Falcon will merge with Englewood company

   Falcon Broadband Inc., which won a franchise in 2006 to offer cable television to Colorado Springs residents, has agreed to merge with an Englewood-based company.

   Prime Time Communications LLC, which provides television, calling and Internet access to 4,000 customers in Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada and Utah, hopes to complete the merger within three months, said Todd Swanson, a company spokesman.

   The deal should result in faster expansion of Falcon's cable television, phone and Internet access services in the Springs, Swanson said. Prime Time has not yet developed detailed plans to roll out Falcon's services in additional neighborhoods, he said.

   Falcon, which serves about 3,000 customers mostly in northern El Paso County, began serving the Flying Horse development in December under its city franchise, returning competition to the city's cable television industry for the first time in nearly 19 years.

   The company also signed an agreement in September to provide cable television and Internet access through fiberoptic lines to all residents of Northtree, the first neighborhood in the Banning-Lewis Ranch, where residents began moving into houses in January.

   Under that agreement, Northtree residents pay $42.40 a month to the Banning Lewis Metropolitan District for at least 55 cable channels and Internet access. The deal includes up to two other subdivisions and options to include more of the 21,000-acre development.

   "This represents a great opportunity for us to move into Colorado Springs and expand on the fiber they already have in the ground and push it out more quickly," Swanson said of the merger. "We will be expanding (our network) more aggressively" than Falcon's current plans.

   Prime Time also plans to use its technical expertise with Internet-based television service to help Falcon solve technical problems that have delayed offering similar services to its customers. Falcon now sells traditional cable programming to its customers.

   The transaction has been in negotiations for several months and is a result of a previous business relationship between Randy DeYoung, Falcon's founder and president, and Mike Woods, vice president of business development for Prime Time, Swanson said.

   Prime Time serves residents of two downtown Denver condominium projects, the Spring Valley Ranch development in Elizabeth, the Cougar Canyon development in Trinidad and other projects in Wichita, Kan.; Biloxi, Miss.; Big Sky, Mont.; Henderson, Nev.; and St. George, Utah.

   Jim Marshall, developer of Spring Valley Ranch, started Prime Time in 2005 to provide Internetbased television, calling and access to residential developments.

   Falcon was started by DeYoung in 2003 to serve customers in the Falcon area and a year later acquired SunWest Communications, which provided television, calling and Internet access services to residents of the upscale King's Deer development.