Competition is good - it lowers prices, spurs innovation, and keeps providers on their toes at all times. It's
not longer that hard to change providers, whether it be cellular, paid-TV (name your flavor), or even home phone service
(woo hoo, whoo hoo hoo...name that tune. The winner is, "Vonage"). This is truly an era of competition in the
telcom world, and we're all connected at the hip to it.*When* Murdoch's DirecTV and Ergen's Echostar finally do decide to offer more than standard TV entertainment (in all it's MPEG-2 glory), it will be a watershed day for U.S. consumers. The satellite TV industry has been very successful at getting the cable TV industry off its laggard arse with new and improved service (Digital, VOD, etc.). Like stated above, competition is good (and fierce as a white tiger). Consumers can jump ship and this keeps providers (more deliverers than content producers) sweating.
So, the "battle for the bundled home" could heat up soon. I mean, DSL used to be $49.95 a month, then it fought cable modem service in the ring, got beat up a bit, and changed its tiers fashionably and its prices drastically ($14.95!). Yikes! That's cheaper than a week's dry cleaning bill for most people. And your two-piece suit doesn't give you precious megabits per second (but you look fly, dontcha?).
