Time Warner Cable Seeks Manhattan Deregulation

Citing 160-channel competition from Verizon Communications FiOS TV, Time Warner Cable is seeking total price deregulation in Manhattan from the Federal Communications Commission. In 1992, Congress slapped price controls on cable operators until they could prove they faced "effective competition," as that term is defined in federal law, within a specific community. Some, but not all, rate controls were lifted in March 1999. With Verizon invading Manhattan and other densely populated New York City boroughs with its all-fiber FiOS TV service, Time Warner Cable said in a Sept. 17 filing at the FCC that the competitive test had been met and that the last vestiges of price controls had to be removed.