At the Jan. 9, 2018 Hernando County Commission meeting Chairman Steve Champion challenged staff to seek out other companies to compete with Spectrum’s cable/internet services in Hernando. He was responding to complaints on social media from people who were under the impress that the Commission had granted Spectrum (formerly Brighthouse) a monopoly.
For many years, the cable companies and local governments used to enter into franchise agreements. These agreements would allow the cable companies right of way access for installing their lines and in return they would often provide a local government channel. Many of these agreements were exclusive, which would create a monopoly for cable services.
According to the Hernando County website,
“Prior to 2007, the regulation of cable television providers was governed by the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which gave local governments authority to issue franchises to cable television providers. Hernando County currently has two such franchises, which are non-exclusive (meaning other cable providers could have applied for franchises for the same areas). The two cable providers are Bright House, with a countywide non-exclusive franchise, and Florida Cable, which serves a very small area in the northeast portion of the county (Istachatta-Nobleton).
In an effort to expedite competition among cable providers and thereby increase consumer choices and reduce rates, in 2007, the Florida Legislature passed the Consumer Choice Act. This legislation transferred the authority to issue cable television franchises from local governments to the State of Florida Department of State. All franchise agreements existing at the time of passage of the law in 2007 would remain in place until their expiration.
Hernando County’s House Franchise Agreement with Bright House Networks (expired) in August, 2012. The Florida Cable agreement expires in 2019.”
Assistant County Attorney Jon Jouben remarked, “We do not have the ability to discourage telecoms from using our right of way or to offer financial incentives for companies to do so.”
“We have to do something, our citizens are not happy with it at all,” said Chairman Champion.
Jouben explained that the situation is the exclusive jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission.
The county commissioners agreed it would be beneficial to have county staff reach out to competing cable companies to tell them about citizen complaints with Spectrum being the only internet or cable provider for the area.
“ATT is here locally,” said Sossamon, “I’ve reached out to them before…” He cautioned that ATT does typically require a 2 year contract, but he said they would reach out to them again.
There are some smaller companies that provide competing broadband options, but they rely on over the air technologies that require line of site or similar to provide access. According to the FCC broadband map, most of Hernando County has access to broadband, but Spectrum/Brighthouse cable provides much higher speeds and lower latency than DSL or Satellite options. In addition to these options, cell phone data also can be used to provide access to the Internet.