neighborhood Councils to explain the project.

The outreach effort in Oxnard comes after GTE Media Ventures was criticized for its cable installations in Thousand Oaks and Camarillo.

Thousand Oaks residents said streets had been badly scarred, while equestrians in Camarillo said their horses had been injured after stepping into holes dug by GTE crews.

“We hope these acts go a long way in resolving some concerns,” said Ron Hummell, general manager in Ventura County for the phone company’s cable service, GTE americast.

Tuesday night, the company was criticized by Oxnard resident John R. Hatcher III, who said GTE needs to install “rock boxes,” or artificial fiberglass rocks that are used to cover unsightly cable boxes.

“We should have the same things they have in Thousand Oaks,” Hatcher said in requesting the boxes. “We live the same as them.”

GTE officials replied that the boxes are available upon request.

The company began laying cable in Oxnard three months ago, and will go head-to-head with Jones Intercable, currently the sole provider to the city’s 35,000 cable subscribers.

So far, a few GTE customers near El Rio are already receiving service.