The Pittsburgh City Council today voted unanimously (9-0) to give Verizon a FiOS franchise in the city, after the two sides haggled over local TV funding and the installation of a small local support center. The agreement requires that Verizon deploy FiOS to the entire city within six years, though such agreements generally include plenty of wiggle room for Verizon. Efforts to include an amendment that would have Verizon funding local public access TV failed, though Verizon will have to provide a local support center.

While Verizon's been busy selling more rural, unprofitable markets, they've been on a bit of a tear lately signing citywide FiOS franchise agreements with major east coast cities, including New York City, Washington DC and Philadelphia. The push goes hand in hand with a new focus on apartment buildings, using new bendable fiber and smaller MDUs.

"I can almost guarantee you that we'll probably get better service, and you won't be stuck with such high bills," Councilwoman Tonya Payne tells Pittsburgh Post Gazette, suggesting she didn't study the issues before voting, given the telco lobbyist promise of lower prices created by TelcoTV entering a new market never seems to materialize.

In direct price to price comparisons, limited duopoly competition gives cable and phone companies the luxury of non-price competition -- which in turn allows them to raise individual service prices in concert. Still, Pittsburgh residents now get an option other than Comcast, and can either sign up for FiOS -- or threaten Comcast with cancellation in order to net lower long-term contract bundle pricing.