'80s FLASHBACK

The cable industry is grooving on the “greed is good” mantra of the 1980s. Technologically, the sector is on track to dominate broadband, barring a complete collapse in the wake of the Adelphia Communications debacle. It's likely that the first high-definition digital TV signals customers see — before they switch to satellite — will come from cable, and the first high-speed Internet service they try — before they switch to DSL — will be a cable offering. Cable, like the Betamax format that started the 1980s video boom, will be out front. And like Beta, cable won't dominate because the American public doesn't buy the “greed is good” thing. Cable rules the high-speed data space, but it also routinely raises rates and throttles speeds. AT&T Broadband even went so far as to punish subscribers who bought their own cable modems by making its leasing model more attractive. Cable is now eyeing video-on-demand and voice-over-IP telephony, both eye-catching technologies that will draw subscribers by the thousands — perhaps millions. Somehow, though, an industry that in the 1980s charged $5 a month for a $6 remote control to operate a set-top box that negated television set features will find a way to financially pinch those subscribers until they yelp. Then, when the telephone companies finally understand that their subscriber base is eroding and video isn't a bad word — and when fixed wireless gets its second-generation act together and satellite figures a way to affordably deliver high-speed data — they'll be invited into American living rooms. And it won't be because they're better, but because they're not cable.