Quote:
Originally Posted by Mack184
Actually..I am correct. Please read the link below. Cable companies MUST be awarded by municipal franchise and there is under law..one to a customer. The municipal franchise is usually awarded at the lowest level of local government (township or village) but is sometimes awarded on a county-wide basis.
As to why you have the option for both ComCast & Brighthouse in your specific area there are a couple of possibilities. First, since TV is an unincorported community that spans 3 counties and operates with a patchwork of semi-legal CDDs it is possible that there has been some sort of agreement made where both the CDD and the local governing entity (Sumter County?) have granted franchises to competing entities, which is exactly what the Cable Act was designed to eliminate.
Secondly, it is possible that some bright laywer on the payroll of Brighthouse has managed to torture the english language into (at least on paper) making Brighthouse something other than the cable company that it is, thus getting around the municipal franchise law.
In the current situation you are fortunate. But I would think that in your specific area that currently extra available option might not always be available.
FRANCHISE RENEWAL |
Quote from original post:
You have to find out which cable company serves your area. (There's only one per area) If for example your area is served by ComCast, you won't be able to get service from Brighthouse. Your choice would be ComCast, Century Link or one of the Sat-Casters such as Direct-TV or DishNet. If your area is served by Brighthouse you won't be able to get service from ComCast. Quote
The statement above is INCORRECT. I did and do disagree with the statement above that both Comcast and Brighthouse cannot operate in the same service area. Come over to this area south of 466A and see for yourself if you like. ,
I spent 35 + years in the business and deregulation has changed many things of which a lot of people may not be aware. Telephone companies could not provide the content and then the bonded pair technology wasn't available for copper were some of the reasons telephone companies could not get into the business a while back. Fiber was just beginning to be deployed and there was not enough in place to provide entertainment services. No need to worry Centurylink TV, Brighthouse, and Comcast are here to stay as this is a common arrangement if they want to spend the money to put in the network and take a chance on being able to lure enough customers to their service to make it profitable. They do not have to do anything except spend a lot of $$ to build a network and they certainly won't abandon their investment and disconnect all their customers. Centurylink must provide service for telephone since they are the provider of last resort regulated carrier for this area so it only makes sense for them to try and provide entertainment services as well since they have to build a network for telephone service anyway.
A lot of the local electric companies have started to try and provide CATV as well since they have the poles in place already and only have to place the COAX or fiber cable. Some areas have the electic company, two cable providers, and their electrical service provider all able to sell them entertainment services. Cell antennas are now placed on high voltage tranmission line towers which was unheard of just a short while ago.