Cable Competition Headed To Chattanooga

Pretty soon you'll have a number of options on who will provide you cable.

For a long time Comcast has been the only cable provider in our area, but tonight the City Council voted to increase cable competition which they believe will lower your rates.

Pretty soon Comcast trucks won't be the only cable providers cruising through Chattanooga. Tonight City Council members granted EPB a local cable franchise agreement - meaning the power company will soon be competing against Comcast to bring you cable.

"And I'm happy to be able to pass it it will bring some competition in but it won't be unfair competition," Councilman Jack Benson says.

Benson says that's because each business will have to pay the same franchise fee even though EPB is a quasi-city run agency.

"Competition makes has to make you better so hopefully we'll have better service and again if people have a choice," Councilman Manny Rico says.

EPB representatives tell us that when you turn on your television this Christmas and leading into the spring you'll have a choice as to who provides your cable and they tell us the prices will be cheaper.

"We plan to be ten to fifteen percent lower but we have no doubt that as soon as we do that Comcast will be lower too," EPB President Harold Depriest says.

Depriest says that's the beauty of competition.

Earlier this year a spokesman for Comcast told us "Comcast will continue to offer the advanced broadband products and services that our customers expect."

And Benson believes those expectations will help create a level playing field.

"A playing field that will be competitive enough to try to improve services and maintain as low as possible rates," Benson says.

And that playing field looks like it will get even more crowded because AT&T plans to get into the cable business - they tell us they want to spend nearly $400 million in Tennessee.