The Lexington Fayette Urban County Council last night approved a resolution giving Spectrum Cable and its parent company Charter Communications a month to respond to a list of service complaints or face fines.
Council Member Bill Farmer says, despite a public forum in August, complaints have continued, citing intermittent broadband service, problems with channel accessibility, and unexplained charges.
Farmer believes penalties may be leveled at some point.
“That’s why we wanted to start the clock running tonight. It would come to fines. While they may not be sizeable to a company of that size, it’s off the bottom line and it comes to us,” said Farmer.
Council Member Angela Evans says the local government is obligated to take what she called “the next step.” She says Lexington’s size works against the possibility of another cable provider coming to town. But, Evans would like to see some competition.
“We’re not a competitive market but it doesn’t mean that someone might not take a chance or another company might not take a chance and say ‘well hey we can cut you a deal’,” noted Evans. “I’m hopeful that maybe it would prompt some competition.”
Evans says it’s also possible more people in the Lexington community will subscribe to satellite services.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Our story about Council’s action on Tuesday gave the impression that the resolution was final at that point. FINAL APPROVAL was actually given by Council at Thursday night’s full session.
