Insight Customers Get Ready For Comcast Switch > Impact on recent 30% Ownership Cable Cap!

reply to BosstonesOwn

Re: Impact on recent 30% Ownership Cable Cap!

Like it was any different when the fcc was in favor of the cable cos?

Get real dude , the world isn't fair and the weights on the scale shift from side to side quite frequently , stop drinking the kool aid and take a good look at the years that lead up to these decisions , you will see that those years cable has gotten away with a lot as well. But since now it swings back to the telcos it's not fair.

Geez go figure.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

BosstonesOwn: "Like it was any different when the fcc was in favor of the cable cos?"

What did the cable companies actually receive and how are cable and telcos related in the past? Cable was rightly forced to build out 100%, provide public access channels, fund local board session coverage, and be part of the local community. Every community was allowed to negotiate exactly what they wanted in return for a cable company to enter a market.

The telcos never had to build out 100% or negotiate with every city, county, suburban market - they did not start providing cable programing until 2006.

Today's telcos cannot be compared to the huge regulated Bell companies that hung copper across the U.S. We are not even talking about the Baby Bells anymore - these are the grandchildren with the trust fund.

For 30 years cable was a small to medium sized family operations that was pioneering a new way to deliver programming. Most media considered cable a joke until the 1980s. You could have bought a cable company in the 1970s for about the price of a car dealership.

Even if your premise was correct in regards to the relationship of the FCC to cable and telcos your idea of perpetuating bad policy because "the world isn't fair and the weights on the scale shift from side to side" indicates an acceptance of mediocrity. So who is drinking the kool aid?

And you are forgetting the biggest story of all. Telcos got what they wanted. So follow the money. Telcos are the big boys - cable has always been a small player when compared to the big telcos. It was not until cable started offering VoIP that cable received a big rise in revenue. This shocked the hell out of the trust fund babies. A few phone calls to the FCC boss and some handshaking in washington and suddenly the Telcos are given the keys to cables business. And the latest blow with the FCC ruling against Comcast being restricted to 30% market share - like the mob. I am pretty sure FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who is currently under investigation, will get some jail time.

Ok so what your saying is because the cable co's did not get treated well no one should ?

Let's take a look at cable shall we ? No one federally is forcing them into 100 % coverage. The local folks are. When it came to data they were immune from the regulations the telco had to conform to and still are immune , when they picked up voice, they are immune to the telco company standards.

Did you realize that NEBS compliant telco gear is not used by comcast or many cable cos? Do you know why ? Because they don't need to conform. And NEBS gear is hugely expensive for carriers.

You cry for the cable co's. I don't I have been in telco for a hell of a long time, and I realize they are regulated for reasons. I have also worked with cable cos with their head end gear and muxing their "digital voice".

You don't know the inside story why they are being capped.

First if they are given the ability to expand their voip system will fail. People don't realize this, but voip is not ready for prime time , they see the savings and wow Im getting a deal. NEBS compliant boxes are needed , not just any old server , what happens when a box drops mid emergency call or before it can be completed ? Bet ya didn't know NEBS compliant boxes don't drop did you ? They just don't crash , they are made this way so nothing bad can happen before its partner box picks up the slack.

Second if they continue to expand they will be the primary holder of viewers eyes. This can not happen , they like any business will take advantage of it. By pushing around other providers. This is exactly what the break up of the bell was trying to stop. The biggest baby bell has ironically 30% of the citizens ears. Guess ya missed that eh ?

Third , they can push around content providers and dictate costs. There is a reason why we don't let business get to big. They can reduce costs in small areas to the point of loosing money and make it up in another area to bankrupt another provider and buy them up. What is qwest and others doing out west ahh just this right ?

Limiting comcasts size is not just because the fcc chair has it out for them. They failed to limit the bell and look where that got us , they broke em up now we have many more options.

I don't cry for telcos or cable cos. The fact that Verizon is "redlining" their fios service is exactly what cable cos did back in the day of their growth. They "redlined" to get their ROI faster so they can spread out faster , it's business get used to it , the world isn't fair and neither is business. Don't like it move to a serviced area , that simple.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"

NEBS is a broad set of industry standards not regulations. NEBS standards are written by the telcom companies. One of Cable's industry standards is DOCSIS which covers standards like quality of service, traffic requirements, equipment, protocols, etc.

FCC Teleco Regulations cover copper - landline - which also support dial-up and DSL as they share the copper and some fiber applications. AT&T's U-verse fiber/optic hybrid is not coverd under under FCC telco regulations. Verizon's FIOS is not covered under the FCC telco regulations. The HSI telcos are rapidly moving to are considered an information service just like Cable.

This will be an interesting battle. Cable definitely changed the game for telcos by offering VoIP. Now telcos are fighting back by offering TV. 2008 will see cable rolling out DOCSIS III which will match FIOS at least in the first couple of generations and be available to more communities. But the capacity of FIOS is higher when fully ramped up. Then cable will have to roll out their next generation service.

One question is what happens to cable/telco TV programming when the broadband they deliver to customers has the capacity to deliver iptv & later HD iptv from any cable/tv broadcast source in the world - how many production companies would like to cut out the middleman cable/broadcast/telco?

No question cable must innovate and provide a new killer ap or service. Telcos felt the writing on the wall with the introduction of VoIP - this was a huge threat to their margins and dominance. They had to enter the cable market. The telcos currently have an advantage with their mobile phone business - the quadruple play service - though cable owns a large spectrum they have not yet launched.

Who will be better at the other person's business - and when cable and telcos are all providing the quadruple play of phone, broadband, tv, and mobile... who will innovate further? Provide the best user interface and service? Align themselves with Google type ad revenues?

In short - what will this all look like in five years?

Right NEBS is an industry standard , something all voice providers should stick to , the cable cos aren't.

Docsis is a cable standard, not a voice standard and video is not as important as voice especially emergency. NEBS standards have held and made land lines as solid as it is today , why should any cable co be exempt ?

If we go to nit pick , every telco can say they are immune since all calls are now at least in part routed over fiber.

No one at this point is willing to cut out the middle man , maybe if there is ever universal broadband coverage , but
I don't see that happening any time soon , especially as we slide ass backwards into this recession. They will need a middle man for quite some time to come.
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"It's always funny until someone gets hurt......and then it's absolutely friggin' hysterical!"