HolstonConnect Files FCC Complaint
4:18PM March 07, 2019
HolstonConnect, a subsidiary of Holston Electric Cooperative
that aims to bring gigabit Internet to thousands of unserved residents in rural
East Tennessee, has filed a Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
retransmission consent complaint against Nexstar Media Group, currently one of
the largest broadcast television companies in the United States.
In the March 4, 2019 complaint, HolstonConnect alleges that
Nexstar violated FCC rules by failing to negotiate in good faith toward an
agreement enabling HolstonConnect to deliver essential local broadcast TV
content to HolstonConnect’s “triple play” customers. HolstonConnect’s complaint states that
Nexstar is demanding exorbitant rates and carriage of multiple unwanted
channels while refusing to engage in meaningful negotiations.
“Without prompt and forceful remedial action by the FCC,
HolstonConnect’s ability to deploy gigabit infrastructure and services in rural
East Tennessee will be hamstrung,” HolstonConnect told the FCC on Monday.
Holston Electric Cooperative’s CEO, Jimmy Sandlin, said,
“When we asked for rate concessions that would put us at a level playing field
with other operators in our market, Nexstar’s negotiator continued to demand
significantly higher rates and said, ‘It’s just TV.’ To our customers and our community, access to
high-speed broadband is a lot more than ‘just TV.’ This is critical infrastructure for our
businesses and our residents. Access to
modern communications infrastructure is to rural America today what access to
electricity was in the 1930s.”
Holston Electric Cooperative is headquartered in
Rogersville, Tennessee, and currently serves approximately 30,500 customers
with electricity in a territory that is rural and sparsely populated. Its board
approved plans to deploy a state of the art, “fiber to the home” communications
network as an upgrade to its electric grid, and launched a communications
company, HolstonConnect, to offer triple play services (video, voice, and
Internet) to Holston Electric Cooperative’s entire service territory. Holston’s service territory includes 10,000
customers who currently have no wireline access to high speed Internet. HolstonConnect is a recipient of federal
Connect America Fund Phase II funding, in support of its development of broadband
infrastructure and services in the East Tennessee region.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Jim Baller
Baller Stokes & Lide, P.C.
(202) 833-3301
jim@baller.com