Cable Guys

CABLE GUYS
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: James Glassman]
[Commentary] Seven states, comprising about one-third of the U.S. population, have now passed video franchise laws, which will not only lower monthly subscriber costs but also create new technology jobs -- 10,000 in California alone, according to one estimate -- as Verizon and AT&T, along with cable overbuilders like RCN, jump in with both feet. To bring high-quality video to the home over a technology called Internet protocol, the telcos will make major investments to drive the fiber -- which carries the data -- much more deeply into their networks. Broadband service will improve; state and local governments will still get their franchise fees. All that will end is a monopoly that drives consumers nuts. How much will consumers save? A 2004 study by the GAO looked at six markets with cable competition and found that rates were 15% to 41% below similar markets with no competition. With a national election coming up, you would expect Congress to get on the bandwagon and embrace a version of the state bills, killing the monopoly and taking the credit. Instead, federal legislation is slowed down by measures promoting "net neutrality" -- the concept that telecom companies should be barred from asking content providers, like Amazon, to pay extra for higher-speed service the telcos develop -- the way that an airline asks more for a first-class seat. The House, after rejecting a net-neutrality amendment, passed a video-choice bill, as it's called, by a 3-1 margin in early June. But net neutrality lives in the Senate, and the debate has become tendentious. Moveon.org has taken up the cause, claiming on its website that a tiered system that gives faster delivery to some customers "would end the free and open Internet." Such claims are nonsense, and irrelevant when a federal bill to liberate cable TV is otherwise at hand.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115941000245676298.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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