United Cable Assures L.A. It Will Meet Dec. 31 Goal

After failing to meet several previous deadlines, United Cable Television appears to be on schedule in building a cable-TV system in the East San Fernando Valley.

In fact, United’s president predicted Friday that the firm will be 10 days early in meeting a Dec. 31 interim goal imposed last July by an angry Los Angeles City Council.

However, the city’s chief cable regulator says that if the firm meets or beats the deadline, she will be “pleasantly surprised.”

Amid heated attacks on United Cable last July, the council gave the firm an unprecedented third extension--to June 30, 1988--to complete installation of its 1,140-mile system.

The council also imposed interim deadlines spaced every three months.

303 Miles Strung

Susan Herman, general manager of the city Department of Telecommunications, which regulates the 14 cable franchises in the city, said that by Sept. 30, the first such interim deadline, United had completed installation of 303 miles of cable--six more than required.

The year-end deadline requires United to have completed 429 miles. William Cullen, United’s president, said he expects to have the 429 miles of cable in place by Dec. 21.

“Now that we finally have a realistic schedule, I foresee no problems,” he said. “I also expect to have the entire system built by April, 1988.”

He said that the company previously failed to meet deadlines because it could not get clearance fast enough from the city Department of Water and Power and Pacific Bell to string cable on their utility poles.

Feels Less Confident

But Herman was less confident than Cullen of United’s ability to meet the deadline, saying, “The curse of this company is that they constantly promise what they cannot deliver. They may deliver for awhile, but then they seem to fall behind.

“On the other hand, if they finally are on track, I will be pleasantly surprised.”

United originally was to have completed the entire system by December, 1985. However, in anticipation of being unable to meet that deadline, the company in 1984 requested the first of three extensions.

The company has appealed $186,200 in fines imposed by the Board of Telecommunication Commissioners, which advises the council, for failing to meet previous deadlines.

The appeal is in abeyance before the council, pending the firm’s performance under the third extension, Herman said.

Cullen said that United has all but completed cable stringing in Pacoima, Mission Hills, Sylmar and Arleta, communities close to the firm’s main transmission facility in San Fernando.

He said that most of the work force is now installing cable in North Hollywood, working outward from a substation built near Grant High School at Coldwater Canyon Avenue and Oxnard Street.

When completed, the system will have the potential to serve 176,000 homes.