Thread: FCC Plans Road Trip to Keller

The Federal Communications Commission is going on a road trip next Friday to Keller, Texas, in an effort to highlight video competition between new entrant Verizon Communications Inc. and cable incumbent Charter Communications Inc.

The FCC’s monthly open meeting will be held Feb. 10 in Keller, a suburb of Dallas. The meeting's agenda will include the release of the agency's annual cable-competition report.

The commission rarely leaves its Washington, D.C., headquarters to hold a meeting where policies are debated and votes cast. In early 2003, the agency held a public forum in Richmond, Va., leading up to the adoption of new and controversial media-ownership rules in June.

And in September, Martin moved the meeting to Atlanta for a status report on the health of telecommunications networks following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated the GulfCoast region.

Over the past decade, the cable report has documented a market that has grown increasingly competitive, capped by the rapid rise of direct-broadcast satellite carriers DirecTV Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp., which serve 27 million subscribers combined.

But rising nominal cable rates have caused Verizon and AT&T Inc. to complain that DBS competition is insufficient and to ask Congress for regulatory relief through relaxed local-franchising requirements.

Verizon launched its Verizon FiOS TV video service in Keller in September. The company claimed that it has reached 21% penetration after four months and Charter has slashed its rates. Phone-company entry into cable had been tried before, but with little success.

“It is fitting that the FCC meet in the inaugural market of Verizon FiOS Internet and FiOS TV services," the regional Bell operating company said in a prepared statement.

"Keller is the first place where a phone company offered consumers a real choice to cable television," Verizon added. "After only a few months, 21% of our Keller landline customers have ordered FiOS
TV. Those who stick with cable are benefiting, too, because prices dropped when Verizon entered the market. That’s competition, and consumers love it.”


http://www.multichannel.com/article/...=SUPP&nid=2226

"Keller is the first place where a phone company offered consumers a real choice to cable television," Verizon added.

That is a lie! They think no one will check that comment because it is buried so deep in the article. That speaker will back track by saying he meant what HE considers to be REAL! LOL! Now I am all for FiOS or Qwest Choice, but he should can the lies before their credability is SHOT!

Qwest has offered TV services for nearly 4+ years or so in Phoenix.


http://www.qwest.com/residential/pro...hannelsAZ.html

It is now also available in 14 states.

Originally Posted by charper1

That is a lie! They think no one will check that comment because it is buried so deep in the article. That speaker will back track by saying he meant what HE considers to be REAL! LOL! Now I am all for FiOS or Qwest Choice, but he should can the lies before their credability is SHOT!

Qwest has offered TV services for nearly 4+ years or so in Phoenix.


http://www.qwest.com/residential/pro...hannelsAZ.html

It is now also available in 14 states.

Verizon means "Fiber to the Home", Bellsouth has been doing cable tv for a few years outside of Birmingham. It's not "Fiber to the Home" but it has some fiber infrastructure along with coax just like any other cable company.

Well that not what was said exactly. Qwest VDSL is not coax delivered nor a product partnership with local cable either. So per the exact statement they were wrong.

The quest service isn't real choice as they cannot do VOD nor HDTV service nor can they offer DVR boxes in two rooms or should I say dual-tuner DVR boxes in two rooms. Yes this is an alternative but its no real alternative to current cable companies. That is why DirecTV and Dish Network aren't considered a real alternative as they cannot offer VOD nor can they offer phone and internet service. Quest can offer internet and phone service with TV service but again they can't do HDTV, VOD nor can they offer a customer more than one DVR box as bandwidth runs out. If you call that a real threat to cable than I'm sorry but your crazy as DirecTV is a bigger threat than that. Any alternative is good and will lower prices but the fact remains that Verizon is the only true alternative to cable companies right now as they can do everything that cable can and more. These other services cannot say this can they. If DirecTV and Dish Network can't keep cable prices down how the hell do you expect Quest to get them down. Prices always go down the most when another company comes in and can do what cable can at the least. For example Knology which is a cable company drives prices down in Pinellas County by almost twenty bucks a month. If this company was quest with their service don't expect much more than 8-10 bucks cheaper if your that lucky. Verizon has forced Bright House Networks in the Tampa Bay market to offer us highend customers with HDTV DVR boxes and premium channels almost 80 bucks off per month for their digital combo plus package and I don't think that Quest service would drive down prices that much in this area.

