Ready or Not, Here They Come by James A. Bacon

Solving the Last Mile by Lisa Davis Allison

Going the Extra Mile by Lisa Davis Allison

When we think about the cable industry, we think about television programming. Nature shows. Football games. Steamy movies. Cable executives have long talked about becoming information utilities -- providing telephony, Internet access and high-speed data transmission -- but here in Virginia there hasn't been much to show yet for all the hype.

When MediaOne launched a national ad campaign last year touting its message, "This is Broadband. This is the Way," I called the local cable office and asked when I could get high-speed Internet access at home. Maybe sometime in 1998, they said. I'm still waiting.

But I won't be waiting long. The cable industry is serious. Although it took longer than predicted to roll out their new services, cable operators now are primed for action. Having consolidated all the major cable franchises in Hampton Roads, Cox Cable has positioned itself to compete head-to-head with the telephone companies in Virginia's second largest metro area. Media General and Jones Cable are targeting the data-intensive info-tech industry in the lucrative Northern Virginia market. Adelphia has created a critical mass in western and southern Virginia by assembling a chain of small-town franchises. And Media-One swears it'll get my cable hooked up in the first quarter of 1999.

Cable companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading their networks in Virginia, adding tremendous capacity to the state's telecommunications infrastructure. Given coaxial cable's technological advantage over copper wire for that critical "last-mile" link to customers' houses, and given relationships with nearly 70 percent of all Virginia households, cable outfits have important advantages over their competitors.

They also have their challenges -- they can't extend their new services to all their customers yet -- and nobody's expecting them to knock the competition out of the ring. But they're contenders in the telecommunications arena, which they haven't been before.

In this special section, written in cooperation with the Virginia Cable Telecommunications Association, Virginia Business previews the industry's upcoming bout with its telephone, satellite and wireless adversaries. Our first article describes the industry's plans to compete in telephony and Internet markets. Our second story highlights the industry's plea for a level regulatory field.

For consumers of telecommunications services, it's a great time to be alive. Options abound. Broadband is here at last. And it is the way.

James A. Bacon
Publisher & Editor in Chief

© DECEMBER 1998, VIRGINIA BUSINESS MAGAZINE