GOSHEN—The Goshen Town Board held a public hearing and heard a presentation on Aug. 26 by Frontier Communications in its bid to compete with Time Warner, the only cable TV provider in the town, for cable television customers.
That day the Board also approved the company’s franchise agreement, which now goes to the state’s Public Service Commission for final approval. The company said in a statement that the town is the first municipality in New York to approve a franchise agreement for their cable TV service.
During the town’s public meeting, Frontier representatives noted that the company will upgrade equipment housed within its existing buildings without any disturbance to public rights-of-way.
The franchise fee the company will pay will generate additional revenue for town.
Time Warner Cable sent a letter to the Town Board asking that Frontier not be allowed to offer the service, said Deb Bogdanski, general manager of the company’s southern New York region.
“It should not come as a surprise to anyone,” Bogdanski said, “that the incumbent provider would prefer that we not be able to offer our services and compete with them here.”
At the close of the hearing, Town Supervisor Doug Bloomfield said competition would benefit town residents and that was one of the reasons he approved the bid.
Service and Pricing
Bogdanski gave an overview of the service and told the Board that Frontier will spend two years building the infrastructure needed to serve approximately 50 percent of the town. The service will come to a station in Monroe and be distributed throughout the town through fiber optic cables to homes.
