Goodbye Cable?

Lately things are getting more and more difficult for the US Cable operators. After the CableCards story where cable operators had to give up the conventional cable boxes they so profitably lease to subscribers, containing technology for functions such as video-on-demand and HDTV, a new hurricane is urging, making them to sweat even more. The FCC has proposed -- somewhat at the telecoms' urging -- that the owners of apartment buildings and condos be prohibited from entering into exclusive deals with cable operators.


It is a fact that the next 3 years, maybe even sooner, the cable will become an old technology, unable to keep up the price war against the Telcos and follow the households bandwidth needs pushed by IPTV, online gaming and more new applications. Regulation is cleaning up the competition and is removing all the exclusive rights the cable used to hold in equipments and communities. The Telecom Act is keeping up with a fair competition and giving more choice and power to the consumer. And the cable operators started realizing that they need to replace their old infrastructure with Passive Optical Networks, a strategy that will bring them years behind Verizon and AT&T.

-E