Posted this week on the communicators a discussion of the fccs proposal to open up the settop box market to competition and what that might mean for consumers and businesses. Joining us are two guests on both sides of this issue. George ford is a chief economist and mark cooper is Research Director for the Consumer Federation of america. Mr. Cooper what do you think about what they have proposed . Guest competition the settop market. We want competition, competition, competition. We think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got bigger as competition to. Host george ford. Guest they asked the question whether the settop docsis competitive. Actually the first question this is their market for set top docsis and the answer really in terms of what is delivered over cable network, no because the settop boxes are a component of the network as opposed to delivering Cable Television service so its the cheapest way to do it in the most efficient way to do it. Host lets brin
Host and this week on the communicators, a discussion of the fccs proposal to open up the settop box market to competition and what that might mean for consumers and businesses. Joining us are two guests on different sides of this issue. George ford is with the Phoenix Center where hes their chief economist, and mark cooper is the Research Director for the Consumer Federation of america. Mr. Cooper, what do you think about what the fcc has proposed . Guest we think we need competition in the settop box market. The 96 act that we want competition, competition, competition, some places its worked, some places it hasnt, this is one placwh
Really hasnt, and we think consumers would have lower prices and more choices if we got vigorous competition into that space. Host george ford. Guest well, the fccs nprm asked the question whether the settop box is competitive, the first question x. Actually the first question is, is there a market for settop boxes, and in terms of whats delivered over the Cable Network, no, because the settop box is actually a component of the network. Thats the most efficient way to design and deliver Cable Television service, so its the cheapest way to do it, the most efficient way to do it, is so no market has developed. The companies would prefer a market if it was more efficient to do it that way. Host lets bring in lydia beyoud as well, she is with bloomberg bna where she coffers telecommunications. Thank you. So to follow up on both of your questions, chairman wheeler in introducing this proposed rule said he want withs to open up wants to open up whats been a closed market and make it more lik
Meeting of the longterm budget for not able to all of what theres a lot of pieces we can work on and hopefully we can break it into areas of interest for members on the hill to work on and i would say key is bipartisan. Each piece has to be addressed by the republicans and democrats together. I think the maya is right on target. Our history, we have never had a Budget Commission that has exceeded. That tradeoffs are too broad. Weve had pieces, however. As closer commission is probably everyones best example. Members of Congress Want to be bailed out. They wanted to have someone else make those painful decisions. We dont have that with most budget issues. One of the other examples of the property and plant and equipment for federal agencies, a proposal to the commission if it doesnt already exist to close Certain Agency field offices and properties. Thats an example of for our Something Like that might work but i think we tend to resort to much to this notion of a process fix that a con
The most efficient. The companies would prefer a market if it was more efficient. Host lets bring lydia beyoud in she is with bloomberg. Up, kevinfollow wheeler come in introducing this idea said he wants to open up this market and make it more where consumers can buy their own devices like with mobile phones, tvs, and other electronics. Do either of you think there is something similar or different to that analogy that would make it such this proposal would or would not work . We think it is the perfect analogy. You have the interface between the device and network. It would be possible for people to sell across the interface. It is just Like Computers or modems. Microsoft case was about the interface, the court said, open the interface, and you get competition. We have seen that time and time again. Remember the old telephone market . , no one can say plug a phone and, they will blow it up. They were wrong. We got tremendous cover edition. Competition. That is our point. Open the int