At its November 6th meeting, the Town Council heard a presentation to consider a potential second cable franchise provider for Town residents.
Emmitsburg currently has a cable franchise agreement with Comcast to provide residents phone, cable TV, and Internet access. Shentel Communications is looking to gain access to the Emmitsburg market, but to do so, would require them to gain utility right of ways to string their fiber optic wires according to representative Kirk Costco.
Based in Virginia, Shentel offers Fiber To The Home (FTTH) to 182,000 homes through its product name, Glo Fiber, Costco said. Shentel currently has cable franchise agreements with the city of Frederick, Middletown, and has recently signed with Thurmont, he said.
Costco also presented an overview of Shentel's services including internet, video and phone. Shentel offers ultra high-speed bandwidth and symmetrical speeds, meaning downloads and uploads are the same speeds, he said. "That is a lot different than traditional cable company offers," he said.
Shentel is hoping to sign an agreement with the Town that will allow them to use the public utility right of ways. Their Optic fiber cables would follow the existing utilities, mostly power lines, Costco said. If there was a development with private easements, Shentel would have to negotiate access separately, he said.
Through the agreement, Shentel would make the best effort to serve the majority of the community, Costco said. "Generally, in small communities, it is a large percentage of the community," he said.
Construction would commence 18-24 months after the franchise was awarded, and all construction would go through the Town’s permitting process so the Town would be aware of where wires would be strung and when, he said.
Moving forward with the agreement would require a public hearing in which the Council can gauge community input as well as get more project details, Town Manager Cathy Willets said.
Council President Amy Boehman noted the benefits of competitive company pricing and suggested surveying residents and community to gauge interest, and then moving forward on the request based upon resident input at a future meetings.
