Charter's malevolent monopoly o'er The Plains could soon be coming to an end.
Recent events in both Auburn and Opelika, as well as news from the financial sector, may help to finally bring down the cable kingpin and end its tyrannical oppression.
The city of Auburn granted Knology a non-exclusive cable franchise Nov. 3.
The city of Opelika is exploring its options to attract other franchises and even briefly consider creating its own cable company.
We had hoped the two cities could attempt to work together to solve the issue that affected both of them, but there's a higher likelihood of Neil Diamond being the spring UPC concert than there is of Auburn and Opelika actually working together to solve something.
Thankfully, we don't have to fully depend on the sister cities to stop squabbling for the Charter problem to go away.
Earlier this year, Charter filed for bankruptcy, and the company is undergoing serious financial transitions.
If they are forced to compete with other companies in this market, we should automatically see results.
Charter may even actually decide to put in an honest-to-goodness customer service desk in their branch office here, something they haven't done to date.
Any customer service request needed here is dispatched from Montgomery, and the capital city's needs come before ours.
We aren't going to assume Knology will be the perfect silver bullet.
They may prove to be comparable to Charter, but we sincerely doubt they could be worse.
However, the cable battle is the tip of a larger iceberg that could sink this area's recent growth trends.
Fast, dependable Internet access is becoming a vital need, and our current capacities may soon be unable to support the volume of usage we will begin to see.
When we pick new companies to come here, their plans for future development and system management, especially with regards to the laying of more cables, must be a consideration.
We live in a digital age, and it's time this area joined the rest of the world.
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