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Telecommunications Services
The Wyandotte municipal telecommunications utility was created by local residents in 1981 when voters demonstrated their confidence in the department's ability by approving an ordinance to place the implementation, construction and operation of the new cable television system under the auspices of the municipal service department. In 1983 the department installed the cable infrastructure throughout the city and began offering basic cable television services. Since 1983 the limited basic cable television system has developed into a full broadband provider offering a wide selection of cable television services from analog to digital programming and a variety of other telecommunications services. Today the telecommunications utility serves over 9,370 cable television consumers and 4,347 high-speed internet subscribers with annual revenues over $5 million. Wyandotte Municipal Services telecommunications system offers significantly lower rates than other area providers, competitive programming selections, several internet packages, state of the art technology and out standing customer service.
The utility contributes five percent of its gross revenue to the city's general fund and completely supports a cable studio where public access, local access and government programming is produced. In 1998 the municipal telecommunications system was completely rebuilt and consist of 25 miles of fiber-optic lines and 72 miles of coaxial cable. A new headend was built during the same period with state of the art equipment, the bandwidth was expanded to 750 Mghz allowing for digital cable service offerings.
In 2001, the municipal telecommunications utility began offering high-speed internet service to local residents and commercial accounts. The municipal telecommunications utility offers local consumers 75 analog channels, 154 digital video/audio channels, commercial free CD-quality music channels, multiplexing of the premium channels such as HBO, Showtime, The Movie channel, Starz and Encore. The telecommunications utility offers High Definition Television services including High Definition set top boxes with or without a DVR incorporated inside. The telecommunications system is in the process of testing digital phone over the internet and plans on offering this service to the city's residents in the very near future. |
