SureWest won’t expand into Prairie Village in 2013

SureWest crews laid fiber in conduits in Fairway neighborhoods this summer. They won’t be doing the same in Prairie Village in the coming year.

SureWest Communications informed Prairie Village officials this week that the cable and internet provider would not be expanding service into the city in 2013.

The news comes as a disappointment to city administrators — and many Prairie Village residents, no doubt — who had hoped to see more competition in the area. Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse are the only providers who offer multi-channel television and web packages in the city, and some parts are served by Time Warner Cable only.

City administrator Quinn Bennion sent a letter to SureWest in July formally expressing the city’s desire to have additional providers.

Reporting the news to the Prairie Village city council on Monday, Bennion noted that Consolidated Communications’ acquisition of SureWest earlier this year appears to have played into halting plans for the company to build out into new service areas. SureWest expanded service into Fairway this year, and had hinted that it was ready to move into Prairie Village soon.

Bennion said SureWest officials had told him that the company would not be doing any build outs in the Kansas City metro area in 2013.

“It’s bad news,” Bennion said. “But we’re not being singled out. They aren’t expanding anywhere in the Kansas City area.”

Bennion said that, should SureWest ever decide to move into the city, there would be no bureaucratic barriers.

“They could start building as soon as they want in Prairie Village,” Bennion said. “They have an existing statewide franchise agreement that [Prairie Village] signed onto in 2008.”