Cable TV provider asks for piece of local pie

GAZETTE--March 17, 2007

By WAYNE HEILMAN THE GAZETTE

A tiny Colorado Springs telecommunications company would become the city’s third cable television provider if voters approve a franchise on the April 3 ballot mailed to voters this week.

Porchlight Communications Inc., which wants the franchise, now provides digital telephone and Internet access service to about 150 customers in a handful of local subdivisions. The company wants to offer television services and expand well beyond those subdivisions.

“We are asking the voters to create the environment for competition that will put the power of choice in their hands,” said Robert Athey, who spent eight years as an executive for fiber-optic provider ICG Communications Inc. before starting Porchlight in 2004.

The company has raised $3 million from a variety of investors that include Outside Plan Engineering Consultants Corp., which lays fiber-optic cable for Porchlight, and developer Jim Morley, who is developing several of the subdivisions already served by Porchlight.

That $3 million is just a fraction of what Athey said Porchlight will need to build out its network to the rest of the city. If the company gets a franchise, he plans to begin raising $20 million to serve up to several thousand additional homes in the city.

The vote on Porchlight’s franchise comes five months after voters approved a similar agreement by a nearly 3-to-1 margin with Falcon Broadband Inc. Falcon plans to begin providing service in May to an area southwest of Academy Boulevard and Austin Bluffs Parkway.

Comcast Corp. and its predecessor companies have been the only cable television providers in Colorado Springs since 1988, although voters approved a franchise in 2000 for WideOpenWest Holdings Inc. That company never provided service.

Porchlight wants to build a fiber-optic line to every customer’s home, which Athey estimates will cost about $2,500 a customer. Those lines would be used to provide television programming, digital telephone service, Internet access and home security monitoring.

Athey said Porchlight has signed contracts with three of about a dozen fiber optic network operators in the Springs to provide a connection to the Internet and other communications networks. He said the contracts bar him from disclosing the operators’ identities.

If voters approve the franchise, Athey said Porchlight plans to begin offering service in an area near Flintridge Drive and Academy Boulevard, close to one of the fiberoptic lines with enough potential customers to the company to provide service profitably.

Outside Plan Engineers and Consultants will build out Porchlight’s network and Precision Communications Inc. will handle customer service calls, but Athey said Porchlight will handle its own billing and expand its seven-person staff to 27 by year’s end.

Porchlight now charges $127 a month for 200 television channels, 5 megabit-persecond Internet access, unlimited local and long-distance calling and home-security monitoring. The company buys satellite television service and resells it to customers.

Porchlight may not be the last cable provider to seek a franchise in the Springs. Telephone giant Qwest Communications International Inc. sought a franchise last year to offer television service in the Springs but failed to reach an agreement with city officials.

Orange Broadband, a North Carolina company that provides cable service to Fort Carson and seven cities in Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, recently contacted Colorado Springs officials about a franchise, but company officials couldn’t be reached for comment.

Download

Click here to download a PDF version of this document.