By July, AT&T customers in DeKalb should notice better service and reception for channels 2 and 5 on their cable systems.

DeKalb signed a new franchise agreement on April 8 with AT&T Broadband, which includes a 10-year term and a performance evaluation after five years.

The agreement will take effect July 7.

To improve customer service, the Federal Communications Commission has set forth standards for the agreement.

One standard is that telephones must be answered by a customer service representative within 30 seconds, including wait time. That standard must be met 90 percent of the time.

The standards also provide guidelines for installations, outages and service calls.

“They weren’t specified before,” said Julia Cedillo, an administrative intern in the DeKalb city manager’s office.

Cable must be installed within seven business days, excluding instances that are beyond the company’s control, such as weather.

If there is a problem with the cable, representatives must work on it within 24 hours – again, excluding conditions beyond the company’s control.

Additionally, when AT&T representatives make appointments to come into the house, they must establish a four-hour time period during which they will arrive, and must come as early as possible within the time period.

“People will no longer have to take the entire day off to wait,” Cedillo said.

Also, appointments for the next business day no longer can be canceled after the close of the current business day. For example, a Tuesday appointment cannot be canceled after 5 p.m. Monday.

Cedillo said AT&T customer service has been a problem for DeKalb and other cities in the Chicago area.

“They are getting pressure,” Cedillo said. “There isn’t a municipal out there in Chicagoland that isn’t having problems.”

She did say, though, that customer service improvements have been made.

“They are really trying to work hard,” Cedillo said. “They are getting better.”

Improving the quality of channels 2 and 5 also was a major concern.

“That was what broke our last agreement,” Cedillo said. “It never improved, so we ended the contract.”

DeKalb is at a “must-carry” site according to the FCC, which means is has to carry channels from Rockford and Chicago.

It’s easier to get channels from Rockford because it is closer, but Chicago signals are more difficult to receive.

To improve the quality, AT&T put a microwave tower in Algonquin, so the signal goes from Chicago to Algonquin to DeKalb, which makes it stronger.

The franchise fees also have been raised from 3 to 5 percent, which is normal for most.

“How they alleviate fees does differ,” Cedillo said. “I could not find any fees which are less than 5 percent.”

Both DeKalb and AT&T also settled a provision that guarantees credit to customers who lose service or have interruptions for four hours or more.

“It depends on the value of that amount of usage and programming,” Cedillo said. “They do have a policy in place.”

With the changes, there will be enough capacity to allow for an additional cable channel.

Channel 68, the FX channel, recently was added. Televisions with digital cable will receive this station within 10 days.

The FX channel was not part of the agreement, but Cedillo said they had a high volume of requests.

Customers who are having trouble with their cable are urged to call AT&T at 758-3401 or toll-free at (800) 777-5557.