Communtiy Club News

BVU to sell OptiNet Division

The Bristol Herald Courier recently published two articles on BVU's potential sale of the OptiNet division to the Duffield, Virginia, telecommunications company, Sunset Digital. BVU is barred from offering television service outside its electric service area and cannot compete adequately with companies which offer phone, internet and television. They have tried but failed to get authorization to provide television service to rural communities like ours. Most recently, the Virginia Cable Television Association (political action committee) was successful in blocking an attempt by State Senator Bill Carrico to permit BVU to provide television service to our community.

BVU received an unsolicited bid from Sunset Digital, a company which would be permitted to add television service in a broader area. After negotiations were under way with Sunset, another company, Shenandoah Telecommunications, expressed a possible interest in acquiring OptiNet. (An executive of Shenandoah previously served as chairman of Virginia Cable Television Association.) Expansion of the fiber optic infrastructure was funded through grants from the US Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration, National telecom and Information Administration and the Virginia Tobacco Commission. All of the federal granting agencies, as well as The Bristol Virginia City Council, Cumberland Plateau Company, and the Virginia Tobacco Region Commission, must now study and approve the sale of OptiNet to Sunset Digital. Until then, we will not know whether television service will become available to us through the optic network now in place, but we will try to keep you informed of any progress.