By Elizabeth Cloutman

Nearly all of Los Altos Hills residents will be able to obtain high-speed access to the Internet through Pacific Bell within the next five months. Two other major providers, AT&T and Sprint Broadband (EarthLink DSL) don’t appear likely to provide service to the town anytime soon.

“You’ll be 99 percent covered by February of next year,” Pac Bell representative Trent von Wormer told the town council Thursday night. Von Wormer noted only those residents living along Page Mill Road will not be served because their telephone lines, which they share with Palo Alto, don’t work with Pac Bell’s DSL system. The company is currently unwilling to fund the installation of new lines, he said.

Von Wormer added that installation would have been completed sooner, but his company was still waiting on commercial power permits from PG&E.

City Public Works Director Mintze Cheng said that her staff was checking the proposed work against the town’s engineering plan.

City Manager Maureen Cassingham reported to the council that she had contacted representatives from AT&T and Sprint Broadband. Kathi Noe, AT&T’s director of governmental affairs, told Cassingham that given the age of the town’s cable system, nothing could be done without rebuilding it - a matter the company would discuss in franchise negotiations in 2003.

Cassingham noted that all three companies told her that they weigh infrastructure investments in providing DSL against the volume of customers served, consumer’s price tolerance and the extent of profits realized.

Another option for residents is individual satellite service, Cassingham said.