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CenturyLink will have to wait at least a month to get a license from Salt Lake County to provide high-speed Internet broadband service, including cable television, in unincorporated areas.
The County Council agreed Tuesday to a request by Comcast, CenturyLink's competitor, to delay issuance of the license until county attorneys can review its terms in comparison to those in Comcast's license, which covers the provision of similar services.
Comcast embraces competition from CenturyLink as well as other entertainment providers such as Netflix and Hulu, said Steve Proper, Sandy-based director of government affairs in the company's mountain region.
"All of us competitors benefit from that environment as long as we're all treated equally," he added, asking the council for more time to work with county staff to ensure that CenturyLink and Comcast receive equal treatment from the county. "We want to make sure [they face] the same set of requirements."
Without comment, the council granted the extension.
At the previous week's meeting, the council said it would approve the license after learning CenturyLink was making a sizable investment in the unincorporated county to upgrade its fiber-optic lines to provide broadband services at speeds of up to 1 gigabit per second.
That high speed allow users to stream high-definition video content, have enough capacity to handle multiple high-volume users in a single residence or business, and can support online gaming and home-automation systems.
The lines also have the capacity to carry cable television. Federal and state law authorizes the county to grant licenses to cable-television providers who require the use of public rights-of-way to install fiber-optic lines.
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