Before AT&T installs metal boxes in neighborhoods for its new video service, the company will consult with homeowners, a company official promised the Napa City Council this week.

AT&T is planning to upgrade its commercial offerings, adding video to telephone and high-speed Internet services. This will require as many as 151 control boxes in neighborhoods.

The boxes will be placed in the city’s road right of way, which typically means the planter strip between curb and sidewalk.

Councilman Mark van Gorder voiced alarm in January that these boxes would be unsightly — the size of refrigerators, he said — with residents unable to choose where they are placed.

On Tuesday, AT&T officials returned with photos of what the boxes will look like, and assurances that they will work to address any resident’s concern.

Boxes are four and five feet tall, depending on the number of homes served, and not much larger than the existing boxes that provide DSL service citywide, AT&T spokeswoman Rhuenette Alums told the council.

New and old boxes will typically be side by side, although the new ones can be up to 100 feet away, she said.

AT&T plans to roll out its new video service this year, but the schedule depends on how soon it can get a franchise from the California Public Utilities Commission.

Alums predicted 30 boxes would be installed this year, another 30 in 2008 and 30 more in 2009. For commercial and technical reasons, there will likely never be the maximum number of 151 boxes, she said.

The state Legislature passed a law last year that removed the new video service from municipal control, although cities can still have a voice as to what goes in their right of way.

AT&T will compete with satellite and cable video services. The city will be able to collect a fee from AT&T as it does from Comcast, the local cable provider.

Van Gorder expressed exasperation that the state gave the city little influence over where the boxes go. Residents with a location problem cannot blame the city. “We didn’t do anything. It’s out of our control,” he said.

When the council voted on AT&T’s proposal, van Gorder was the lone no vote.

Councilman Peter Mott had proposed underground vaults for the new devices that allow signals from fiber-optic wires to pass into the copper wires that enter homes and businesses.

Based on information provided by AT&T, Mott conceded that such vaults were impractical. They would be too big for most locations and very expensive, he said.

Mott noted that the existing AT&T boxes for DSL service have faded into the landscape, becoming essentially invisible to most people.

Both van Gorder and Mott asked AT&T to modify the letter that it will be sent to residents notifying them that a cabinet is coming to the city’s right of way next to their homes.

Draft letters told of the proposed boxes and asked residents to call AT&T if they had any questions. Otherwise, the installation would proceed as scheduled.

This sounded too much like a done deal, Mott said. Residents should be asked directly if they have any concerns, he said.

Alums said the letter would be modified to reflect council comments.