Comcast of Potomac has told the FCC it has competition in the suburban Maryland area outside Washington, DC and should be exempt from local cable rate regulation.
The company says the areas are also served by Verizon, DirecTV and Dish Network. The county disagrees.
Montgomery County challenged Comcast in two of the four areas: Laytonsville and Poolesville.
The county is not opposing for the other two areas which are in Chevy Chase, because of the service provided by local exchange carrier Verizon.
Generally the commission now presumes that cable systems are subject to competing provider effective competition. To qualify, the number of households subscribing to MVPDs, other than the largest MVPD, must exceed 15 percent of the households in a franchise area.
The county says this is not the case in Laytonsville and Poolesville and that DBS competition should not justify a finding of effective competition. Montgomery County also argues that the commission’s general duty to act in the public interest justifies denying the Comcast petition and suspending the effective competition rules that permit petitions to rely solely on DBS penetration.
In this case, the FCC agrees with Comcast that the argument lacks merit because Comcast has satisfied the effective competition test.
It’s interesting that the agency says Comcast has demonstrated that potential subscribers are reasonably aware of Verizon’s FIOS service as a result of local television and radio advertisements.
The upshot is the agency found in favor of Comcast, so it won’t be subject to cable rate regulation by the country in the four areas.
