Cable Companies

SPRINT Corp. is on the bubble. The No. 3 long-distance and cellular carrier is expected as early as today to announce a tentative deal to buy Nextel Communications, the No. 5 wireless phone outfit. But Verizon Communications is considering breaking up the match by bidding for Sprint, The Wall Street Journal said yesterday. Could Comcast Corp., Verizon's arch-enemy, also be eyeing Sprint? Analysts I spoke to yesterday doubted that the cable company is preparing a bid. But they said Sprint's fate holds significant implications for Comcast, which reportedly has been seeking a wireless partner, and the company is undoubtedly paying close attention.

DALLAS - The ability to buy cable-TV service a channel at a time, rather than bundled by the dozens, might cost most families more, not less, money, the Federal Communications Commission concluded in a report released yesterday. Most Americans watch too many TV channels for government-imposed a la carte pricing to reduce rising cable rates, the FCC told Congress, which has been considering such regulations. Consumer and parents groups blasted the FCC study, saying it skewed the results in favor of the nation's large cable companies.

Fallout from the breakup of the nation's phone monopoly a generation ago was fully evident yesterday: AT&T Corp., the phone giant that Alexander Graham Bell founded, announced it is no longer seeking new residential long-distance customers. In another development, local phone giant Verizon Corp. said it is launching phone service via the Internet in about half the country, including Maryland. While AT&T Corp. has been leaving some phone segments, its retreat from consumer long-distance to concentrate on business customers was viewed as significant, and a potent symbol of how the phone industry has been turned upside down.

WASHINGTON - Senior lawmakers of both parties urged the Federal Communications Commission yesterday to study whether cable-television prices would fall if channels were sold individually rather than bundled together. Rates charged by cable-TV companies have risen 56 percent since 1996, according to the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress. Consumer advocates who have pushed for so-called "a la carte" pricing have said it would result in lower programming costs and higher-quality programs.

WASHINGTON - Consumer advocates and corporate lobbyists are pushing from opposite sides for Congress to overhaul the law that reshaped the communications industry, saying the Telecommunications Act of 1996 has failed to promote true competition among telephone and cable companies. And for the first time in years, Congress appears to be listening. Consumer groups complain that although phone bills have fallen for most customers, prices for cable programming and high-speed Internet access, or broadband, have risen steadily since 1996.

Radio One Inc., in conjunction with partner Comcast Corp., said yesterday that it plans to launch its cable network targeting African-American viewers on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday Jan. 19, with a goal of being in half of the nation's 12 million black television households on that day, including those in Baltimore. "We will be in business and up in the sky on the 19th," Radio One President and Chief Executive Officer Alfred Liggins III said in a conference call with analysts. The cable network, to be called TV One, will offer a different line of programming than two others serving African-American viewers - Washington-based Black Entertainment Television and Atlanta-based Major Broadcasting Cable Network.

WASHINGTON - In a decision that could spur new competition, a federal appeals court yesterday struck down rules allowing cable TV operators to bar rivals from offering high-speed Internet access on their networks. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the Federal Communications Commission to treat cable high-speed Internet access similar to the way it treats broadband on telephone networks. Phone companies must allow competing Internet service providers - such as EarthLink Inc., AOL Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Microsoft Corp.

Anne Arundel County police are warning residents to look out for con artists masquerading as cable or water company workers who have been targeting senior citizens in their homes during the past two weeks. The latest incident occurred Friday in Glen Burnie, police said, when three Hispanic males posing as cable company employees stole "a large amount of money" from two women in the 900 block of Andrews Road. Officer Frank Lawson of the Police Department's Northern District declined to disclose how much was taken but said it was more than $500.

Anne Arundel County police are warning residents to look out for con artists masquerading as cable or water company workers who have been targeting senior citizens in their homes during the past two weeks. The latest incident occurred Friday in Glen Burnie, police said, when three males posing as cable company employees stole "a large amount of money" from two women in the 900 block of Andrews Road. Officer Frank Lawson of the Police Department's Northern District declined to disclose how much was taken but said it was more than $500.

Harford County Executive James M. Harkins has declined to sign a bill passed unanimously by the County Council last month to extend the franchise of Clearview Cable Partners in the county for 15 years. In a letter to the council Thursday evening explaining his action, Harkins said it was based on his experience with the company. "My experience with Clearview Cable Partners, both as a public official and as a consumer, have been consistently unsatisfactory," Harkins wrote. "As a private citizen, I have experienced poor repair service.