Is Competitive Triple Play Bringing CATV MSO Prices Down?

Implications: The pricing of CATV MSOs has been holding steady in the face of heavy intrusion from both RBOCs and other interlopers, such as CLECs and municipal broadband providers.  The main implication of this article and analysis is that perhaps we will begin to see price erosion on the  CATV MSO side shortly to maintain market share.

Analysis: Most of us that are not drooling, teething, or eating animal crackers have been through the telecom bubble or bust, call it what you will.  Post 2001, we all watched the fiber cable manufacturers chop headcount, lower prices (that are still tanked today), and make decisions in competitive bids to retain market share.  Bring yourself back to today and take a glance at the broadband pricing between the CATV MSOs, the RBOCs/RLECs, the CLECs (with their UNE-P pricing), and the municipal overbuilders such as Wilson, NC's Greenlight broadband service.  The referenced article lists many reasons that Wilson residents are changing from Time Warner Cable to the Greenlight muni broadband system.  Interestingly, the local telco is not even mentioned, whoever they may be.  Perhaps, from the article's viewpoint only, "price" appears to be paramount in the minds of the potential Greenlight customers. Sure, this is only the first neighborhood of the year long rollout of triple play, FTTH services, but it does point out that customer perception (true or imagined) is that Greenlight will offer significant-enough price reductions to allow Wilson jumpers to be saving money with the new muni system.  This gets us to thinking:  price vs services:  if the services are the same or close to the same level, then price appears to take over.  For a Wilson, NC muni, or an Xfone CLEC, or a Verizon FIOS to overbuild incumbent telcos and CATV MSOs, something must be happening with price.  It should be going down, not up.  For CATV MSOs to  continue to hold prices level as competition intrudes with similar or equal services, then to maintain market share, the CATV MSO prices must come down.  That, my friends is American competition at its best.  When or if it happens that is.