When the area's dominant cable TV company accuses the dominant phone company of anticompetitive behavior, it's probably worth watching.
But industry trends suggest Bright House Networks' beef with Verizon Communications could soon be a moot point.
Bright House recently launched Internet phone service in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. But the company says that when Verizon customers try to drop their phone service and transfer their phone number to a Bright House Internet phone account, they are being told they must also cancel any high-speed Internet DSL service they have with Verizon.
In a complaint filed last week with the Florida Public Service Commission, Bright House describes the practice as "anticompetitive, unjust and unreasonable" and says it had "caused significant interference with (Bright House's) ability to compete in the marketplace for voice services in Florida."
Strong words, indeed. It's true that Verizon offers its DSL service only to its landline phone customers. (One local exception: Its marketing subsidiary Verizon Avenue sells a stand-alone DSL product in some apartment complexes.)
But Verizon spokesman Bob Elek says the company has plans in the works to offer stand-alone DSL, or "naked" DSL, as some industry wags have cheekily dubbed it.
It's not hard to understand why, says Matt Davis, a broadband analyst for the Yankee Group in Boston.
Until recently, no major phone carriers offered stand-alone DSL because they wanted to preserve the revenues generated by landline phones, Davis says. But with wireless companies and Internet phone services eating away at landline usage and many cable companies offering stand-alone high-speed Internet access as well as phone service, traditional carriers are starting to rethink this stance. In February, Qwest Communications International of Denver became the first regional Bell company to offer stand-alone DSL.
Elek says Verizon doesn't know when it will launch a stand-alone DSL product in Florida. Whether it will come soon enough to avoid a public fight with Bright House before utility regulators isn't clear. In its complaint to the PSC, Bright House alleges that Verizon is violating state law by not allowing its customers to transfer their phone numbers to the cable company's Internet phone service while retaining DSL service.
