Shortly after agreeing to a deal that will transfer cable properties with about 40,000 subscribers to BCI Broadband, Allegiance Communications will shutter more than 20 systems in Kansas that were not part of the transaction, according to a report by a Kansas TV station.
According to KSN-TV in Conway Springs, Kan., Allegiance has notified more than 20 towns across the state that it will no longer offer service. In a letter to Conway Springs residents, Allegiance said it had made the decision because it could no longer afford to provide service, the station said.
"This was not an easy decision for us, nor is it one that we came to hastily. The costs of doing business in Conway Springs can no longer be profitable," Allegiance said in the letter, according to KSN-TV.
The station said that Allegiance is shutting down similar systems in other small Kansas towns like Chetopa, Sharon and Harper.
Officials at Allegiance could not be reached for comment.
Conway Springs has about 1,250 residents. According to KSN-TV, the town has been trying to reach Southern Kansas Telephone Co, to see if it would provide cable service to the area, but the company has not expressed any interest in doing so yet.
In January, Allegiance struck a deal to sell systems in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Kansas and Missouri with about 40,000 subscribers to BCI Broadband, a new company headed by former Bresnan Communications executives Jeff DeMond and Andrew Kober.
In an e-mail message BCI said that it agreed to purchase the vast majority of Allegiance’s systems and that the ones not included in the deal are being shut down by Allegiance. Those systems, BCI said, had less than 100 customers each and had outdated plant that could not be connected to Allegiance’s other operations.
