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- BUSINESS, Page 65Business NotesCOMMUNICATIONSGetting Totally Wired
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- Although both are public utilities that deliver their
- services directly into American homes by wire, cable-TV operators
- and phone companies have rarely competed head to head. But with
- deregulation and new technology blurring the lines between
- them, the two businesses are set to collide. The showdown drew
- closer last week, when the Federal Communications Commission
- proposed rules that would hasten the phone industry's entry into
- the TV business.
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- Under the FCC proposal, telephone companies would be
- allowed to package and deliver a smorgasbord of television
- programming, including shows already carried by cable systems
- and broadcast stations. The programs would be transmitted via
- a so-called video dial tone, carried over fiber-optic cable,
- which would cost the phone companies billions of dollars to
- install. Defending their turf, cable-TV operators contend that
- the phone companies would have an unfair advantage because they
- could subsidize their video service with profits from their
- phone business.
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