LAWTON — Lawton residents could see their options for cable and broadband internet service expand in the future.
The Lawton City Council directed city staff on Dec. 14 to draw up a cable franchise agreement with Clarity Telecom, a South Dakota-based telecommunications company doing business as Bluepeak.
Bluepeak is currently building the support system it needs to serve Enid, Perry and Stillwater and has franchise agreements in other Oklahoma cities, including Elk City, Clinton and Weatherford, said spokesman Desi Stoops.
“Essentially, our company is going to be investing about 250 (million) to 300 million dollars within the state of Oklahoma,” he said.
Stoops noted that Lawton’s franchise agreement with Fidelity Communications is non-exclusive, meaning the city reserves the right to enter into a similar agreement with any competing cable company.
Franchise agreements allow private telecommunications and utility companies to use public rights of way to install and maintain support systems for their services. In exchange, the city receives a franchise fee.
Stoops urged the council to consider approving a franchise agreement with Bluepeak.
“We would be ecstatic to actually come and build out in the city of Lawton,” he said.
Stoops estimated that Bluepeak would need two to three years to build the support system it needs to provide service in Lawton. He added that the infrastructure alone would be an investment of more than $30 million.
In other business, the council authorized the city to take legal action aimed at recovering about $67,000 in back rent from the former owner of Central Plaza.
The FIRES Innovation Science and Technology Accelerator has encountered problems in trying to collect outstanding rent from the mall’s former owners, the Kohan Retail Investment Group, said Kaley Patterson Dorsey, marketing and communications manager for the city. She said Kohan finalized the sale of the mall to the city in January 2021, but the company improperly continued receiving rent from some tenants as late as June.
“Since those rents were assigned to the city of Lawton when it purchased the mall from the Kohan Group, the city is now contemplating taking legal action to enforce those rights on FISTA’s behalf,” Dorsey said in an email.