In a bid to tap into markets they're currently shut out of, telecommunications companies have been pushing to have contracts between cable companies and apartment or condo building owners to be rescinded or banned.
"Providers like Verizon and AT&T, which are attempting broad-based entry in numerous markets throughout the nation, have already faced exclusive access arrangements designed to foreclose them from offering competing video (and broadband) services to (apartment and condo) residents in numerous instances across the country," AT&T said in comments filed with the FCC.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to take up the issue and vote on whether to keep apartment building and condominium owners from making or enforcing exclusive deals with the cable operators.
The Commission could vote on it as quickly as sometime in the next several weeks.
National Cable & Telecommunications Association, the lobbying arm of the Cable industry questions if the FCC has any authority at all to interfere with contracts, especially those already in force.
"The commission's legal authority to act is tenuous, at best, and its legal authority to abrogate existing contracts is simply nonexistent," Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) said in comments filed with the FCC.
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