Cablevision May Clean Verizon's Clock

Verizon is aggressively targeting Long Island with it fiber-to-the-home FiOS service -- but it looks as if cable company Cablevision may clean its clock. This doesn't bode well for telcos in the upcoming cable versus telco all-out war. USA Today reports on the battle between Cablevision and Verizon in Long Island, and it's an eye-opening article.

The newspaper notes that Verizon has to spend big bucks to roll out its fiber service -- more than $1600 per household. Nationally, it may spend as much as $20 billion in the next decade on the fiber deployment.

Still, it isn't all bad news for the telco. The newspaper says that Verizon is tapping into people's longing for better customer service than cable provides. Verizon is quoted as saying about 10% of all households that can get FiOS subscribe sometime in the first six months that it's offered.

Those are big numbers. But I'm not sure they're big enough. Cablevision is fighting back with higher bandwidth (30 Mbps), cheap phone service, and cheap, triple-play offerings.

Cablevision doesn't have to spend nearly as much money to offer all that, because all households are already wired. So given that both companies will offer similar service, and that Verizon has to spend far more to provide the service, who do you think will win?My bets are on Cablevision, and the cable industry.

But the truth is, there's really one winner here -- the consumer. With telcos and cable companies competing for them, service is getting better (hey, can I get 30 Mbps bandwidth right now, please?) and prices are dropping. This is one war I fully intend to enjoy.