EPB filed a motion Friday asking the Davidson County Chancery Court to dismiss the lawsuit brought by the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association that seeks to block EPB from providing advanced broadband services to the Chattanooga area through EPB's recently approved Fiber to the Home business plan.
EPB officials said they continue to maintain that EPB "has complied with all of the requirements of the state Cable Act, and that the Cable Association's claims are without merit."
"This lawsuit is clearly an effort by the Cable Association to protect market share of its member companies in the provision of cable and Internet services to Chattanooga area residents,” said Harold DePriest, EPB’s president and CEO. “More competition in this area means less money for the cable companies, but even more importantly, it means more choices and better options for our community.”
He said the motion filed today sets forth several grounds in support of EPB's request that the court dismiss the lawsuit.
Those grounds include:
· "The Cable Association's complaint does not raise a viable cause of action because its claims are purely speculative. The sole basis for the lawsuit is the Cable Association's unsupported assumption that EPB will violate the Cable Act at some point in the future by illegally subsidizing its cable and internet operations with electric system revenues. EPB has not violated any law, and has no intention to do so. No lawsuit may be brought until a violation has actually occurred.
· "The lawsuit asks the Court to overrule the state Comptroller's determination that EPB's business plan was feasible; however, the Cable Association failed to follow state law administrative procedures for challenging the Comptroller's actions.
· "The Cable Association does not have standing to bring the lawsuit because the Cable Act gives the right to bring actions exclusively to individual cable companies operating within EPB’s service area and not to statewide associations such as the Cable Association."
Chancellor Ellen Lyle will hear EPB's motion on March 7.