Telecom firm spreads its wings in area

Falcon Broadband Inc. will provide cable television and Internet access services to all residents of the first neighborhood in the Banning Lewis Ranch under an agreement announced Tuesday.

The small Colorado Springs-based telecommunications company also will offer similar services, although not on an exclusive basis, next month to residents of more than 300 homes in the Flying Horse Ranch development in northern Colorado Springs, a company official said.

The announcements represent a shift in strategy for Falcon, which won a franchise in November from Colorado Springs voters while saying it planned to first serve residents in an area bordered by Academy and Union boulevards, Austin Bluffs Parkway and Platte Avenue.

“This is the location that makes prudent sense from a business standpoint,” said Tim Coutts, Falcon Broadband’s chief operating and financial officer. “We hope to extend our services into the rest of the city from those beachheads as we go forward.”

Residents of Northtree, a 321-acre subdivision southeast of Woodmen and Marksheffel roads that will eventually have about 1,000 homes, will pay $42.50 a month to the Banning Lewis Ranch Metropolitan District for at least 55 cable channels and Internet access.

Northtree residents will be able to add Internet-based telephone service for $29 a month as well as other telecommunications options ranging from high-definition channels, digital video recorders and digital programming for additional fees, Coutts said.

The deal includes up to two other Banning Lewis Ranch subdivisions and has options to include more of the 21,000-acre development. Banning Lewis Ranch Management Co. had been negotiating with providers for a year before signing the agreement this month.

The management firm selected Falcon because it agreed to build a fiber optic connection to every home in the subdivision to provide state-of-the-art telecommunications services, said John Cassiani, vice president of project operations for Banning Lewis.

Existing shareholders in Falcon will finance construction of fiber optic lines to and within Northtree, Coutts said, but he declined to identify them. Construction has begun on the lines, and the company will begin connecting customers early next year, he said.

Falcon President Randy DeYoung said the company was forced to change its launch strategy because fiber optic lines along Academy Boulevard didn’t meet the standards required to work with the equipment the company has agreed to buy from Hitachi Telecom USA Inc.

“It became apparent, even though we wanted to do that area, it would have produced a less-than-desirable result,” DeYoung said. “That area is still on our radar screen, but it will be late next year until we can extend a new fiber optic line there.”

The Banning Lewis Ranch makes sense as a launch point for Falcon, Coutts said, because it is close to the company’s control center and satellite farm in the Falcon area, where it serves about 3,000 customers with cable television, Internet access and telephone services.