The city council’s strong opinions about the cable service AT&T Broadband, which serves the city of DeKalb, are finally paying dividends.

During the second part of February, the cable provider completed a project company representatives told the council would improve television reception in DeKalb. The project included extending services and improving reception to local channels, as well as providing Internet access.

The provider recently has established a direct microwave link to its site in Algonquin, in an effort to strengthen signals for channels that provide weak signals.

“WBBM and WMAQ traditionally do not have strong signals,” said Patricia Andrews-Keenan, vice president of communications for AT&T Broadband.

The Algonquin site utilizes a direct fiber optic link to the Chicago broadcast channels, such as DeKalb channel 5, improving picture quality for local channels.

“This work is now complete and you should be noticing a significant improvement in the picture quality of channels such as WBBM and WMAQ as well as others,” governmental relations manager for the company Sharon Douglass stated in a memo to City Manager Jim Connors.

AT&T also is adding more channels in an effort to please its DeKalb subscribers, including the Game Show Network, Discovery Health and Science, the Sci-fi channel, the Movie Channel, the Dating Channel and commercial-free digital-quality music. Overall, company representatives say AT&T Broadband intends to increase options to 99 channels including eight pay-per-view channels and 10 channels offering a variety of music.

Putting the broadband in AT&T Broadband, the new Internet service looks to use its already existing cable links to provide access to the Internet without the need for a personal computer.

The connections would provide a two-way service with a 750-megahertz connection to the Internet.

The city council said it hopes the questions of long-term contracts won’t be what it takes to improve the company’s service in the future.