Time Warner Cable has "crie[d] foul" over a proposed franchise agreement between the city of Lincoln, Nebraska and Windstream that would force TWC to face competition for TV customers, the Lincoln Journal Star reported Wednesday.

"The city isn’t playing fair with the proposed cable franchise agreement with Windstream, according to its sole cable provider Time Warner," the paper reported. TWC lawyer Bill Austin said during a public hearing on Monday that the Windstream franchise violates a requirement in Time Warner's franchise agreement that new franchises may not be "more favorable or less burdensome when taken as a whole” the report said.

"Austin listed several specific areas where Windstream is getting a better deal, including public access capital needs, the public access studio requirements, the government education grant, and service area requirements," the Journal Star wrote.

A city attorney disputed Time Warner's argument. Windstream would only have to offer service to 45 percent of the city to start and 80 percent within 15 years, whereas the incumbent TWC has to offer service to everyone. But the two franchises are comparable, city attorney Steve Huggenberger said, pointing to Windstream obligations to provide public education and government channels and money for public capital needs.

"Windstream wholly supports the city attorney's position," a Windstream spokesperson told Ars today. "The company is making substantial commitments to the city of Lincoln and bringing much needed competition. The proposed agreement is equitable to the Time Warner agreement. We remain confident that the city council will approve the agreement."

A vote is expected on January 5.

"We’re simply asking that other franchisees compete on a level playing field," Time Warner Cable spokesperson Rich Ruggiero told Ars. "Our franchise with the city of Lincoln requires other entrants to meet the same requirements we do when it comes to service area, contributions to the city’s fiber system, and PEG [public educational and government programming] access."

Windstream, a DSL company with some fiber-to-the-home deployments, has about 1.1 million broadband subscribers. It already offers Internet and phone service to Lincoln but plans to offer its new Kinetic TV service in the city in the first half of next year. "Kinetic will be available at highly competitive rates and will also be offered with Windstream’s high-speed Internet and phone service," the company says. "This is the first time the Lincoln community will have a television entertainment choice."

Windstream also resells Dish TV service and will continue to partner with Dish.

Time Warner's tactics are similar to those that incumbent Internet and TV providers have used in other cities to avoid competition. Incumbents often sue new providers or raise objections during franchise agreement proceedings. Telco lobby groups have also successfully pushed for laws in many states (including Nebraska) that limit the ability of municipalities to build their own networks.

Time Warner Cable is the second largest cable company in the US, and it's in the process of being acquired by Comcast, the largest cable company.