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Business trends for 2006
Tech/telecom
Cable rivals stake claims to new frontier
By LOUIS HAU
Published January 8, 2006
2006 could turn out to be a watershed year for the Tampa Bay area telecommunications market. Verizon Communications launched TV service in Temple Terrace in December and is hoping to do so in Tampa and unincorporated Hillsborough County this year. Verizon is negotiating TV franchise agreements with Pasco and Sarasota counties and with the cities of Sarasota, Bradenton and Venice.
Bright House Networks is hardly sitting still. The company's corporate parents, Advance/Newhouse Communications and Time Warner Cable, joined other cable companies in a joint venture in November with wireless carrier Sprint Nextel to offer four-way bundles of cable TV, phone, high-speed Internet access and wireless services. The partnership claimed its members would start offering a four-way service bundle in 2006.
As a result, consumers may want to brace themselves for more aggressive advertising campaigns by Verizon and Bright House as they try to snare a bigger share of your monthly bill for phone, TV and broadband services. Their burgeoning competition may also prompt the companies to be a bit more responsive to service complaints than in the past.
In area technology, look for gains from startups in university and research incubators, further support for biotech and medical manufacturing, and added attention to nanotechnology development.
[Last modified January 8, 2006, 11:18:12]
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