I am very interested to learn what happens when a third wired, triple-play provider enters a local market. Where does the third provider generally set their price point? What is the competitive response from the incumbent phone and/or cable providers? Is the competitive response a short-term special offer or are there long-term differences in prices that permanently affect the local market. I have been doing a little research here in Minnesota and my preliminary findings are that companies like Charter, Mediacom and Qwest maintain consistent pricing across Minnesota no matter whether there are two or three wired providers in the community. I am also interested in the impact on the pricing offered to the business community, both small and big bandwidth users; this information is more difficult to obtain.

What have you seen in your community? As communities go through the decision-making process about their own involvement in telecom investments, this is a critical consideration for marketing and cash flow projections.