Seventeen companies have received interim cable television franchises from the state under the provisions of a bill enacted in December, state regulators said.

State records show the most extensive franchise authorized so far, as measured by numbers of communities, was given to AT&T, which aggressively lobbied for the controversial cable competition bill last year.

AT&T Wisconsin 's franchise allows it to serve Madison and other large communities in Dane and Rock counties among others around Wisconsin, the records from the state Department of Financial Institutions show.

But on Friday, Charter Communications also made an extensive application of its own to expand its statewide franchise into many more communities, including shifting its city of Madison cable franchise over to the new state system.

Catherine Haberland, executive assistant at DFI, said the agency had given interim approvals to all the franchise applications submitted. Those interim franchises will likely all be fully granted once the agency finishes writing permanent rules, she said.

"There 's a slight chance that (an interim license) could be pulled, but I think it 's going to be pretty slight, " Haberland said.

AT&T submitted its application for a statewide franchise on Feb. 21 and received interim approval to serve several hundred communities in the Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay markets with its U-verse television service.

AT&T spokesman Jeff Bentoff said the company would not be able to serve all customers within those communities, only those living in the parts where it has existing networks. Bentoff wouldn 't say when AT&T might roll out the service in Madison.

Prior to the cable competition bill 's passage, cable and video providers had to negotiate franchise agreements with individual communities. The new law provides a franchise agreement valid anywhere in the state.

Charter Communications, which already has a new state franchise covering some of the communities it serves, requested on Friday to add hundreds more including the cities of Madison, Middleton, Monona and Fitchburg, said Tim Vowell, Charter 's director of government relations. Vowell said he expected the new application would be quickly approved.

Cheryll Olson-Collins, administrator of the Division of Corporate and Consumer Services at DFI, said more companies are expected to apply for the franchises in the coming months. The companies paid $2,000 initially for each statewide franchise. Those with more than 10,000 customers will have to pay an additional amount that hasn 't been determined.

So far, her agency hasn 't received any consumer complaints, Olson-Collins said. The agency released draft rules to implement the competition law last week and will have a public hearing on them in Madison on June 3, she said.

Rich Eggleston, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Alliance of Cities, said some municipalities that have agreements with cable providers have struggled to understand what they 're required to do if another company wants to enter their market through a statewide franchise.

"It 's still a very confusing thing, " he said.

Olson-Collins said she believed the transition was going "smoothly " so far.

-- Jason Stein

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