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TV Newbie Verizon to FCC: Help Cable Users Switch

Posted Mar 27, 08 1:26 PM CDT in Technology 

(Newser) – As Verizon rolls out its subscription-TV service, the company has asked the FCC to make the switch from cable easier for consumers, the Washington Post reports. In its petition, Verizon asked for the authority to shut off its customers’ cable services on their behalf, arguing that the switchover process is “cumbersome” for customers who must do it themselves.

The current process “entrenches the cable incumbents' dominant market position,” Verizon said. But cable leaders called Verizon’s “fairy tale” a double-standard: for years, Verizon has made it difficult for its wireless customers to quit the service, said a cable spokesman. The flap shows how the lines between cable and phone company services are “getting blurrier and blurrier,” said an analyst.

Source Washington Post

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Marjorie Bayer and her daughters demonstrate today's multimedia lifestyle with their high-speed, fiber optic Internet and phone services at their home in Massapequa, New York.   (AP Photo/ Feature Photo Service)
Pictured is one page of the menu for the new Interactive Media Guide that allows Verizon customers to easily search for and select the content they want to view from Verizon's FiOS TV.   (AP Photo/Verizon)
A Verizon technician installs a device, known as an optical network terminal (ONT), as part of the installation of all-fiber FiOS Internet and FiOS TV at a customer's house.   (AP Photo/Verizon)
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television • FCC • Verizon • telecommunications • wireless service • cable operators • cable industry


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