A research study was conducted for the Office of Telecommunications Policy to determine the capital outlay and operating costs of community antenna television (CATV) systems. Six major tasks were undertaken: 1) the development of a body of technical information about CATV; 2) the production of a complete work breakdown structure; 3) a cost analysis of headend components; 4) a cost analysis of distribution components; 5) an operating cost analysis; and 6) the development of a cost handbook. This procedure allows one to build and compare detailed cost models for alternative kinds of CATV systems. The cost handbook makes it possible for policy-makers to recognize what inputs are needed to develop system costs, to proceed in heuristic fashion to make simplifying assumptions, and to construct a complete ten-year system cost estimate. Six appendixes provide highly detailed information about costs and technical standards, as well as a short list of reference works. (PB)