Comcast has sued the Vermont Public Utilities Commission (PUC) over what it alleges are unreasonable and harmful conditions linked to its cable franchise renewal last January.
The move comes a month after the agency denied Comcast’s request to reconsider conditions to its 11-year permit, including constructing at least 550 miles of line extensions into un-cabled areas.
In its complaint, filed Monday in the U.S. District Court in Vermont, Comcast asserts that the Vermont PUC exceeded its authority under federal and Vermont law and trampled on the company’s First Amendment rights.
Specifically, Comcast cites demands related to immediate engineering changes to its Vermont cable systems to provide program-specific scheduling information for all local public, educational, and governmental (PEG) access channels that would cost approximately $4 million.
“The VPUC acknowledged these significant costs, but imposed the new condition despite overwhelming evidence from Comcast cable subscribers in Vermont that they did not want to pay any additional fee for this PEG-related IPG feature,” the complaint reads. “In fact, not one surveyed subscriber affirmatively supported paying for it. No other franchising authority in the country has ordered Comcast to make such costly system redesigns or to incur such ongoing additional operating costs.”
Comcast also took issue with the requirement to build 550 miles of new cable lines, “without regard to any specific consumer demand or unserved area and in disregard of well-established line extension policies and guidelines.”
“The VPUC claimed that it could impose the blanket 550 mile line extension mandate on Comcast because it is the ‘largest’ cable operator in Vermont and can afford it,” Comcast says in its filing. “These discriminatory conditions contravene federal and state law, mount to undue speaker-based burdens on Comcast’s protected speech under the First Amendment.”
The mile line extension requirement only applies to Comcast, the company asserts, and not to other cable operators in the state such as Charter or Burlington Telecom.
Comcast contends that the conditions will impede its ability to compete for cable subscribers in the state and will hurt Vermont customers.
