On June 30 last year, the Cable and Video Competition Law of 2007 was enacted, allowing a video service provider to apply for a state franchise license instead of having to negotiate with individual municipalities like cable companies have traditionally done. Since then, only one company has petitioned the Illinois Commerce Commission for a state franchise license: Illinois Bell Telephone Company, doing business as AT&T Illinois. They applied on September 24 and were granted a franchise license on October 25.

So the obvious question is, where in Illinois will they be rolling out their new video service? Answer: that’s confidential. According to the application:

An exact description of the video service area where video service will be offered by AT&T Illinois … is designated as Confidential and Proprietary. This designation is necessary to avoid public disclosure of the areas in which AT&T Illinois plans to offer video service before it has begun to offer service in those areas. Disclosure of information regarding the areas that AT&T Illinois plans to offer video service … would put AT&T Illinois at a competitive disadvantage and cause competitive harm, since cable and other competitors could use such information to target the marketing of their own, existing services in areas in which AT&T Illinois plans to provide service but before AT&T Illinois has had an opportunity to initiate service in those areas.

So we won’t know if Peoria is one of the service areas unless and until it’s actually rolled out. However, the local unit of government will get at least 10 days of advance notice.

What we do know is that it is already being rolled out in the St. Louis Metro East area. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, AT&T Illinois’ TV service, branded as “U-Verse,” was made available starting Monday, January 7:

The plan is to gain experience running U-Verse here and then roll it out across Illinois. Mitchell has said he hopes it’ll be in Chicago by the end of March, though there’s no firm timeline for broader expansions. … Citing competitive concerns, Mitchell wouldn’t say exactly where or how fast AT&T plans to expand, but it will start in parts of 17 Metro East municipalities, including Belleville, East St. Louis, Collinsville and Glen Carbon, though not Edwardsville, Alton or Granite City. It first picked dense areas where it already has a network, Mitchell says, and plans to grow from there.

AT&T’s U-Verse system is internet-based and delivered to the home through phone wires, either fiber optic directly to the house, or copper wires from the house to a nearby node that’s connected to fiber optic line. You can see an example of the kinds of packages they offer by clicking here, and a sample channel lineup can be seen by clicking here (PDF).