Comcast: Verizon Home Invasion

December 4, 2006 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Stocks: (CMCSA)(VZ)

Verizon is starting service in Philadelphia for its IPTV service over fiber. It will be offered to 100,000 homes. The city is the headquarters home for cable giant Comcast, which owns the pipe to the home that most people use to get their TV content, and broadband.

Oddly enough, Verizon will charge about $118  month for its phone/ TV/broadband service, the deadly "triple play". Comcast charges $99 for a competing service, and they are the incumbent. One would think they would price the service below Comcast’s to pick up market share.

Comcast picked up 483,000 new voice over IP subscribers in the third quarter. It goes without saying that the figure is bad news for Verizon, which comes to the market with fast pipes years after cable companies.

But, if Verizon gets good penetration in Comcast’s home market, that would be a horse of a different color.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

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