Henderson cable skirmish delayed

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:32 a.m.

Cox Communications has temporarily thwarted an upstart cable provider from competing against it in a new Henderson master-planned community.

The Henderson City Council was scheduled this week to award a limited cable franchise for Las Vegas-based Kelley Technologies to serve Tuscany Village, a 1,900-home community near Lake Las Vegas.

But the city opted Tuesday to postpone any decision until Dec. 13 to give Cox attorneys more time to review Kelley's proposed franchise agreement.

Kelley General Manager John White said he understands Henderson's long-standing relationship with Cox as the franchise holder for the entire city and Henderson's desire to give the cable company time to review the document. But he added that the delay in laying cable to serve the development will cost the company money.

"We would rather move forward," White said. "We don't see the need for the delay, but we want to make sure we give Cox every fair opportunity. (Cox officials) want to protect their interests."

The delay appears to give Cox more time to install its cable network for Tuscany. Service is expected to be available in December. Until it obtains a franchise to lay cable, Kelley, which won a developer's bid to wire Tuscany for a bulk-rate discount, is serving about 50 homes in the new development with free satellite service.

Cox opposes Henderson granting a Tuscany franchise to Kelley without compelling the company to serve other parts of the community.

"There should be fair competition," said Steve Schorr, Cox's vice president of public and government affairs. "But they shouldn't be able to redline an economically advantageous community."

State laws prevent Henderson from allowing a cable company to have an exclusive franchise, said Mark Backus, Henderson's franchise officer. For the city to reject Kelley's franchise, it would have to find that granting it would not be in the public interest, he said.

Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers said competition will be good for Tuscany residents.

"Competition is always good no matter what the business," Cyphers said. "It makes sure everyone provides superior service at a quality price."

Formed in 1988 by Michael Kelley, Kelley Technologies has designed and wired many Las Vegas sports and race books. It was acquired in September by a subsidiary of Network Installation Corp., which trades on the OTC Bulletin Board,

This is Kelley's first Nevada venture into providing cable service to a master-planned community, and the company has no plans to seek out other developments to provide service, White said.

"We don't see ourselves as competition with Cox on any other level than Tuscany," White said. "They are making it out bigger than it is at this point. They see us as a threat, but we are a little fish. I think they need to be more worried about phone companies competing against them."

Brian Wargo can be reached at 259-4011 or at wargo@lasvegassun.com.