Summary: SBC and Verizon do not want to have to provide their new video over IP services to all homes in an area the way cable companies do. SBC calls it a "sound business decision" while Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey calls it "redlining."
Verizon, SBC warned on 'redlining'
From Dallas Morning News,
Verizon
Communications Inc. and SBC Communications Inc. were warned by a U.S.
lawmaker that they may face consequences if they sell new television
services only in “affluent” areas.
“It is particularly troubling
that SBC and Verizon have deployment plans that skip over or avoid the
very communities in their service territories which could most benefit
from an affordable alternative in the marketplace,” Massachusetts
Representative Ed Markey, the ranking Democrat on the House
telecommunications and Internet subcommittee, said today.
Verizon
and SBC, the two largest U.S. local-telephone companies, are installing
fiber-optic cable to offer TV service to 21 million customers in
competition with cable-TV operators such as Comcast Corp. Markey said
he’s concerned the companies will be slow to make the service available
in low-income areas. He was speaking at a hearing over what government
rules should apply to phone carriers intent on bringing video to homes.
“Any
sound business decision has to be made based on the needs of the
marketplace and the market’s response to these services,” Lea Ann
Champion, SBC’s senior executive vice president for Internet-Protocol
operations and services, said under questioning about when the company
would install fiber to reach the other half of its 36 million
households.
Shares of San Antonio-based SBC fell 17 cents to
$23.03 as of 2:05 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
Shares of New York-based Verizon fell 41 cents to $33.74.
No ‘Redlining’
Markey cited requirements that cable-TV companies serve all households in a franchise area.
“I
want your commercial interest and the public interest to rhyme, and
today, it has yet to do so, and that is your challenge in the years
ahead,” Markey told Champion. “Otherwise, I think you’re not going to
have the reception you want from this committee.”
Champion said SBC is open to rules for carrying non- commercial programming, as satellite-TV companies are required to do.
Seidenberg
said at a March 2 House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing that the
suggestion that Verizon avoids serving less-desirable customers, a
practice known as “redlining,” is “offensive to me because that’s not
the way we do business. We deploy our technology, we don’t redline.”
The company has said its TV plans are being hampered by the need to get permission from individual cities.
This article is from Dallas Morning News.
If you found it informative and valuable, we strongly encourage you to
visit their website and register an account to view all their articles
on the web. Support quality journalism.
This article is copyrighted
material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts
to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights,
economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance
with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use
copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go
beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. |
