As the baby bell TV efforts increasingly begin to threaten cable TV revenues, disputes between carriers have flared up -- as carriers on both sides increasingly use truth optional marketing to lure consumers. The latest fight involves Bright House Networks, who has filed a complaint with the FCC alleging that AT&T has been using the DTV transition to scare customers into switching to AT&T's U-Verse IPTV service. According to Multichannel News, AT&T is blaming the DTV distortions on two "rogue" employees of an outside vendor that violated AT&T's code of business conduct. While AT&T says they've dealt with the problem, Bright House says the misleading ads persist.

Back in January of 2008 we were the very first to report that Time Warner Cable was conducting a trial in their Beaumont, Texas market that imposed caps ranging from 5GB to 40GB on the company's existing tiers of service. More controversial perhaps was the news that trial participants would be charged $1 per every additional gigabyte consumed, a huge markup for Time Warner Cable over cost, and a first for a major US ISP.

Earlier this year, a routine New York State Public Service Commission inspection found a significant number of FiOS installs had not been grounded and/or bonded, though Verizon has told us nobody had been hurt. Still, they don't technically meet the electrical code, so in order to get a NYC FiOSTV franchise, Verizon agreed to go back and revisit every single install in the State -- in some instances giving out refunds.

Bright House Networks is the latest cable operator to license Comcast's Powerboost technology, which delivers an extra kick of bandwidth for the first few minutes seconds of a download (or upload). According to the Bright House press release, Road Runner Turbo customers with a current speed of up to 15 Mbps will see bursts up to 22 Mbps, while customers with 20 Mbps service will now see temporary PowerBoost speeds up to 30 Mbps. It looks like they've yet to offer upstream Powerboost, something offered by several other cable operators who've deployed the technology.

The Herald Tribune takes a look at the competition between Comcast, Verizon and Brighthouse cable in Southwest Florida. Verizon is offering some locals a free 19" HDTV if they're willing to be locked into a two-year contract.