Mediacom Southeast LLC v. BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc.

OPINION

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

In 2009, AT & T sought to introduce a video service in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, relying on authority provided by its perpetual, Commonwealth-wide, telephone franchise granted in 1886. The City of Hopkinsville sued, claiming the telephone franchise did not allow AT & T to offer such services over its telephone wires. After Hopkinsville and AT & T settled, Mediacom, an incumbent cable provider in Hopkinsville, intervened and asserted that AT & T was required under the Kentucky Constitution and local law to obtain a new cable franchise. The district court granted AT &…