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Bench Handout Unfinished Business - 10A Bradley November 30, 2015 The Honorable David Grant Mayor, City of Arden Hills 125 West Highway 96 Arden Hills,MN 55112 Re: Comcast Letter Dated November 30, 2015 Dear Mayor Grant: As you know, I represent the North Suburban Communications Commission, in which the City of Arden Hills is a member. Around 3:30 p.m.today, I received a copy of a letter that Comcast sent to you related to the proposed CenturyLink cable franchise. It's somewhat surprising and disappointing that Comcast would send such a letter claiming competitive inequities today even though there was a Commission meeting in October,where the proposed CenturyLink franchise was discussed, and another public hearing earlier in the month at the City. Of course that does not even include the other public meetings where other member cities of the NSCC took action to approve the CenturyLink cable franchise. Despite the 11th hour nature of the Comcast letter, I'd like to briefly address the concerns raised. The first issue raised relates to how the proposed CenturyLink cable franchise addresses the build out of the City. The exact concern is somewhat unclear from the letter as it refers to having "no discussion of what may be a reasonable requirement for [X]..." I don't know what "[X]" is referring to, so I can only conclude that this is some type of form letter being used to challenge CenturyLink cable franchises generally. As far as the proposed CenturyLink cable franchise is concerned, it would grant a franchise to CenturyLink to serve the entire corporate boundaries of the City,which is the same as Comcast's commitment. The proposed franchise also acknowledges that CenturyLink has already constructed a legacy communications system throughout the City and will be upgrading its system to enable the company to provide cable television service. CenturyLink's build-out commitments are based on the market-based success of CenturyLink, which the FCC has deemed to be reasonable. That is addressed in the proposed franchise,the Staff Report and the Staff Memo that was in the packet of the Council's last meeting. The second concern raised by Comcast relates to Access Television funding. Comcast provides funding through grants,which it then recovers from subscribers in the form of a PEG Fee. CenturyLink will provide the same PEG Funding on a per subscriber basis. Subscribers in the City will be subject to the same PEG Fee by both companies, which we believe is fair and reasonable and is not more favorable or less burdensome to either company,particularly in light Bradley Hagen & Gullikson, LLC 1976 Wooddale Drive I Suite 3A I Woodbury,MN 55125 (651)379-0900 1 BradleyLawMN.com