So with that said if you can prove that Quest can drive down prices almost 80 bucks a month for one year for a cable company is scared promo than I'll take my words back but until that time no company is a bigger threat to cable than Verizon.

Sadly to say I would piss all over that crappy Quest offering but I'm biased as I want VOD and HDTV DVR options. But its a weak offering at best considering that tons more people are going to HDTV and this service will be gone soon as it will cost more than they make.

I didn't say the services are exact, just as the statement is worded, it is incorrect and mis-leading. Choice is CHOICE regardless if it is exact. DBS is not exact but it is also a choice. I also want FiOS if and when it shows in my area, but the statement is not 100% correct.

[QUOTE=charper1]I didn't say the services are exact, just as the statement is worded, it is incorrect and mis-leading. Choice is CHOICE regardless if it is exact. DBS is not exact but it is also a choice. I also want FiOS if and when it shows in my area, but the statement is not 100% correct.[/QUOTE

That statement is 100% correct to start with okay. We will go over that quote.

This is the quote in question below.

"Keller is the first place where a phone company offered consumers a real choice to cable television," Verizon added.

So we are talking about one specific point which is a phone company that offers a "real choice" to cable TV. So we must look at cable TV and what they offer.

They offer good amounts of HDTV programming. They offer HD DVR and SD DVR boxes. They also offer Video On Demand offerings. All of these things are things that cable has over all existing phone companies that offer TV service today as this quote is stating phone and not satellite companies. So those services like Quest don't even compared to cable TV offerings that are common and in millions of households so that should be considered a normal product offering.

So Verizon said nothing wrong period when they said they are the only phone company to give customers a real choice to cable because again last time I checked Quest can't offer "all" the services that cable can but Verizon is able to offer "all" of those services. They key word is "real" and that means something.

Verizon didn't say they were the first phone company to offer an alternative to cable TV service they said they are the first company to offer a "real" choice to cable TV service and those two quotes are very very different.

So with that said I think we need to pick up a book and figure out what those key words mean based on how they are used.

The fact is Video On Demand has billions of hits now with tons more to come with new content avenues. The fact also remains that this will be a record year for both HDTV sales and for programming additions on cable and satellite companies. The fact also remains that HDTV and VOD offerings will soon and I mean very soon be the norm and not the exception and this means that companies without them will need to find ways to get them or not be around much longer. So until Quest gets these two services they aren't a real choice in this norm market. As always many customers don't want DVRs or HDTVs but that doesn't mean that Quest is all the sudden a real alternative because using that logic I could say that rabbit ears are a real alternative to cable too.

I know I'm going on about this but you just don't seem to pick up the point of this quote as its very clear to me and many others and its also 100% true based on those little bitty words that push the meaning out of it.

What about pre-SBC Ameritech Americast Cable TV? Yes, it was traditional cable plant, but it was telco owned, and offered a competitive choice to the cable monopolies of the time.
And it continues to do so today as WOW (Wide Open West).

Originally Posted by jegrant

What about pre-SBC Ameritech Americast Cable TV? Yes, it was traditional cable plant, but it was telco owned, and offered a competitive choice to the cable monopolies of the time.
And it continues to do so today as WOW (Wide Open West).

This is a cable company as phone lines don't have anything todo with this service. Its not different than say one company owning both a newspaper and a local TV station. That doesn't mean the newspaper company is a TV station just that they are owned within the same company. For example Knology in this area used to be owned as Verizon Americast and before that it was GTE Americast. This service was flatout a cable company as no phone lines were needed for this service.

Again Verizon said they are the first telco company to offer a real alternative to cable. This implies using phone cables (ie fiber cables) and not just building another cable company as that would be cheaper wouldn't it. If they just built a cable company that wouldn't be a phone company anymore it would be a cable company that is owned by a phone company and that is very different. This Verizon service is a fiber TV service that uses Verizon fiber phone lines to offer fiber TV services.