Several reports have Cavalier, a Virginia based CLEC, applying for a cable franchise in Baltimore County, MD. Baltimore County is both a Comcast and Verizon FiOS served market. Adding the two DBS providers to the mix makes Cavalier a potential fifth video option. Cavalier intends to use leased copper pairs from Verizon, at least initially.
Should Cavalier enter this market, they would be bucking a trend. Very few CLECs have been known to enter such competitive markets as Baltimore with both cable and telecom behemoths already offering a triple play bundle. It’s usually the other way around – Verizon has entered several markets where a cable and smaller CLEC or cable overbuilder are already present. But Verizon has a market cap of $131 billion. Safe to say they have somewhat deeper pockets. Cavalier’s no stranger to competing with Verizon – they do so in many of their mid-Atlantic markets, including Richmond, VA where they also compete with Comcast and FiOS (Cavalier launched IPTV before the arrival of FiOS in Richmond). Maybe they’ve learned something – perhaps a weakness or two to exploit.
For more on their Baltimore plans, see this Baltimore Sun post.
