TV Newbie Verizon to FCC: Help Cable Users Switch

As Verizon rolls out its subscription-TV service, the company has asked the FCC to make the switch from cable easier for consumers, the Washington Post reports. In its petition, Verizon asked for the authority to shut off its customers’ cable services on their behalf, arguing that the switchover process is “cumbersome” for customers who must do it themselves.

The current process “entrenches the cable incumbents' dominant market position,” Verizon said. But cable leaders called Verizon’s “fairy tale” a double-standard: for years, Verizon has made it difficult for its wireless customers to quit the service, said a cable spokesman. The flap shows how the lines between cable and phone company services are “getting blurrier and blurrier,” said an analyst. (More Verizon stories.)