CONSUMER UPDATE

December 2002 Consumer Newsletter

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

• Cable & Internet Project Update
• Notes From The General Manager
• Sign Up Now for Equal Payment Plan
• GEUS Offers Advertising Opportunities
  

Cable & Internet Project Update

GEUS -"Juice" has come a long way since the press conference on January 19, 2000. That press conference, labeled "The Announcement" by the Greenville Herald Banner, marked a new path for Greenville's 109 year old community-owned electric utility. GEUS announced that day that we were prepared to bring high-speed Internet and competition to the Greenville cable TV market if the citizens of Greenville wanted these new services. In early 2000, Greenville was in jeopardy of losing businesses to the metroplex because none of the incumbent utilities in Greenville would commit to high-speed Internet deployment. Greenville citizens had also been faced with limited channel selections and multiple rate increases on their cable bills over the years. After
several public meetings, the public replied with a resounding "YES" by modifiying the city charter to allow GEUS to enter these new markets.

GEUS promised at that time that the citizens of Greenville would soon have access to the information super highway. GEUS also promised that the citizens would get more TV channels for less money. Both these promises were fulfilled with the on-time completion of the $8.2 million project in May of 2001. Greenville can now boast of an 870 megahertz state-of-the-art system with new cabling to the homes.

Citizens had also requested a local TV station be set up to broadcast local events. GEUS 34 has been established and is actively filming about 20 events every month throughout the community. GEUS 34 film crews stay very busy shooting events such as GISD & GCS sports, dance & choir recitials, political debates, museum speakers, church services and much more. These events appear daily as part of the GEUS channel line up.

Looking back, the citizens of Greenville were at a crossroads that January day in 2000. They could have chosen to accept the status quo. Instead, they decided to create their own destiny. Thank you for allowing GEUS to be a part of your destiny.

So, just how are we doing? Citizens Sound Off and here are just a few of their comments!

Rejeanna Cates writes, "I wanted to write a quick note to let you know how capable and courteous the young men who installed my cable and Internet service were. ...all three of them were extremely professional, and yet friendly. You certainly have three excellent representatives for your company. I imagine you are already aware of this, but I believe excellence should be noted and that is definitely what I received! I also want to tell you how pleased I am with my new cable and Internet service.

Guy Morphew says, "We really love the GEUS (internet) service. Fast, always-on connections. Minimal downtime. Fast, friendly help. The best in our opinion."

Kelley Fincher writes, "One of the best tools that we have at our disposal. Your services allowed us to terminate three telephone lines and six Internet provider services and, at the same time, provide every terminal in our office with high speed Internet and e-mail services. Most of our tax research is now on the internet, and our clients are using the e-mail more each day as a line of communication to our office."

Scott Singleton Fincher & Co PC CPAs

Would you like to comment? Please let us hear from you! Write to us at:

GEUS Consumer Services
6000 Joe Ramsey Blvd.
Greenville, TX 75402
or email: jdickey@geus.org

Notes From The General Manager

It has been a little over a year since the GEUS "The Juice" began offering cable TV and high-speed Internet to you-our owners. Your acceptance of these new services has been phenomenal. We are now serving over 2500 homes & business with these new services. We hope you are as proud of your new cable TV/Internet system as we are. The 870 megahertz, state-of-art system currently supplies over 185 TV channels, an interactive guide to let you know what is coming on and a wireless keyboard option that allows you to email and surf the Internet through your TV. Have you heard your friends talk about the high-speed Internet? Surfing the web at speeds as high as 3MB makes you wonder how we all ever had the patience for dial up Internet.

Access to buildings such as apartments, nursing homes and motels require the permission of the owners. Over the next several months, GEUS will be approaching these complexes and asking them to allow us to bring our 21st century services to these Greenville citizens. To the apartment dwellers in Greenville, I would like to say that we appreciate the patience you have shown and that we have heard your requests and hope to be serving you very soon.

Maybe you have been considering switching to GEUS, but would just like to see it in person before making that decision. I invite you to come by the GEUS Service Center at 6000 Joe Ramsey for a test drive. Come by and see what all the excitement is about.

Thank you for allowing us to serve you,

Tom Darte
GEUS General Manager

Sign Up Now for Equal Payment Plan

Monthly electric bills can vary significantly throughout the year. To take the guess work out of budgeting your electric bill, GEUS offers an attractive Equal Payment Plan for our residential consumers. With the Equal Payment Plan, you pay the same amount each month so that you know exactly how much your monthly payment will be no matter what the weather.

HOW THE EQUAL PAYMENT PLAN WORKS: The Utility Billing Office projects your usage for the next twelve months based primarily on your past usage at your present address. Using this projected usage and the current rate schedules, the billing office calculates your annual electric bill (including fuel adjustment). This calculated amount is used to establish equal payments for the next year. Month TWELVE, is your "settle up" or adjustment month.

EXAMPLE: If your anticipated bill for 12 months is $840, your payments are calculated as follows: $840 divided by 12 equals $70.00. Your monthly Equal Payment would be $70.

THE TWELFTH MONTH IS THE ADJUSTMENT MONTH: If your total monthly payments during the year are less than the charges for your actual usage, your twelfth bill will show the balance due. In this case you will be asked to pay the actual balance due. If your monthly payments total more than the charges for your actual usage, you will receive a credit on your bill. Your monthly Equal Payment will be recalculated each twelfth month, and the amount you pay may increase or decrease based on your actual consumption during the previous twelve months and the current rate schedule. You will automatically be retained in the Equal Payment Plan unless you notify the Utility Billing Office otherwise.

PARTICIPATION IN THE PLAN IS SUBJECT TO FOUR CONDITIONS
1. You must be a residential consumer and any past due charges must be paid in full.
2. If, during the year, your consumption varies considerably from the projected amount, you may be contacted to INCREASE or DECREASE your monthly Equal Payments accordingly.
3. Equal Payments must be paid on a monthly basis, REGARDLESS if a credit balance is sufficient to cover the amount due.
4. The agreement is subject to review and approval by GEUS.

GEUS Offers Advertising Opportunities

GEUS now offers additional ways for our consumers to advertise. From garage sales topromoting your business or community events, we have channels to help you spread the word. We are pleased to introduce Friendlee, the newest member of the GEUS family to help us with this effort. Almost everyone knows Friendlee through his work with Drug Free Greenville, Lions Club, WIN, Cotton Jubilee, and many other community events/organizations.

Channel 3: No charge for Public Service Announcement (PSA), Business Page Ads for $25/wk or $75/mth. Engagements, Birthdays, Obituary, Congratulatory and Birth Announcements are FREE to GEUS Consumers
Channel 19: Classified Ads (personal items, garage sales) $12.50/14 days, Business Page Ads $100/mth
GEUS 34: Business Page Ads $25/wk or $75/mth, Video event sponsorships vary.

COMING SOON

Highland Terrace Baptist Church
Broadcasts on Channel 73 Family Net

Gospel Music Television
with Local Churches

More Variety & More Video on