US House of Representatives lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow regional telephone companies to compete with cable television companies, and allow new entrants into the local phone market; phone companies would be permitted through a separate unit to provide cable programming to subscribers in their own service regions but would be prohibited from buying cable systems within their territories, with limited exceptions; cable companies, independent phone companies and others could compete with local phone companies and use their facilities; the cable industry welcomed the initiative but worried that liberalisation would apply to the Baby Bells from day one, the concern being that they are in aggregate five times the size of the cable business.
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