Frontier Communications (NYSE: FTR) is jacking up its FiOS cable TV rates in Oregon and Washington as much as 46 percent--from $65 to $95 a month--effectively ending its presence as a competitive threat in the market. Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), which just boosted prices by what now seems like a piddling 5 percent, charges $63 a month.
Frontier is offering up DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) as an alternative, with a deal that makes it free for the rest of 2011 and $63 a month after that, but that move does nothing to assuage the shock of local cable TV regulators who were counting on competition to foment a video price war.
"It's essentially a white flag surrender and an exit from the head-to-head video competition," David Olson, director of the Mt. Hood Cable Regulatory Commission told The Oregonian.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) launched the FiOS TV service in the region three years ago and sold it to Frontier last year.
For more:
- OregonLive has this story
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