It's Our City is a project that uses TV, Radio and Web
to promote civic engagement in the Philadelphia region.Does every Philadelphia neighborhood have a god-given right to FiOS?
Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 6:06 pm - by Dan Pohlig. Filed under: Economy, Entertainment.
Philebrity wants to know.
What am I talking about? WHYY’s Susan Phillips got the reaction from Comcast, whose monopoly over cable could be threatened by City Councilman Darrell Clarke’s legislation to give Verizon a license to run its FiOS system in Philadelphia.
You can listen to her story here.
Anyway, like the Philebrity post mentions, it’s not altogether clear that even though Verizon would be allowed to run that magic FiOS to every neighborhood in Philly, that they would want to from a business standpoint. So let’s assume for a second that this would be the case, that Verizon would stick to the middle class and wealthy neighborhoods with FiOS (something, by the way, which is still just a matter of speculation). Is this necessarily unjust?
Your comments are welcomed here or you can join in the vibrant discussion on this issue that’s going on over at Philebrity.
(Full disclosure: I have Dish Network. I’ve already made the decision to sacrifice Flyers, Phillies and Sixers for a much lower cost option. My marriage is probably stronger for it but my productivity is killed by having to watch online highlights so I can write for Unobstructed View.)
November 15th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I used to live in Tampa and Fios was everywhere. Of course at first they only wired wealthy areas. Then came the upper middle class areas, then the regular middle class areas. Eventually they even installed Fios in the less well off but high density areas. The only places without Fios in the Tampa Bay area are the rural areas. I’m pretty sure that’s how it could play off in Philly.
November 17th, 2008 at 8:53 am
Thanks John (great pseudonym, btw). I hope that’s how it plays out here. It would be great to get some competition throughout the city, especially when it comes to broadband access. Your perspective as someone who saw this unfold in a different part of the country is very informative. The comments on the Philebrity post I pointed to were very conjectural (word?) and seemed to fall into the typical “this is Philly, we’re going to get screwed” pattern. Thanks, again.
November 20th, 2008 at 10:50 am
I think we would need to study the economics of the cable industry more closely to predict their behavior. You see some of the biggest tv’s in the poorest neighborhoods.