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Technology Stocks : The *NEW* Frank Coluccio Technology Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Frank A. Coluccio who wrote (12966)	1/15/2006 7:40:24 PM
From: ftth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 46821

re: I suspect that this is partially due to the barriers to entry, of which the franchise process is but one. ;) Aside from a few strange cases, I wouldn't really call it a barrier to entry. It's more an inconvenience, and just another reason for the telcos to whine. Even if franchise was "fixed" today it would still take the telcos 10-15 years to deliver on their TV promises, if ever. Somehow I think they'd have all their franchise approvals under the current process well within that timeframe. re: DBS? That wouldn't give rural farmers the broadband high-speed Internet access that they are really demanding, at least not any that I'm aware of that are affordable. That circles back around to the comment I made about the advocacy being misguided. Broadband does not need franchise reform. It's just another in a long line of excuses why they can't deploy. Franchise reform is a speculative secondary argument, i.e. only if you believe becoming a me-too TV purveyor (which itself is an expensive proposition that requires plant, equipment and resources that don't necessarily relate to broadband and has to be paid off on its own) is a pre-requisite to being a broadband provider, and in turn overall success. Despite all the triple-play hype it is entirely plausible that a TV+broadband provider/operator could lose their ass faster and deeper than a broadband provider alone. CableTV costs more to deploy and maintain than broadband, not to mention the cost of the content, but they both take in the same revenue per month, roughly. If you're the new-entrant 3rd player in the TV market, with totally unproven competency, you tell me how they're able to hook the policymakers, lawmakers, and the industry on the line that the TV part is necessary for success.