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334 McCoy AND WARNER October
B, and assuming that City A on the coaxial cable is located 89 miles from the nearest network city, and that City B is located 35 miles from City A, the monthly charges for use of Bell System facilities for receiving television programs would include:6 City A would pay a monthly charge of $4840 for use of 240 hours per month on an 8-hour per day basis, or $3640 for 120 hours per month on a 4-hour per day basis, if the channel were shared with another theater television group or a television broadcast station in City A. Likewise, if the theater television group in City B utilized a Bell System microwave relay system to obtain programs from City A, it would pay a monthly charge of $2626 for use of 240 hours per month on an 8-hour per day basis or $1966 for the shared use of the channel on a 4-hour basis.
Concern over the economic problems raised by the A. T. and T. coaxial cable rates led the Television Broadcasters Association, Inc. (TBA), to file a petition with the FCC requesting suspension of the rates, and a hearing upon the reasonableness of the rates and legality and other provisions of the tariffs filed. On April 28, 1948, the FCC ordered the hearing, but refused to suspend the rates. A determination on the reasonableness of the rates 'has been postponed indefinitely.
Meanwhile, in the same proceeding (Docket 8963) the FCC has taken evidence and is considering one of the issues which also is of concern to theater television. This issue involves the validity of the provision in the A. T. and T. tariff that a customer may not connect intercity channels of the telephone company with intercity channels of others except where the telephone company cannot make facilities available upon reasonable notice.7 If sustained by the FCC, this provision would effectively preclude the use of intercity radio-relay facilities built by the theater television groups, such as the radio relay contemplated in Fig. 1 between City A and City B. It would also limit the use that theater television might make of the radio-relay facilities offered on a common-carrier basis by Western Union.
The substantial capital costs required for construction of intercity coaxial-cable installations, together with other difficulties, appear to make it improbable that theater television will turn to the construction of its own intercity coaxial cable to provide a national theater television service. According to A. T. and T.'s o\vn figures, submitted to the FCC, by the end of 1948, about 4600 miles of intercity television channels had been put into operation at a cost of approximately $20,000,000. These figures include the A. T. and T. intercity radio-relay circuits described hereafter.