It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over
But cable is running away with the race for the residential broadband market
Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, "It ain't over 'til it's over." Well, the battle between DSL and cable for the residential broadband space may not be over, but if we stretch the baseball analogy a little further, then cable has a 7-3 lead in the sixth and some great arms warming up in the bullpen. Quite simply, DSL providers are getting their butts kicked in the residential market.
The Bells need to get in the game
The Bells can't just expect to offer bundles of voice, video, and data and be able to pull ahead in this market. Cable is already way out in front of them there. To close the gap and gain the lead the RBOCs must find services or applications that are more compelling, sticky, and maybe even downright cooler than offering bundles of voice, video, and data.
For too long the Bells have focused on winning the battle with the IXCs, holding them out of the local market, while slowly fighting their way to offering long distance. All this time they've treated residential broadband and the competition from MSOs like it was something they could turn to and win when the other fight was over. Even over the past few months we've seen the huge effort they put behind trying to put the nail in the coffin of the IXCs with the Tauzin-Dingell bill, while at the same time their broadband businesses stumbled in the wake of ill-advised price hikes. Their focus needs to change if they want to win in the residential market. Otherwise, another Berra-ism, "Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hittin," might become the new response.
AI
