In March 2002, the City, along with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable agreed to terms regarding the responsibilities of the cable companies as those responsibilities relate to expanding the underground program on all surcharge projects. On all CPUC 20 A projects, the cable companies are required to pay full costs of trenching and other work associated with undergrounding.

The City, along with Cox Communications and Time Warner Cable discussed the impact of the undergrounding provisions of the electric franchise and its impact on other utilities. The City agreed to pay SDG&E, or whoever is responsible for the joint trench, all costs associated with extra depth required to accommodate the cable facilities and all costs with installing the conduit and other substructures necessary to enable the cable company to convert their facilities to underground.

The City, or its contractor (presumably SDG&E), is not responsible for providing, or even purchasing, conduit or other substructures associated with the conversion. The City pays its contractor, at no cost to the cable company, for the installation of the conduit and associated substructures. These agreements have the following stipulations:

• The City will not pay for the installation of additional conduits or substructures to accommodate any upgrade of facilities or a future upgrade of facilities.
• This agreement will not apply to any existing or future CPUC Rule 20 projects.
• The City will not pay for any portion of an underground utility conversion project that is outside of the joint trench that exceeds beyond a project's limits.

In return, Time Warner and Cox agreed to the following:

• All work would be done pursuant to City Council Policy 600-8, Underground Conversion of Utility Lines by Utility Company, and San Diego Municipal Code, Chapter 6, Article 1, Division 5, Underground Utilities Procedural Ordinance.
• There would be no protest the Advice letter at the CPUC in regards to the SDG&E franchise agreements, specifically the underground surcharge, as well as all other underground program provisions.
• They would not pass through other costs associated with an expanded underground conversion program, but would absorb those costs as a shareholder cost.