On broadband rates — I’m paying $35 / month for a 5mbps Verizon FiOS connection — they definitely priced that with cable in mind. It seems like no one wants to offer $20 / month broadband, but they will compete on speed.

And if you want to bypass the current system entirely, go to YouTube!

Is there anything we can do or are people more interested in the gossipy, sidebar crap that I already get stuck watching on TV now?

Hiltzik did point out an error in the post (which we subsequently corrected) which indicated that the bill would have an effect on the issue that I was complaining about (having to pay for channels that I don’t watch) which is not the case though we expect additional competition in providing video services will lead to consumer benefits.

I do believe him when he says that he is not a fan of cable companies since I think he is pretty much anti- any company that tries to make a profit. I don’t think he crossed an ethical line here and as you can see from the posting about our privacy policy our outting him is somewhat controversial and not something I’d likely do again (especially since we have no way of knowing who any of you are). There is no reason that his superiors at the Times should care what he does here other than perhaps point him toward some anger management classes. He certainly could have pointed out the errors and left it at that but that does not appear to be his style. Patterico has a thoroughly documented piece on the subject concerning comments left on his blog and where the ethics might be a little more blurry.

“We also use other tools (such as Webalizer), provided by our ISP, that don’t place cookies but do track visitors’ IP addresses and collect other information about traffic (time of day, initial page visited, etc).
Our goal is to use this information to learn how to make our layout and content better. We do not and never will use this information for commercial purposes, sell or give away the data, or provide this information, except in gross form (’we had x visitors yesterday’), to anyone not involved in creating Independent Sources.”

Even though the bill does not specifically address this issue unless and until we get some competition in providing TV on a local basis we can expect the duopolistic pricing practices of satellite/cable to continue. There is simply no good reason that channels should not be offered a la carte except for the fact that the cable business model is based on consumers paying for what they don’t use.

All that said the fact that Nofanofcablecos’ first words in this blog were “Boy, you guys are stupid” shows what a bitter man he is. He was clearly worked up over his spat with Paterico and took it out on the first blog that came up in his Google blog search on his name (which is how he landed here). I’ll give him credit for working late from the office on a Saturday night, I though most of those guys worked from home and emailed in their stories and maybe he is pissed off about that too. Whatever it is he can’t be too happy about Senior Administration Official’s deconstruction of his Hewitt claims. No doubt our next visit from him will be under the name “nofanofAlexa”.

He’s always welcome here under any name he wants-especially pointing out errors but it’d be nice if he was as civil as I’ve been when I’ve contributed on his blog. My problem with him has almost exclusively been his subject manner he selects in the Business section at the expense of other more-relevant stories. I believe he belongs in the Times editorial section and not in the Business section. This suggestion infuriates him.

That said I made the changes to the original post that you pointed out.

By the way, when I’ve participated in discussions on your blog I’ve been quite a bit more respectful but you are probably just enjoying the fruits of anonymity that your day job does not provide.

Oh. You’re not interested in my perspective? Thjen shut down your comment function and stop pretending that you care.

As for the phone companies, these will be the same phone companies who will be competing with the cable companies in my area if/when they are able to roll out a TV service. Last I saw competition was a good thing for consumers. I don’t even want to think about what cable broadband would cost without there being DSL and visa-versa.

Do I believe that competition will utilimately break-up the packages and introduce a la carte pricing? Yes. Am I interested in your perspective on that? Not really.