City of Wilmington News and Information

For Immediate Release
Thursday, November 20, 2008

Verizon Delaware Files for Wilmington TV Franchise; Filing Does Not Meet City’s Standards for Granting a Franchise

(Read Verizon Cable Franchise Application)

Wilmington Mayor James M. Baker, City Council President Theodore Blunt and Council President-Elect Norman Griffiths today expressed disappointment that Verizon Delaware has filed an inadequate franchise application with the City seeking permission to provide cable television service to City residents.

The City officials said they and many city residents were looking forward to the franchise filing because Verizon promises its FIOS TV service would compete with Comcast, potentially improving service and saving City residents money on their monthly cable bill. Comcast is currently the only cable TV provider with a formal franchise agreement with the City, delivering television cable service to approximately 20,000 Wilmington customers under terms of a 23-year franchise agreement that expires in 2010.

Mayor Baker, Council President Blunt and Council President-Elect Griffiths said the City explained to Verizon during informal discussions over the past few months that a Verizon franchise application must contain provisions adequate to address citizens’ cable television needs before the City would approve a franchise agreement. In spite of those discussions during which the City and Verizon were in agreement on the bulk of the City’s franchise conditions, Verizon chose today to submit an application that Verizon knows is not acceptable to the City, which makes it unlikely that the City will approve a Verizon franchise.

Specifically, the City says Verizon refuses to agree to three important terms the City needs to protect consumers:

• The company will not agree to guarantee performance of its promises in the franchise agreement if Verizon were to transfer the franchise to another Verizon subsidiary company. The City wants assurances that any affiliate transfer will be capable of performing all terms of the franchise agreement, such as a required five-year build-out of the FIOS system throughout all areas of Wilmington;

• The company will not promise to comply with customer service standards recommended by the Federal Communications Commission. The company refuses to accept standards such as responding to a wide-area system outage within four-hours and to respond to written consumer billing inquiries within 30 days;

• The company will not agree to “liquidated damages” that would guarantee Verizon builds out its cable TV system as promised ($1,000 per day of delay) under the franchise agreement, and maintain the system’s technical performance up to FCC standards ($500 per incident). The “liquidated damages” the City has demanded are already set forth in the Wilmington City Code.

City Council President Blunt said the three items that Wilmington is seeking in the Verizon franchise agreement are based on protection and service to the public, and are items that Verizon has previously agreed to in seeking franchises in other communities.

Blunt said the guarantee performance language is contained in Verizon’s franchise application in both Montgomery County and Anne Arundel County in Maryland. He said Verizon agreed with the FCC customer service language in its franchise application in Washington DC, and it included the liquidated damages language in its franchise agreement with the City of Philadelphia.

The public can review or download a copy of the Verizon application by visiting the City’s website at www.WilmingtonDE.gov or may obtain a copy by calling the City Council Office at (302) 576-2140.

The public is encouraged to offer comments concerning the Verizon application by sending written correspondence to City Council President Theodore Blunt, 800 North French Street, Wilmington, Delaware, 19801 or by e-mailing comments to verizonapplication@WilmingtonDE.gov

Council President Blunt said a previously announced meeting of the Wilmington Cable, Video and Telecommunications Commission to review the anticipated Verizon franchise filing that was scheduled for Noon tomorrow is postponed.

The Council President said the City will now determine a new schedule for public review of the Verizon franchise application as filed and will announce that schedule as soon as possible.

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