 kpfx
join:2005-10-28
San Antonio, TX
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Actually the "perks" only come with the state franchises and "shortly" is only relative to the city you're in.
Traditionally when negotiating for a city franchise the thinking of the lawyers was to get the longest term possible. Over here in Texas most cities signed franchises for 10 year terms. There are even a few cable systems running under a 99 year term with the cities.
The problem is that the companies running under these city-signed franchises cannot just drop them for the state franchises. What's unfair is that in many of these cities you'll now have one company running on a city franchise and another under the state franchise which tends to be more pro-business than pro-consumer.
But the point in this case is that AT&T is trying to pass their TV services off as competition to cable while telling lawmakers that its service isn't cable. Reality will eventually hit them too. Just because their delivery is IP based doesn't change a thing about their services. Cable and FiOS can already go switched digital over QAM and IP formats respectively, and they're classified as "cable". To the end user its the exact same thing. |
