Click!ing Outside of Tacoma
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/10/2003 7:22:00 AM
Click! Network, the broadband offshoot of Tacoma (Wash.) Power, has been granted its first cable franchise outside of its home city.
On Jan. 6, the City Council of University Place, Wash., unanimously approved a 10-year franchise for the utility. Click! already has part of its redundant backbone in the streets of the city, according to spokeswoman Diane Lachel.
The expansion still has to be approved by the board of the utility, which has scheduled its vote for Jan. 22.
The municipal cable operation boasts 21,500 customers in Tacoma, a 31 percent penetration rate. Its success comes at the expense of the incumbent cable operator, which is transitioning from AT&T Broadband to Comcast Corp.
The utility estimated that it can achieve a 24 percent penetration rate in the expansion community, where it will pass 13,000 homes.
The primary impetus for the expansion by the power company is to extend fiber optic to power customers outside of Tacoma so that in the future, the utility can power on and off remotely and monitor power consumption, Lachel said.
"It's a capital investment we'd make either way," she added.
Click! has a $15 million budget to use during the next two years to fund the University Place expansion and possible line extensions into Fircrest and Lakewood, Wash. No negotiations have taken place with the latter two communities, Lachel said.
If the power board approves the expansion, Click! may begin construction in the new franchise in February.
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