Consumer

Verizon Could Offer Cable Service In Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Cable customers in the city of Pittsburgh could soon have a choice when it comes to their service now that the City Council has approved hiring the Cohen Law Group to negotiate a contract to bring Verizon Pennsylvania Inc. into the market.

"It's a huge deal. Verizon will need to run fiber lines aerial and under ground," said Howard Stern, the director of Information Services for the City of Pittsburgh. "We want them to build out the entire city of Pittsburgh. It will be a multi-year project."

Stern also says Comcast, whose contract with the city expires at the end of 2009, currently pays the city 5 percent of its gross revenues each year in franchise fees, that's about $4 million, and that wouldn't change much even when Verizon shares customers.

"We don't really anticipate an overall growth in revenue," said Stern. "We'll be cognizant of the fact that whatever we get from Comcast or whatever we get from Verizon that will be something we'll be asking from Comcast as well."

Still the possibility of competitiveness could mean only one thing, both companies improving their services and prices to customers, resulting in a choice that hasn't happened some 30 years.

"Customers are going see a lot of innovations that we'll be able to deliver to them over our all fiber-optic network," said Lee Gierczynski, a Verizon spokesperson. "That's going to be good for competition and the cable companies are going have to respond somehow to what Verizon is offering in the market."

"Competition is excellent and I think most cities need that because from my understanding people here are tired of Comcast just being the only one," said cable subscriber, Cynthia Green.

Comcast issued this statement, "Competition is not new to Comcast. We compete every day for video, internet and now phone customers and we are very confident in our network and in the products and services we deliver today throughout the city. The phone company is simply trying to catch up to where we have been for years."

This is still early in the process for the Verizon contract, more meetings and public hearings are expected to take place over the next couple of months.

By the end of this year, City Council says they hope to have a real agreement in place with Verizon.

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