Texas: A Model for the Future?

Folks are watching, of all things, Texas.

When Verizon recently rolled out it's FiOS TV service in Keller, Plano and Lewisville, the incumbent cable company, Charter, quickly dropped its prices.

A subsequent study of the Dallas area by the American Consumer Institute (ACI) found, among other things, that half of those switching service providers reported significant savings on their cable bills - which now averaged about $22.30 per month. The report concluded that such competition expands the total size of the cable TV and video market and provides "immense consumer benefits."

This statewide video franchise framework (SB-5) that Gov. Rich Perry (R) recently signed into law now lets telephone companies and broadband providers apply once (in Austin) to rollout video services anywhere in the state.

This means that video service providers in Texas can now offers digital TV services (read IPTV) without having to negotiate local agreements with and pay franchises fees to each city. Seemingly unfair to cable companies who've already had to do this, this idea is much needed to spur competition and is long overdue. Other states such as Indiana and Virginia have also enacted similar legislation.

And on a national level, the House Commerce Committee recently voted in favor of similar legislation that grants national franchising privileges to telephone companies. On May 1, the Senate also introduced a bill (S.2686), the Communications, Consumer's Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006, that aims to "aims to reform existing communications laws to promote competition, cost savings for consumers, and the speedy deployment of broadband services to all Americans." This guy has an interesting opinion. And here's a good story that gives a quick view of everything.

This is a HUGE win for telecom companies and will most certainly speed services like IPTV that have become a huge hit overseas. There's no question that IP-based voice, video and data service, will completely change our world (just like the Internet did for data).

Looks like a new bubble is being blown.