Pennsylvania
ties with Utah for having the most restrictive access to wine and spirits. Predictably the Pa. State Stores offer high
prices and many employees manage to channel the attitude you might find at any
Department of Motor Vehicles. I
particularly loath the “intruder alert” that announces entry by each individual
customer. Each store uses the same
device leading me to suspect someone really connected got a sole source
contract to supply all stores.
So what does the Pa. State Stores
have in common with Comcast: exclusivity and the ability to set price above
market value. Channeling the old Bell
System, Comcast prevents subscriber access to a new and used (resale) market
for set top boxes and even simple and inexpensive Digital Transport Adapters (“DTAs”)
needed by analog television sets to display digital signals. Subscribers must lease equipment from Comcast
at unregulated rates. Never mind the Carterfone policy that would support a
competitive market. Incumbents like Comcast
have has cowed the FCC into thinking the set top box marketplace is competitive
in light of the CableCard option that allows subscribers to use a Tivo box with
a cable company supplied security card. And just how many digital video
recorder options are out there in addition to the cable company’s set to
box/DVR combo and Tivo?
Recently I reported that Comcast now
charges for DTAs, having previously offered them freely, presumably as a consumer
interest bone to the FCC for agreeing to waive the requirement that consumers
have access to the basic tier of content without a set top box or other device. Comcast pulled the old bait and switch, but I
tried self help: I acquired a DTA today at a church rummage sale. Because the device has flash memory and
addressability I assumed Comcast gladly would activate the DTA just like the
company allowed me to use my own cable modem.
What was I thinking? The several Comcast representatives with whom
I chatted made it clear the DTA would not get activated even if technologically
the company could register the device just as it does for cable modems. I must infer that management at Comcast did
not think they could get away with forcing sole source leasing or sale of cable
modems, but that is exactly what they now mandate for a far less complex and
cheaper device. There may be as many as
23 million DTAs in use, most now earning a nifty return for exclusive lessors
like Comcast.
I am sure Comcast could fine any
number of scholars and experts to explain how the DTA market is either robustly
competitive, or so complex that cable operators need to control their
installation and monitoring. Yeah right;
just like the Bell System whose managers insisted that subscribers would harm
the network and employee safety if they used their own phones.
It took years for the FCC to reject
the harm to the network gambit and the freedom to Bring Your Own Device to some
wireless service results more from T-Mobile’s recent pricing strategy than the
FCC’s Carterfone policy which should
apply to wireless handsets no differently than wired sets. Oh but of course there are sponsored
researchers who would swear on a stack of bibles that the use of spectrum or
some such reason prevents Carterfone from
applying to wireless.
Yet again consumers’ lack of digital
literacy and a cowed FCC make it possible for cable operators to sole source
DTAs. At least the Pennsylvania Liquor
Control Board can invoke consumer
protection and the demon in rum.
Anyone want a DTA cheap?
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