Verizon failed to “play by the same rules” that apply to other Montgomery County cable providers and has not filed an application to offer services, said county Chief Administrative Officer Bruce Romer in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit filed Thursday.
Verizon filed the suit in the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt. It asks the court to force the county to negotiate a deal within 60 days that will allow Verizon to offer cable service in the county.
The lawsuit contends that the county has made numerous unlawful demands during a year of negotiations, including that Verizon set aside 65 channels for public, educational and government programming, although the county only has 11 such channels. It also contends that the county is demanding Verizon pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to cover fees the county owes to private consultants and attorneys.
Montgomery is the only area in the Washington region that has not allowed Verizon a chance to offer services, the lawsuit said.
“Verizon regrets having to take this step, but the county’s unlawful demands leave us no other choice,” John Frantz, Verizon’s vice president and associate general counsel, said in a statement.
County officials learned of the lawsuit late Thursday, said spokeswoman Donna Bigler.
“I do know that we’ve received a huge stack of materials and our attorneys are in the process of going through it,” Bigler said Friday. “What’s in the lawsuit I don’t really know.”
The majority of the county is currently served by Comcast as well as one smaller carrier, RCN, which was formerly Starpower.
The process by which cable companies can apply to operate has been “spelled out in the Montgomery County Code since 1982,” Romer said in a statement issued late Friday.
Romer said the County Code complies with federal law and has been tested in the courts.
“While Verizon and the County have met, Verizon has not yet submitted a franchise application to the County, so they are challenging a process which applies to their competitors but which they have not yet officially entered,” Romer wrote. “This lawsuit is evidence that Verizon is unwilling to play by the same rules that apply to their cable competitors.”
