A professor at the University of California at Berkeley says competitors to cable TV would result in lower bills for consumers. Says C|Net News: "Yale Braunstein, professor in the School of
Information at Berkeley, analyzed data from the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the Federal Communications Commission and calculated that cable television subscription prices would drop 15
percent to 22 percent in California if cable companies competed directly with another wireline paid-TV provider, such as a telephone company." Braunstein's study was commissioned and funded by AT&T,
which of course has a huge stake in the industry and is eager to begin delivering to-the-home content via its wirelines. Along with Verizon Communications, AT&T is positioning itself as a
do-everything content deliverer. "Over the last five years, cable rate increases have far outpaced inflation and the Consumer Price Index," Braunstein said. "But when faced with competitive television
providers, cable rates have actually gone down in many markets while services increase."
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