Phone companies lose round in Texas TV bid

Phone companies fell short in a controversial legislative effort over the weekend that might have made it easier for them to offer television services.

Legislators in Texas were unable to reach a compromise on a bill that would have allowed phone companies to negotiate a single statewide contract with the Texas Public Utility Commission to offer television programming, rather than work city by city to acquire franchises through local governments.

The bill had been seen as critical to SBC Communications and Verizon Communications, which have plans in the works to begin offering television service to consumers this year. It was opposed by cable providers, which said the bill unfairly favored the telephone companies.

Verizon said that the legislative impasse will prolong a time-consuming process for allowing more competitors into the game.

"We believe that competition for video services will take place much slower without a statewide franchise," Verizon spokesman Bill Kula said Monday.

Verizon has already established a small local foothold in Texas for a fiber-optic network over which it plans to offer its Fios television services.

[m.meister]

Not Surprised

Time Warner Cable was running ads 10-20 times a day on most
of their channels for the past several weeks.

The ad was misleading, but apparently that's totally legal. The
thing that really gave it away -- "Texas cable companies want a
fair playing field".. Yeah right!!

Funny, TimeWarner is all about getting into the phone business
to create competition for phone companies, but doesn't want it
the other way around.

The losers here are (ONCE AGAIN) the consumers. Zero real
competition in regards to Cable means my cable bill will go up
another 20-30% in the next year or two.

Poor Service Should not Be Rewarded.

SBC and Verizon are not currently providing satisfactory service to their existing telephone customers. Why should they be allowed to expand their business and create "another" monopoly when their current business is in a state of neglect due to the attitude of telco management?