In a move that makes Jim Carrey’s character in “The Cable Guy” look angelic, the California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) recently circulated a letter to Sacramento lawmakers in an attempt to scare them into protecting cable’s dominant video market position
It’s now easy for cable companies and others that offer high-speed Internet services to get into the voice market, but it’s hard for telephone companies to enter the video market. The ease of entry into voice is due to a technology called Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), which allows for low-cost telephone calls over the Internet. The invention and spread of this technology slashed consumer telephone bills and sliced a good portion of revenue from telecom companies.
With the convergence of multiple communications technologies, everyone is expecting a similar scenario in the video market, but it’s not happening as quickly. That’s because the change relies not on technological advances, but on government taking down roadblocks like cable franchise rules. And there’s a big lobby that doesn’t want to see competition happen.
The CCTA’s November 9 letter begins by stating, “The Bell telephone companies are beginning to aggressively offer local video services in California and around the nation.”
True enough, and that should be good for consumers, right?
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