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A furor over access to a National City senior citizens complex has erupted between Cox Cable San Diego and its lone local competitor. And members of the City Council are caught in the middle.
Cox now threatens to sue National City over an exclusive contract the Community Development Commission awarded the smaller company, National City Cable Co., to supply cable TV services to the building.
The squabble, likely involving fewer than 100 new cable subscribers, appears part of the larger feud raging for nearly a year between Cox and South Bay cable entrepreneur Marty Altbaum.
The matter goes to the heart of a controversial 1984 federal law limiting the ability of local governments to regulate cable companies. How it is resolved could have implications beyond National City as competition in other cable TV markets heats up.
Debate between the two companies over a two-tier pricing war for some National City cable subscribers seems likely to escalate as well.
The complex issues converged last month when the National City Community Development Commission, comprised of members of the City Council, gave final approval of an exclusive contract for National City Cable Co. to provide cable TV service to Morgan Towers, a 150-resident senior housing complex.
National City Cable is owned by Altbaum, a gadfly South Bay entrepreneur and jeweler whose cable company recently began competing with Cox in Chula Vista.
Cox General Manager Robert McRann immediately threatened to sue over the agency's action, charging that it violates the spirit of recent federal law barring municipalities from granting exclusive cable agreements.
Cox itself holds an exclusive contract to serve Kimball Towers, an adjacent seniors complex. McRann last week said he would be willing to give Altbaum access to Kimball if Cox were given the reciprocal right to wire Morgan.
If that happened, McRann said, Cox would lower monthly charges to match...